Camera World

Camera World
Company type
IndustryRetail
Founded1977
FounderJack Shin
FateAcquired by Ritz Camera, becoming a brand of Ritz
Headquarters
Area served
North America

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.[1] The company's revenues totalled $80 million in 1998, of which $16 million were from online sales.[2] Revenues grew to $115.7 million in 1999 (equivalent to $211.6 million in 2023[3]), and the company relocated its administrative offices and inventory to a new facility in Beaverton, Oregon, the following year.[4] 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.[5]

  1. ^ Hill, Jim (November 25, 1994). "Electronics giant Circuit City thunders into Portland market". The Oregonian. p. 1.
  2. ^ Love, Jacqueline (March 8, 1999). "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". The Oregonian. p. E1.
  3. ^ 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.
  4. ^ Kosseff, Jeffrey (July 10, 2000). "Vintage retailers refine winning dot-com recipe Cameraworld.com uses". The Oregonian. p. B1.
  5. ^ "[Facebook post]". Camera World. January 21, 2016. Archived from the original on February 10, 2016. Retrieved 2021-04-26.