Canon USA Removes 86 Authorized Dealers — Nearly 20% of Network

Canon USA made a major update to their authorized dealer list — in their February 13th update, they removed 86 authorized dealers, nearly 20% of their network. This is one of the largest mass-removals that we’ve seen.

Industry sources tell us that the changes were targeted towards smaller stores, as well as online-only dealers, in a bid to reduce Canon USA’s operating costs — fewer dealers means less Canon USA expenditure on sales management, marketing, operations, and compliance. The wide gap between Canon USA authorized prices and grey market prices suggests that Canon USA’s cost structure has been uncompetitive compared to other global Canon subsidiaries, and this dealer consolidation is the latest in a series of actions that have included layoffs as well as closure of their Jamesburg NJ service center.

Notable removals include military exchanges (Army and Air Force Exchange Service, Coast Guard Exchange, and others) selling at a discount to US military personnel, camera broker KEH (which used to sell new Canon items alongside their used inventory), and eBay dealers Datavision and Profeel. California and New York state saw the largest reduction in dealers, with 15 and 11 removed respectively.

UPDATE: Canon has published a new list as of February 18th, which adds back the military exchanges, and a few other dealers. We are told that these erroneous removals were “administrative errors”.

Sources also inform us of other upcoming price structure and policy changes as Canon USA continues to transform their operating model, we’ll report on this in the future as more details are known. We can only hope that savings are passed onto consumers in the form of lower prices. In general though, fewer dealers and more pricing restrictions generally decreases price competition, a strategy adopted by an increasing number of premium electronics manufacturers in recent years.

List of removed dealers (compare February 13th, 2020 vs. January 7th, 2020 dealer list)

  • 33 STREET CAMERA
  • APERTURES INC
  • ARCHES ELECTRONICS INC.
  • ARCTIC OFFICE MACHINES COMPANY
  • ARMY AIRFORCE AND EXCHANGE SERVICES* Re-added on February 18th.
  • AS RODE’S CAMERA, LLC
  • BADGER GRAPHIC SALES INC
  • B & C PHOTO
  • BEAR IMAGES PHOTOGRAPHIC INC
  • BI-MART CORPORATION
  • BKW INC
  • CAMERA CENTER OF YORK
  • CAMERA INN INC
  • CAMERATECHS INC
  • CAM PHOTO AND IMAGING
  • CAPITOL FILMWORKS INC
  • CAPTAIN’S NAUTICAL SUPPLIES INC
  • CAPTURE INTEGRATION INC
  • COAST GUARD EXCHANGE* Re-added on February 18th.
  • CORPUS CHRISTI CAMERA LLC
  • DANROS, LLC.
  • DATAVISION COMPUTER & VIDEO INC
  • ERNEST CAMERA SHOPPE
  • EZEE ELECTRONICS
  • FISKS CAMERA SHOP
  • FLORHAM VILLAGE CAMERA
  • GABRIAN’S
  • GEORGE STREET CAMERA
  • HAWAII STATIONERY CO LTD
  • HEDY’S CAMERA
  • H.K.GLOBAL TRADING LTD
  • HOLIDAY CAMERA CO
  • HUTECH CORPORATION
  • J & L CAMERA
  • JOHNSON PHOTO SERVICE
  • J & R FILM, INC.
  • KAUFMANN’S CAMERAS INC
  • KEH CAMERA BROKERS
  • KELLARDS
  • LIFEBOLT ELECTRONICS
  • MAC BUSINESS SOLUTION INC
  • MACK CAMERA SERVICE
  • MAUI DIGITAL IMAGING LLC
  • MORIN STUDIO & CAMERA SHOP
  • NAVY EXCHANGE SERVICE COMMAND* Re-added on February 18th.
  • NODAL NINJA
  • ODESSA CAMERA CENTER
  • PARK SQUARE CAMERA & PHOTO
  • PECHANGA RESORT & CASINO
  • PHOTO MARKET
  • PHOTOTRONICS
  • PRO DIGITAL GEAR
  • PROFEEL MARKETING INC
  • PROFESSIONAL PHOTO RESOURCES INC
  • PRO PHOTO CONNECTION
  • PUBLIC CAMERA SHOP
  • RAINBOW PHOTO LAB INC
  • ROCHESTER INSTITUE OF TECHNOLOGY
  • RUBYS INN GENERAL STORE
  • RUDDS CAMERA & VIDEO
  • SANTA MONICA CAMERA
  • SEAWOOD PHOTO INC
  • SUNVIEW PHOTO
  • STEREO NORTH
  • THE CAMERA COMPANY Re-added on February 18th.
  • THE CAMERA CORNER,INC. Re-added on February 18th.
  • THE CAMERA CORRAL Re-added on February 18th.
  • THE CAMERA SHOP OF SANTA FE
  • THE DODD COMPANY Re-added on February 18th.
  • THE ELUMENATI,LLC Re-added on February 18th.
  • THE FILTER CONNECTION,LLC
  • THE LERRO CORP. Re-added on February 18th.
  • THE PHOTO CENTER Re-added on February 18th.
  • THE PHOTO LAB, INC.
  • THE PHOTO SHOP Re-added on February 18th.
  • THE PRESENTATION SOURCE Re-added on February 18th.
  • THE PRO SHOP FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS Re-added on February 18th.
  • TTI MEDICAL
  • UNDERSEAS SCUBA CENTER INC
  • VALUE RECOVERY SERVICES LLC
  • VETERANS CANTEEN SERVICE* Re-added on February 18th.
  • VIDEO ONLY INC
  • WASEM’S INC
  • WASHINGTON SCIENTIFIC CAMERA CO INC
  • WHITLOCK GROUP Re-added on February 18th.
  • WIZARD DPR INC

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51 comments on “Canon USA Removes 86 Authorized Dealers — Nearly 20% of Network

  1. February 17, 2020 at 10:18 am EDT

    Profeel? Oh no! That sucks.

  2. Tony
    February 17, 2020 at 11:19 am EDT

    Agreed, I bought alot from them, including a big 600mm. They had the best prices.

  3. J
    February 17, 2020 at 1:31 pm EDT

    Wonder if this will change the policy on “grey market” and warranty repairs as well?

  4. rick b
    February 17, 2020 at 2:29 pm EDT

    Ruby’s INN was a Canon authorized dealer ?!?!

    1. David
      March 31, 2020 at 5:17 pm EDT

      Probably to get a discount on cost. I know if several car dealers in Florida who claim they’re a boat dealer just to get a break on prices. They only sell 1-3 to get that dealer cost

  5. G. Martin
    February 17, 2020 at 2:38 pm EDT

    My local store is on the removed list because the name they had on there was incorrect, they removed the incorrect name and added the correct one.

    1. CanonPriceWatch
      February 17, 2020 at 2:42 pm EDT

      There were only 3 additions to go with the 86 removals, so it’s likely this isn’t a good explanation for the other 85 stores 🙂

  6. Rich
    February 17, 2020 at 3:02 pm EDT

    I’m sure a few of these are just the result of stores going out of business and so on – not exactly booming times for retail camera stores.

    However, I wouldn’t be surprised if much of this is cracking down on minimum pricing rules.

    I do hope much of the post was intended as sarcasm, because it seems rather obvious that the US pricing has nothing to do with the cost of distributing in the US, and everything to do with trying to extract what the market will bear. Cutting down on the number of authorized vendors will make it easier for them to RAISE prices, because the remaining vendors won’t have to compete as much with “street prices” and so on.

    I thought that KEH was an interesting one to drop – I don’t associate them with below-minimum pricing. I bet some of it is to try to avoid promoting them as a vendor, since KEH makes buying used a lot more like a regular retail experience. Canon obviously can’t stop used sales entirely, but they would rather people associate used sales with riskier places like ebay where you have to use a lot of care to avoid getting burned and where selling is more of a hassle. Buying from KEH really isn’t much different from buying refurb or even buying new, aside from the warranty.

  7. EL
    February 17, 2020 at 5:18 pm EDT

    If you have not noticed .. Canon is dumping discount camera stores because they want their gear to sell at premium prices and markups.

  8. David S.
    February 17, 2020 at 6:05 pm EDT

    The Dodd Company? I wonder if that’s is/associated with Dodd Camera of Chicago? Not that I’ve ever shopped there, but it would seem to be a huge blow to Chicago photographic retail centers, as they’re the only Chicago-area retailer that I’ve ever seen TV and YouTube advertising for.

    1. CanonPriceWatch
      February 17, 2020 at 6:38 pm EDT

      The state listed for “The Dodd Company” is Ohio, and the Dodd Camera store does have stores in Cleveland. Not sure if it’s the same one.

      1. Mike Z
        February 17, 2020 at 8:00 pm EDT

        Dodd camera is one of two camera stores in Cleveland that sold anything decent, with the other being Pixel Photo. In recent months, Pixel has had Canon CPS in for events and offered free clean and checks for cameras and lenses. Dodd has not had Canon in for events recently that I can remember.

      2. John P
        February 18, 2020 at 9:14 am EDT

        Dodd Camera is still very much a Canon Dealer operating throughout Ohio, as well as Illinois. The name removed from the list was a simple DBA that was removed because of duplicity.

        1. CanonPriceWatch
          February 18, 2020 at 9:31 am EDT

          Thanks for the update. If “Dodd Company” was just a d/b/a, what’s their other name in the dealer list? I don’t see any other “Dodd”s in the February 2020 list.

          Will be confusing for customers as they will search “Dodd” in the dealer list, and won’t find anything.

        2. John P
          February 18, 2020 at 11:00 am EDT

          The business name continues to be Dodd Camera. I sent you an email from Canon confirming that this was an inadvertant omission which was believed to be from another “Dodd” DBA that was in their system.

        3. CanonPriceWatch
          February 18, 2020 at 11:48 am EDT

          I’ll update the post to reflect this, shortly.

        4. John P
          February 18, 2020 at 12:16 pm EDT

          Thanks much!

        5. CanonPriceWatch
          February 18, 2020 at 12:28 pm EDT

          Updated the list and added that comment.

  9. February 17, 2020 at 7:40 pm EDT

    You can theorize all you want but 99.9% of us have no idea if any of these outfits violated MAP policies.

    1. CanonPriceWatch
      February 17, 2020 at 10:24 pm EDT

      I don’t know why everyone is jumping to MAP.

      Based on my info, it doesn’t appear that selection for removal was based on discounting or MAP violation, but only Canon USA knows for sure. 🙂

    2. David
      March 31, 2020 at 5:15 pm EDT

      Right!

  10. Bill Jensen
    February 17, 2020 at 8:12 pm EDT

    One of the dealers, Captain’s Nautical supplies doesn’t sell cameras. Their optical sales department includes spotting scopes and marine binoculars but no Canon binoculars are listed. they are a well known dealer for nautical supplies in WA, (and binocular repairs, as I recall) yet I doubt they have sold any meaningful Canon equipment.

    1. CanonPriceWatch
      February 17, 2020 at 8:15 pm EDT

      It’s likely that they used to stock & sell Canon binoculars, but now no longer do.

      Note that it’s the same authorized dealer list for both the camera and the sports optics division.

  11. February 17, 2020 at 8:34 pm EDT

    Were any of the street price dealers impacted?

    1. CanonPriceWatch
      February 17, 2020 at 10:23 pm EDT

      I’m going to decline to answer this directly, as it’s best not to speculate on who is or isn’t a street price dealer. (I’d appreciate if other readers would refrain as well.)

      My general statement is: based on the info available to me, the authorized dealer culling is unrelated/uncorrelated to discounting. In my opinion, a significant number of dealers engage in some form of grey-area price promotion (secret email coupons, in-store specials, bundling, trade-in bonus discounts, utilizing 3rd party price brokers). Some are removed, others remain Canon dealers.

      The camera business has been tough the last few years, my speculation is the removals are likely stores whose sales volumes no longer justify a direct relationship with Canon USA (which is probably almost every small local camera dealer at this point).

  12. V4VALOR
    February 17, 2020 at 9:40 pm EDT

    Profeel will be greatly missed. This really sucks. I have enjoyed working with them.

  13. Want to believe
    February 18, 2020 at 7:45 am EDT

    We’re still being insulted with the “after these reductions the retail prices will be lower” on the products propaganda, sad.

  14. justawriter
    February 18, 2020 at 9:37 am EDT

    Well, my state no longer has an authorized dealer at all, so I feel no particular loyalty to the network anymore.

    1. Joseph Schachner
      February 21, 2020 at 2:38 pm EDT

      Amazon and B&H are authorized dealers. I think that may have something to do with this purge. B&H store in Manhattan you can actually go to and pick up a camera. Their prices tend to match Amazon. If you have to get a camera shipped to you I prefer to order from B&H but either company will stand behind what they sell. (Note that Amazon has third party sellers, those sellers are supposed to stand behind what they sell; Amazon stands behind items sold by Amazon).

  15. Bethany Jansson
    February 19, 2020 at 1:58 am EDT

    So do any of these stores still have products in or did they have to pull everything off the shelves immediately and that’s all she wrote?

    1. John P
      February 19, 2020 at 9:56 am EDT

      Sometimes a manufacturer will have a recall of the products, this usually happens when the dealer isn’t compliant with the manufacturers policies. However in most cases the products will remain at the dealer, and inventory is likely to be very thin as the removal from being an authorized dealer is more often than not, due to a lack of performance.

      Manufacturers often tend to look the other way if a dealer is a big volume player, despite transgressions. Most often It’s a 3 strike policy or multiple transgressions, but in this case it primarily appears to be a performance issue.

      Lastly, this doesn’t by any stretch suggest that these dealers weren’t delivering for and taking care of their customers. Just don’t expect to call them and find a stack of 5d Mark IVs or 70-200 f2.8s.

      1. Bethany Jansson
        February 19, 2020 at 2:51 pm EDT

        Thank you

  16. Amanda
    February 19, 2020 at 3:28 pm EDT

    Canon posted a new list 2/18/2020. Some of those dealers appear to be back on.

    1. CanonPriceWatch
      February 19, 2020 at 11:34 pm EDT

      Thanks. I’ve updated the post.

  17. simmyphotography
    January 14, 2021 at 5:07 pm EDT

    is dodd camera in ohio an authorised dealer?

    1. CanonPriceWatch
      January 14, 2021 at 6:56 pm EDT

      Yes, they are.

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