Camera World
{{Infobox company
| name = Camera World
| logo = Camera World web logo 2010.jpg
| logo_size =
| logo_alt =
| logo_caption =
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| type = {{Unbulleted list|Private company (1977–2002)|Brand (2002–2016)}}
| industry = Retail
| fate = Acquired by Ritz Camera, becoming a brand of Ritz
| founded = 1977
| founder = Jack Shin
| hq_location = {{ubl|Portland, Oregon, U.S. (1977–2000)|Beaverton, Oregon (2000–2002)}}
| area_served = North America
| key_people =
}}
Camera World was a retailer of photographic equipment and photofinishing services based in Portland, Oregon, United States, and founded in 1977. It was an independent company until 2002, and then from 2002 to 2016 it was a brand of Ritz Camera & Image or C&A Marketing. In the mid-1990s, it was one of the largest mail-order retailers of photographic and audio equipment in the nation.{{cite news|last=Hill|first=Jim|title=Electronics giant Circuit City thunders into Portland market|date=November 25, 1994|newspaper=The Oregonian|page=1}} The company's revenues totalled $80 million in 1998, of which $16 million were from online sales.{{cite news|last=Love|first=Jacqueline|title=The future comes into focus; Shipshape operation from Camera World Co. to Cameraworld.com, the company begins pushing a beefed-up web site and a new, online image Cameraworld.com: Initial sales are a success|date=March 8, 1999|newspaper=The Oregonian|page=E1}} Revenues grew to $115.7 million in 1999 (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US|115.7|1999|r=1}} million in {{Inflation-year|US}}{{Inflation-fn|US}}), and the company relocated its administrative offices and inventory to a new facility in Beaverton, Oregon, the following year.{{cite news|last=Kosseff|first=Jeffrey|authorlink=Jeff Kosseff|title=Vintage retailers refine winning dot-com recipe Cameraworld.com uses|date=July 10, 2000|newspaper=The Oregonian|page=B1}} The company's only brick-and-mortar store, in downtown Portland, as well as its Internet business were sold in 2002 to Ritz Camera, which continued to operate them under the Camera World name. Ritz, in turn, was acquired by C&A Marketing in 2012, but retained the Camera World name as a Ritz brand, for both the store and the Internet business, until closure of the store. The store closed on January 21, 2016.{{cite web|title=[Facebook post]|date=January 21, 2016|publisher=Camera World|url=https://www.facebook.com/cameraworldpdx/posts/820051508103348|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160210204059/https://www.facebook.com/cameraworldpdx/posts/820051508103348|archive-date=February 10, 2016|url-status=dead|access-date=2021-04-26}}
History
Camera World was founded in Portland in 1977 by Chung Doo "Jack" Shin{{cite web|url=https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NRHP/07000367_text|format=PDF|title=National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Swetland Building|author=Tess, John M.|date=February 22, 2006|publisher=National Park Service|at=Section 8, p. 5|accessdate=2016-02-26|archive-date=2023-11-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231110054657/https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NRHP/07000367_text|url-status=live}} (often identified as J. D. Shin), a Korean-American who had emigrated to the U.S. from South Korea in 1973 and moved from New York to Portland in 1976.{{cite news|last=Hill|first=Jim|title=Just an f-stop away: Camera World|date=November 16, 1995|newspaper=The Oregonian|page=C1}} The business was originally a single store, located in the ground floor of the Swetland Building, at SW 5th and Washington in downtown Portland. It never opened any additional stores, but expanded into mail-order sales and, later, Internet sales. The mail-order business was launched in 1982.{{cite news|last1=Jenning|first1=Steve|title=Camera World focuses on developing profitable image|newspaper=The Sunday Oregonian|date=October 16, 1983|page=D1}} The company had 45 employees in 1990. Sales reached $53 million in 1993.{{cite news|last=Ota|first=Alan K.|title=Transplants take root|date=August 4, 1994|newspaper=The Oregonian|page=E1}}
File:Camera World store at original location in 1985.jpg, in 1985. The company's large mail-order operations were in the same building.]]
By the mid-1990s, Camera World had become one of the nation's largest mail-order retailers of photographic and audio equipment. In 1995, around 75 percent of Camera World's business was in mail-order sales, and the company employed 65 people. The company's headquarters and mail-order operations were located in the same building as the store, the Swetland Building, at 5th and Washington. The entire seven-story building was owned by Shin, who had acquired it in the late 1970s.
In November 1995, Camera World's sole store was relocated to a much larger space in the 400 SW Sixth Avenue building, at that building's 6th & Washington corner, only one block away from the old location. The old store had occupied about {{convert|5,000|ft2|m2}} of retail space, while the new store had {{convert|9,700|ft2|m2}}. The Swetland Building continued to house the company's mail-order operations and inventory, as well as administrative offices.
The company launched its website, Cameraworld.com, in 1996. Founder J. D. Shin sold the business in 1997 to Sverica International, an investment group based in San Francisco.{{cite news|last=Rose|first=Michael|title=Camera World changes hands|newspaper=Portland Business Journal|date=March 30, 1997| url=http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/1997/03/31/story1.html|accessdate=2019-08-08|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20020528123630/http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/1997/03/31/story1.html|archivedate=May 28, 2002|url-status=dead}} Internet sales grew from only $1 million in 1997 to more than $15 million in 1998.{{cite news|last=Earnshaw|first=Aliza|title=Cameraworld.com purchased by Ritz Interactive|date=May 3, 2002|newspaper=Portland Business Journal|url=http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2002/04/29/daily43.html |accessdate=2019-08-08|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20020928003451/http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2002/04/29/daily43.html |archivedate=September 28, 2002}}{{cite news|last=Francis|first=Mike|title=At Camera World, the focus stays on the bottom line |date=May 17, 1999|newspaper=The Oregonian|page=C1}} Total revenues were about $80 million in 1998, of which 20 percent was from online sales, and grew to $115.7 million in 1999, of which 52 percent was from online sales.
The company changed its name to Cameraworld.com in March 1999.{{cite news|last1=Love|first1=Jacqueline|title=Cashing in at Cameraworld.com|newspaper=The Oregonian|date=November 11, 1999|page=B1}}
File:Camera World's retail store - downtown Portland, Oregon (2015).jpg building.]]
In the late 1990s, Camera World's corporate offices and distribution center were located in Northeast Portland.{{cite news|last1=Back|first1=Brian J.|title=Cameraworld.com's new money helps it move to ex-Tek building|url=http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2000/01/31/story5.html|accessdate=2019-08-08|work=Portland Business Journal|date=January 30, 2000|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20000829085622/http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2000/01/31/story5.html |archivedate=August 29, 2000|url-status=dead}} In 2000, the company built a new warehouse in the Portland suburb of Beaverton and moved its offices and most other operations to that location. The size of the company's workforce peaked in 2000 at about 175 employees.{{cite news|last=Kosseff|first=Jeffrey|authorlink=Jeff Kosseff|title=Ritz buys Cameraworld unit|date=May 3, 2002|newspaper=The Oregonian|page=B1}}
In 2002, Camera World's online business was sold to Ritz Interactive, Inc., and its store and catalog business was sold to Ritz Camera Centers.{{cite news|last=Kosseff|first=Jeffrey|title=Cameraworld sells flagship store to Ritz|date=May 15, 2002|newspaper=The Oregonian|page=C1}} The Camera World name was retained by both Ritz companies.
In 2012, the Camera World brand was among several Ritz brands acquired by C&A Marketing, which also chose to continue using it,{{cite press release|title=C&A Marketing Re-opens Eighteen Ritz Camera & Image Stores Along with RitzPix Online Imaging Service|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/15/idUS210227+15-Nov-2012+BW20121115|work=Reuters|publisher=C&A Marketing|accessdate=2021-04-26|date=November 15, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150204141129/https://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/15/idUS210227+15-Nov-2012+BW20121115|archive-date=February 4, 2015|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|last1=Worthington|first1=Paul|title=Ritz Camera acquired at bankruptcy auction|url=http://pmanewsline.com/2012/09/10/ritz-camera-acquired-at-bankruptcy-auction/|website=PMA Newsline|publisher=Performance Matters Associates, Inc.|accessdate=2015-02-04|date=September 10, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150204141407/http://pmanewsline.com/2012/09/10/ritz-camera-acquired-at-bankruptcy-auction/|archive-date=2015-02-04|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|title=About Us|url=http://camarketing.com/wordpress/brands/|publisher=C&A Marketing|accessdate=2018-02-03|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160119213058/http://camarketing.com/about-us/|archivedate=January 19, 2016}} but ceased using it shortly after the closure, in late January 2016, of the only brick-and-mortar store.{{cite web|title=About Us|url=http://camarketing.com/wordpress/brands/|publisher=C&A Marketing|accessdate=2018-02-03|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160216042722/http://camarketing.com/about-us/|archivedate=February 16, 2016}}
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
External links
{{Commons category|Camera World}}
- Internet Archive of [https://web.archive.org/web/19961031054228/http://www.cameraworld.com/ www.cameraworld.com] website in 1996
{{FormerORCompanies}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:1977 establishments in Oregon
Category:2016 disestablishments in Oregon
Category:Retail companies disestablished in 2002
Category:Companies based in Portland, Oregon
Category:Consumer electronics retailers of the United States
Category:Defunct companies based in Oregon
Category:Photographic retailers
Category:Retail companies established in 1977
Category:2002 mergers and acquisitions
Category:Photography companies of the United States
Category:Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009
Category:Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2011
Category:Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2012