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Downtown camera shop to close
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A 50-year tradition in downtown Carlisle is about to end as Carlisle Camera Shop prepares to move to Hampden Township.
The date for closing the shop at 15 N. Hanover St. is uncertain, but owners expect to be in the new location at 4702 Carlisle Pike before the end of the month, says Darryl Evans, co-owner of the business since 1987.
He says a second Carlisle Camera Shop in Hampden Centre will relocate this month to the new address, where it will have increased visibility from the pike.
The name won't change despite the lack of local connection.
Cost-cutting measure
Evans blames declining sales at the Carlisle store for the closing. Business has been "stable" at the Hampden store, he says.
"We're just trying to reduce costs and offer better services, and we see this as a way of doing that," he says.
Technological changes are the reason the shop couldn't make it downtown after so many years, says Greater Carlisle Area Chamber of Commerce President Michelle Crowley.
"Carlisle Camera really tried hard. They got out and marketed," she says. "They have good people."
She points out other shops are remaining successful downtown, including the ClothesVine and Butcher, Baker Sandwich Maker, whose owners are negotiating to buy the buildings they lease.
Crowley points to the redevelopment of the burned-out Centenary Building into upscale apartments and a coffee shop as a stimulus for growth downtown.
Charles Andrews, owner of Garden Gallery across Hanover Street from the camera shop, also sees more interest among shoppers in the downtown. Women from Washington, D.C., to North Middleton Township are discovering the downtown, he says.
But Andrews also says the loss of Carlisle Camera is part of a trend that has left more vacant storefronts in downtown Carlisle than new tenants.
Still, he chooses to see the situation as an opportunity to bring in new businesses.
Downtown Carlisle Association board President Chris Hoffman agrees. Losing a unique shop to downtown will hurt the business climate, he adds, "but we'll survive.
"I'm very sad to see them go," Hoffman adds. "They've been a downtown institution for many years."
Evans acknowledges he's sad to leave the downtown as well.
"We certainly would like to continue operating here, but the current environment just doesn't allow us to do that. We had to pick a decision."
Customers are unhappy, too, Evans says, "but most people understand the reasons why."
They offer experience
The move will be inconvenient for Carlisle-area customers, especially since they can't find the same quality of photofinishing anywhere else in the Carlisle area, says Guy Freeman, a freelance photographer, photography teacher and part-time employee of Carlisle Camera in Hampden Centre.
At Carlisle Camera, "You have people (who) have decades of experience looking at each and every image as it comes through the store. You have people (who) know what a picture is supposed to look like," he says.
Although he's never used the processing at big-box stores, Freeman says, "I've seen some of the work my students get done through those outfits and the color is usually extremely bad."
Andrews also praises Carlisle Camera. "They certainly gave the service. They're quality. They're smart people and very capable. They'll be around."
He blames digital photography for increasing the pressure on small camera shops.
"Digital has arrived big time," Andrews says. "That's one of the things that made Carlisle Camera a little vulnerable. Cameras have become just appliances" that are easily sold at "big boxes."
The popularity of digital cameras has changed the photography business in the last few years, Freeman agrees, but he says Carlisle Camera is "trying to be sensitive to what's going on with that whole trend in the marketplace."
Carlisle Camera offers digital as well as film processing, plus provides self-serve enlargement and reprint units. Camera repairs are done there, and a full line of photographic supplies and cameras are stocked for amateurs, serious hobbyists and professionals, Evans says. And classes are offered.
"Carlisle Camera really does a great job with supporting the digital realm," Freeman says. "They even offer printing of digital imagery cheaper than conventional film," although he acknowledges "people are inclined to print things at home" when they have digital cameras.
The photographer sees several reasons the camera shop foundered in downtown Carlisle.
"It's a complex situation," Freeman says, adding that it doesn't help that some people consider parking, safety or convenience to be compromised in downtowns.
Staff to be reduced
The consolidation will mean a few job cuts among the nine staff members at both stores, Evans says.
Meanwhile, an inventory-reduction sale of 10 to 50 percent off and the sale of furnishings is under way to avoid moving expenses.
The Carlisle Camera building was put on the market a few weeks ago and has drawn interest from real estate agents, says Evans, who owns the business and the building with his wife, Kathleen Evans, and his brother and sister-in-law, John and Nancy Evans.
Office space above the shop is used for the business, he says.
