B&H Lays Off 1/5th of Its Workers

The New York Post is reporting that B&H Photo has furloughed a fifth of its workforce due to the pandemic crisis.

I was sorry to hear this. I've been a B&H customer since the beginning of their dominance of the Pop Photo and Modern Photography ad sections in the back of those magazines, and an online affiliate for many years. I am not an employee and I do not speak for the company in any way, but I've had good business relationships with people there. I've also long admired the fact that B&H (named for founding wife-and-husband Blimie and Herman Schreiber) tries to help support its community as part of its mission, much like Mazda in Hiroshima, Japan, and other companies I approve of. As I am wont to say, "the purpose of an economy is to support a society, not the other way around." They miss a lot of sales on Shabbat, but oh well. Some things are more important.

Yes, I know B&H has had controversies, so this isn't the time to dredge that up. Mainly I want to send good wishes to friends there and hope for better times for the industries that support us photo-dawgs. I've had a sinking feeling that, in the future, we might well remember the quarter-century from 1995 to 2020 as a golden age.

Mike
(Thanks to whoever tipped me, sorry I can't find your name)

Original contents copyright 2020 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Helcio J. Tagliolatto: "Very sad news indeed. I bought from B&H since the days when I received Modern by mail, I asked for a quote by mail, B&H answered the same way, and then I sent a money order, from Brazil, by post. Then, about ten days I received my order, always impeccable. I hope they recover from this crisis."

Timothy Auger: "None of us have a real grasp of the way the world will look once this pandemic is all over. I have just been looking at the US unemployment figures, and this is only the beginning. I fear for the future of the entire photographic industry, or much of it. It all depends who has the necessary cash reserves to see them through. I hope B&H is one of the survivors."

Comments

[Sal Santamaura]

I've been a B&H customer since 1976, when I walked into their small (at the time) store and purchased an Olympus OM-1. Within the last few weeks, my orders have experienced delays between placement and shipment. Your post and the linked article probably explain why.

I too wish B&H well and look forward to a complete recovery / re-hiring as soon as possible. Unfortunately, even the most optimistic timelines for deployed COVID-19 vaccines don't bode well. May Blimie and Herman have salted away sufficient resources so their business can not just survive, but thrive when the pandemic is finally over.

[Benjamin Marks]

Mike, I know the macro unemployment numbers seem insurmountable, but I can't help wondering how much of those numbers reflect a cash-flow problem vs. the actual collapse of the economy. I am no economist, but it does seem that in some single-digit number of months we will have figured out how to live our lives with CV-19 risk baked in, the way we do with cancer, heart-attacks, and strokes. At that point, I am guessing that the my-spending-is-your-income part of this crisis will start to ease. In other words, I don't know how to distinguish how many of those B&H jobs are "really" gone and how many are "gone right now." To be sure, we are running the experiment in real time and that's no fun at all. I guess part of me really believes that if I pick up the phone to order my long-sought-after Nikon mirrorless camera that someone will pick up the phone at B&H and be ready to take my money. That is, if I have any money. . .

Sigh. We'll say in the coming days, "Dude, that is such Golden Age thinking."

[Benjamin Marks]

. . . Comment number 2.

After re-reading your post, I realized that there is another way to frame this: You mean after 30 million Americans have filed for unemployment and the world economy has ground to a halt, that B&H, a purveyor of products nobody actually needs* except a small number of "pros" has laid off _only_ 1/5 of its workforce? Things must not be as bad as I feared.

I don't mean to minimize the panic that has certainly come to those B&H employees who have been laid off. But in the current climate I am sort of surprised that B&H has enough cash to continue paying 4/5 of its staff.

* I need food, water, shelter and oxygen. I want Nikons, Leicas, digital storage and photography in general.

[K4kafka]

One fifth is just 20% in my math...not too severe considering the state of retail in these dire days...

[Bruce Appelbaum]

Sad to hear. I think I've spent enough money at the B&H store(s) in person over the years to pay for a year of college for one of my kids. It is a great place to shop, great sales staff, and really nice cashiers. The retail store has been closed for weeks now, I think.

I hope this crap passes quickly so they can re-open and rehire their staff.

[Joseph L. Kashi]

I've never had a bad experience with them and have preferred shopping at B&H for at least the past 14 years. Their honesty and good service are an excellent counterpoint to the traditionally (and often deservedly) bad reputation of so many NYC camera shops going back to the '70s if not earlier.

[John Krumm]

I do get the feeling that people just don’t realize that we have Great Depression levels of unemployment right now. We aren’t going to have some kind of instant turnaround where everyone gets to go back to work. Some companies are permanently closing. Others will downsize for a long time. Unlike in other countries that immediately made sure workers stayed on payroll, we slowly passed an insufficient paycheck protection act that ran out of money in weeks. Workers will have to reapply for job openings, competing with each other. Hopefully the next stimulus bill will seriously help small businesses and regular people, because they will need it for some time.

[Kristine Hinrichs]

From a purely strategic standpoint many employers who are not receiving loans via the PPP program are initiating furloughs earlier than they might have otherwise done. This allows those furloughed employees to take advantage of the $600/week enhanced unemployment benefit. This enhancement runs only through the end of July - so an employee furloughed now gets more than if the employer dipped into reserves to hold on for another month. Obviously this benefit is less attractive in the NYC market, but better than nothing. And, depending upon the employee’s wage, they might be better off.

[Kodachromeguy]

I am sorry to hear the news but not surprised. The digital camera industry has been in trouble for at least a year even before the Coronavirus. B&H was smart to divest into also selling computers and professional video equipment.

I remember buying from them in the 1970s. I don't recall how I paid for items because that was pre-credit card for me (was there ever such a life in USA?). I must have mailed a personal check.

[John Miller]

Sad news indeed!

I hope that B&H recovers and hires everyone back ASAP. I have always brought from B&H over the years and I'm always very happy with my experience there.

I'll continue to support them as much as possible despite my wife's displeasure.