B & H NYC visit

SteveL54

Senior Member
I was in Manhattan yesterday, and paid a visit to B & H. Holy smokes. Never again. The place is a madhouse. It's also a maze. Just keep following the signs to "Photography" that went on forever round and round until I reached the 2nd floor. In a word, the place is nuts. The Nikon section is surprisingly small, and too crowded to play with any new cameras, although the did seem to have every model made lined up to try out, but with only 2 sales people working the "booth" it was a bit of a wait. I had to ask where I could find the OEM batteries. ( salesperson, without looking up) "Just go there, turn right" Yeah, ok where? So I finally find it, and the counter person checked and triple checked that I was getting the correct one. Now I have to find my way back through the maze to go downstairs to pay. That's right. you don't pay when you get your item. You have to go to the Pay Counter. where they are lined up like cattle, and the totes for mail order are constantly going over your head in a conveyer system. But the cashier was an absolute pleasure to deal with. Funny, and she understood that I was overwhelmed with the store.

The streets of MidTown Manhattan in Times Square (which I LOATHE) are far more quieter and calmer that that store.

I'll just use mail order from now on, thank you very much.
 

skene

Senior Member
It can be a bit overwhelming, but think about it as it if were an Ikea... You need to write down all the items that you are looking for while walking through their own display maze, just to get to the bottom where you pick the items you want. Then pay at the registers... same concept.
 

PapaST

Senior Member
That's just about how i remembered it too. There were a ton of employees to help with questions. Hectic but definitely no lack of stuff to buy.
 

Blade Canyon

Senior Member
I liked that shop, and the overhead conveyors were an interesting bit of inventory control. With so many people and so much expensive merchandise, that's how they have to run it to stop too much stuff from walking out the door.
 

SteveL54

Senior Member
Certainly there was no lack of merchandise, but it was just too big! I prefer the Mom & Pop small store.




BH.jpg
 

SteveL54

Senior Member
I guess NYC is not your cup of tea, lol.

LOL - Actually, I spend a lot of time there, just not in mid town. I'm in the city 12 - 18 times a year. Give me The Village, Battery Park, or Brooklyn (Bay Ridge) anytime. Anywhere but the Times Square area.
 

oldsalt

Senior Member
Yep - I agree, went there while on holidays in the U.S. of A. a few years back... as someone said it's bit like IKEA for camera gear...
cheers
 
Hope to visit New York again soon. The wife wants to go there for an extended vacation once she retires. She wants to spend a month there but I think that is to long. B&H is on my list of places to visit. Will be like a kid in a candy store.
 

paul04

Senior Member
Might be best going 1st thing in the morning when its a little quieter, or maybe later in the day when the mad rush has died down.
 

SteveL54

Senior Member
Hope to visit New York again soon. The wife wants to go there for an extended vacation once she retires. She wants to spend a month there but I think that is to long. B&H is on my list of places to visit. Will be like a kid in a candy store.


A month is a long time to spend there, but you still wouldn't see everything. I've been going since the early 70's, and since my son moved there 7 years ago, we're in Manhattan on a regular basis. Every time I go, there is something new to discover. The photo ops are endless.
 

SteveL54

Senior Member
You should have went down to Canal street. My brother and I used to go down there when we were in our teens buying car stereos and speakers. :D

Been on Canal St. so many times that the vendors are going to start buying merchandise from me!

Funny story. We went there with some friends last year. They were looking for an answering machine and cordless phone, and he insisted on getting a deal on Canal.
Found what the were looking for at a give away price. Got home, plugged in the machine, that there were somebody's messages on it!
Phone didn't work, so he tried tapping it on a counter top. Phone opened up, and bags of sand fell out. No electronics at all.
You get what you pay for.
 

TonyD315

Senior Member
Living in NYC I have the option to go to B&H or Adorama at will. While B&H can be intimidating, I've never went there and not found what I was looking for. I also don't go without knowing what I want...so that might be the difference. A store of that size actually runs very efficiently.
I will admit that most of my purchases are made from Adorama. It's similar to B&H, just on a slightly smaller size and a little less crazy. Either way if you're into photography and in NYC, it's definitely worth a trip to both.


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