Jessops

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I first encountered Jessops in Birmingham back in 1984 shortly after puchasing my very first SLR camera-a solar powered Ricoh called an XR-S (long obsolete),and hunting round Birmingham for a flashgun. Well I purchased the flash-a Nissin 4000GW (also long obsolete) and was absolutly delighted with the service I received and the incredible price I had at £69.90-a good £10 off the closest competitior Tecno who were subsequently bought out by ...
...those days, Jessops were known as Jessops of Leicester Ltd and was in effect controlled by the man who did so much to propel it to a household name-the grandson of the founder-Mr Alan Jessop.

Anyway, a little history.

Jessops started out as a chemist back in the Thirties and became involved in the Photographic trade as a result of their customers asking for the raw ingredients for photographic chemicals (apparently a ... more

I'VE CORRECTED A SMALLBUT VERY IMPORTANT POINT REGARDING ACCESS FOR PHYSICALLY CHALLENGED PEOPLE IN BIRMINGHAM TEMPLE ROW STORE.

I first encountered Jessops in Birmingham back in 1984 shortly after puchasing my very first SLR camera-a solar powered Ricoh called an XR-S (long obsolete),and hunting round Birmingham for a flashgun. Well I purchased the flash-a Nissin 4000GW (also long obsolete) and was absolutly delighted with the service I received and the incredible price I had at £69.90-a good £10 off the closest competitior Tecno who were subsequently bought out by Jessops about eight years ago.

Back in those days, Jessops were known as Jessops of Leicester Ltd and was in effect controlled by the man who did so much to propel it to a household name-the grandson of the founder-Mr Alan Jessop.

Anyway, a little history.

Jessops started out as a chemist back in the Thirties and became involved in the Photographic trade as a result of their customers asking for the raw ingredients for photographic chemicals (apparently a much more common practice then than nowdays). Photography was still very much a rich mans hobby if you wanted to take it seriously.

Mr Frank Jessop (Alan Jessop's father) was the gentleman who hit on the idea of supplying photographic equipment as eye wateringly low prices in almost a supermarket style operation. No fancy displays, no 'service' NO DEMONSTRATIONS, massive stocks and equipment supplied at rock bottom prices usually 25% below the going rate. Legend has it that there was a 50yd queue outside the shop in Belvoir St, Leicester every Saturday morning and any customer asking for a demonstration was told to get to the back of the queue(!!!) by Mr Jessop himself .Well it was decidedly different and the idea took off. They opened a superstore in Hinckley Rd Leicester and were one of the first retailers to take IT technology and computers seriously being used for things we all take for granted nowdays. The build up started slowly in about 1981 with branches opening in London, Leeds, Birmingham,Liverpool and a few other cities until 1984. Of course the other thing which did change was the attitude to customer service, which became of paramount important-but the eye wateringly low prices and the pet of Alan Jessop,the World's WORST price list (his description not mine) remained.This was a full A2 sized list with MICROSCOPIC print-the smallest that could be photocopied at the time. Well the prices certainly were tiny and there was even a special price list magnigfying glass sold especially for it! Novel or what?

The expansion hit full pace and Jessops became the largest independent retailer in Europe.

Well the market started to shrink.Mr Jessop and the board decided to sell up in the mid Nineties leaving a Management led consortium to take over the business headed by Mr Tim Brookes. The expansion continued unabated with Jessops purchasing a number of other photographic competitors such as Crewe Camera Exchange Ltd, Shadow UK Ltd (Tecno and Fox Talbot, Cine Equipments known as Cequip.This goes a long way to explaining why Jessops are known in some town and cities to have several stores in very close proximity to one another. Birmingham, Coventry and Wolverhampton are prime examples.

It has produced a near monoply situation in photographic retail but this has also been brought about by a contracting customer base.

As things stand Jessops have about 400 outlets and are now a publically listed company. Not without their problems but Jessops are set to continue to be a major presence in the High St for the foreseeable future.

History lesson over.

Well how things change-Jessops have in my opinion a much more general store photographically speaking and have become incredibly conventional by the standards of their truly revolutionary start.

I am a regular customer of the The World Camera Centre in Temple Row Birmingham and this will serve the basis of my recent camera purchase.

I passed by the store back in January and spotted a second hand camera-a Leica Minilux, in the window. Now it was late afternoon, damp and getting dark-I was tired and had to get back to Wolverhampton. So a purchase was out of the question then. What I did do was phone the branch the next day and spoke to a lady who described the condition of the camera and agreed to hold it for me until that Tuesday. I popped over to the store with £300 in my sticky hands determined to make that purchase!

The store in Birmingham is described as a World Camera Centre-a premium Jessops store. For a photographic outlet it is absolulty massive. You enter and go down a set of quite steep steps towards the main counter on the left of the premesis
where the bulk of camera equipment is kept, On the right is a Video section for Camcorders, further down is a mini lab for film processing and right at the bottom is the Used Equipment department.

Acessibilty is quite good, the layout and presentation is excellent and the range of equipment for digital photography is very impressive. Access for Physically Challenged is adequate with a long ramp placed to the left side of the front door, this isn't too steep and meets current regulations, again anybody who requested assistance would I believe be helped-as in keeping with their reputation for customer service.Once in however,the aisles are wide,stock is well laid out and presented and correctly priced in my experience. The staff are a mixed bag regarding availabiliy. They do have an issue with staff turnover-a new face in there every five minutes. As a result I know Jessops to still be suffering from their perennial problem of long queues-just like M&S and Tesco which is a bad show nowdays.

Well, Jessops was about to be put to the test regaring that Leica and I was very impressed by the service I received indeed. The lady, Rachel, was not pushy and was knowledgable and polite. She took time to explain the layout of the camera in laymans terms (even though I have a lot of knowledge on cameras I found her attitude a refreshing change-Dixons XL TAKE NOTE!), offered me a discount as the tripod couldn't be found ( a very minor concern). I reacted by purchasing the camera, took out the extended guarantee, puchased some film and a case-a text book sale for her.

I used the camera and popped the film into Jessops Queen St Wolverhampton where I received similar excellent service and had my film processed and printed using their premium 'Diamond Laser' service. This delivered 36 outstandingly sharp prints. Now some of that is down to the camera with a premium quality lens but poor printing negates any of that.

All of this done for a very reasonable £5.99-strongly
recommended.

In my experience Jessops have the best customer service in the country, they are never pushy or pressuring in anyway and on the very odd occasion I've had a problem like printing the wrong print size I've been offered the prints FOC for the inconvenience.

Jessops offer standard High St ways to purchase goods like cash, credit or debit cards, Interest Free Finance and Low Rate Finance. It is best to telephone your local branch for eligibility before making a special trip. Jessops also offer a Price Match Promise-which guarantees customers the lowest prices subject to the competitior having stock and the price being current. Take note any P+P charge the competitor levies will also be added

Any drawbacks?

Well nothing is perfect and Jessops have their own foibles.

Staff levels are a historic problem forJessops-long queues! I have noticed some staff struggling to help customers with fairly basic issues such as telling a customer what a zoom lens. That indicates a fundamental slip in standards the sort of boo-boo rightly associated with Dixons The move towards Digital photography has been fuelled by Jessops trying to corner the market (and they got their fingers burnt!) to the exclusion of 35mm. Used Equipment availability, which was such a core part of the business has drastically declined and their prices are no longer the 25% cheaper than everyone else as they started out.
For film in particular you will pay full price as charged by Boots etc.UNLESS you do your homework and check prices on the net before purchasing.

And a side issue is that they are in a near monopoly situation in their particular field.For example in Wolverhampton back in1991 there were Jessops, M R Warner and Son Ltd, Photomecca and Shrewsbury Camera Exchange. They bought out Shrewsbury Camera Exchange, Photomecca closed down and Warners relocated to outside the city centre and concentrated on the professional end of the market - finally closed after two key staff dying in quick succession (though not work related). This does have something to do with the way the market has contracted but it leaves the customer with very little choice

Stock levels vary wildly from branch to branch so a product stocked regularly in one store eg Wolverhampton may have to be ordered if you shop at Coventry. They have also added delivery charges(!!) for stock having to be ordered from other branches.

Overall though, I would recommend Jessops for a hassle free purchase which will be suitable even if you are totally new to photography but bear in mind something has had to pay for such a massive expansion, take-overs etc. You can certainly come out of any Jessops smiling but most of all:

USE THE PRICE PROMISE!

Don't be the one helping to fund the next take over.

copyright peterkin xl5

www.jessops.com

 

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