Hasselblad is opening the doors to its first retail store this week on September 14. The store is located in Tokyo, Japan adjacent to Hasselblad Japan offices in an area that features trendy fashion boutiques.
This is the first time that Hasselblad has ever offered direct sales in store in place of the normal sales chains through partners, distributors and dealers.
No surprise to me! Why invest in professional r&d for the working photographer if you can drop a boutique store in a boutique city selling boutique cameras. My days shooting with Hasselblad came to an end seven years ago strictly out of necessity. I found myself having to keep up delirious and anxious clients demanding for digital commercial work turn-around while competing with a whole new generation of photographer “want-to-be’s” who could finance digital toys but had no understanding of simple principals of light, mood, color balance, design and content.
How many “photographers” does Hasselblad think will shop at this boutique?
Bring on the 1%!