Peering Into The Cabinet - Part One - The History

Peering into cabinets at Camera Electronic has been a major part of photographic culture in Western Australia for nearly 50 years. In some cases it has been peering and lusting and in others peering and wondering. It doesn't matter which degree of interest you take, as long as you take a good close look. I used to do so in Angove Street, then Fitzgerald Street, then Stirling Street. Now I can take the train down to Perth and peer into Murray Street. The staff are good enough to let me do this unobstructed, though occasionally I catch them peering back at me. In any case, it is exactly what Ron Frank used to encourage when he was setting up a store - the photographer who stands and ponders is the photographer who eventually reaches for their wallet. The older cabinets at Fitzgerald and Stirling Street were ex-library structures fitted with glass sliding doors and key locks. There were wall cabinets and floor ones - the floor ones could be ranged out like little glass tower blocks on a housing estate. They had a pretty good heft to them - they have moved around occasionally like the piano in the parlour but you had to use a car jack and a trolley under them to shift them. I pleaded with old-guy when it came to this and left it to Ernest and the husky young workers to do the hard stuff. Believe it or not, those floor cabinets went up and down the stairs several times. Now both shops are kitted out with purpose-built cabinetry that can showcase the gear in a much better way than the old wooden library cases with the glass shelving. It looks like the designers of the cabinetry are working to pretty sophisticated planning to present each division of gear in the best light. I think they compete with each other, but as long as the overall effect is neat, the buyer has a good experience. It becomes a little more fraught when there are promotional stands and methods of presentation that involve cameras on lanyards and especial locks and things. Add another level of complexity and guess what...you get another level of trouble if the locks don't work or the alarms are firing off randomly. CE went through an exciting patch when this sort of presentation was new but I daresay it has settled down by now. At least I'm not behind the counter when the diving klaxon goes off - I can afford to be amused by it. Are you, as a customer, client, or casual visitor being manipulated by the layout of the cabinets or the store? We're led to believe this might be the case with supermarkets and big department stores when they stack items in especial ways to direct our attention or stimulate our appetites. They also block our free movements and bedazzle us with colour and sound...but then that is a standard ploy in any casino or minefield in the world. At least the big supermarkets do not use the term " killing zone " all that much in their advertisements. Rest assured that Camera Electronic doesn't do this. We do not stack kiddy toys at the end of the sweets aisle to trap you. If you see a shelf structure or display somewhere it is there because that is a logical place for it to be or there isn't all that much empty space to put it in - or we just haven't had time to shift it around. Be grateful that these days you are less likely to fall over something and lie stunned on the floor until closing time. Note: Never challenge the management or staff of Camera Electronic to a Tetris championship. We can beat you hands down and you'll end up in the corner behind the film fridge.