Obituary For Ritz Camera Stores

Back in the good old days of film photography Ritz camera stores were everywhere. I doubt if there was a mall in the country that didn’t have a Ritz camera store in it. I know I always loved to window shop at Ritz because they always had all of the latest gadgets. Of course, I seldom bought cameras there, I’d always buy from the mega-stores in New York that beat their prices by a bunch.

But now they’re bankrupt and will be liquidating all of their assets. Here’s the news from Reuters:

Ritz Camera & Image LLC plans to go out of business after 94 years as it failed in a bankruptcy auction to find a buyer to keep the largest U.S. specialty camera retail chain open.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross in Wilmington, Delaware on Monday approved a plan to turn over most of Ritz's assets to liquidation specialists Gordon Brothers Retail Partners LLC and Hilco Merchant Resources LLC, the high bidders at a Sept. 6 auction, court records show.
"The debtors received no bid to purchase substantially all of the debtors' business and assets as a going concern," and believes a sale to the liquidators "will result in the realization of the maximum amount possible," Chief Restructuring Officer Marc Weinsweig said in a court filing.
C&A Marketing Inc, an online retailer, plans to acquire some of Ritz's intellectual property assets, court records show.

Ritz filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors on June 22, less than three years after emerging from an earlier bankruptcy under the ownership of a group led by President David Ritz, part of its founding family.

The Beltsville, Maryland-based company, which will close its remaining 137 stores, has said it has struggled in recent years with inadequate capital and liquidity, amid a shift by consumers toward digital photography and photo-sharing and lessened reliance on in-store photo processing.