Richmond Camera Shop is planning to close its retail store at 3128 W. Cary St. at the end of next month. (Jack Jacobs photo)
Richmond Camera is about to shutter its last retail store.
The long-running local company plans to close its Carytown shop at 3128 W. Cary St. in late August, according to President Ted Bullard.
But while the camera store at Cary Court shopping center is preparing to close, that doesn’t mean the end of the nearly 90-year-old company.
Moving forward, Richmond Camera plans to focus on its wholesale professional photography operations, which will continue to operate at its 50,000-square-foot facility at 7545 Midlothian Turnpike in Chesterfield.
That side of the business, known as the Richmond Professional Lab, handles the printing of school and sports team photographs among other products and services aimed at pro photographers.
Bullard, 71, whose father James Bullard started the business in 1938, said that while it was difficult to see the retail arm of the company wind down, the decision was made to close the Carytown shop to focus on what has become the company’s core operations.
“That (retail) was a small piece of Richmond Camera’s business, and it was a distraction from our main business,” Bullard said. “It’s more of an emotional, sentimental thing to stay in the retail business, because we had been in that so long I didn’t really want to get out of it.”
The Carytown store has operated for years and is the company’s last retail outpost. It remained open after the company closed six stores in the Richmond area and in Fredericksburg and Charlottesville during the pandemic, according to a Richmond Times-Dispatch report.
Richmond Camera also previously operated a lab facility downtown before moving it in 2022 to the Chesterfield property, which an LLC tied to Bullard acquired the previous year.
The company said the Midlothian Turnpike facility processes photo orders for more than 10 million K-12 students, competitive dancers, youth athletics and high school seniors annually, and the facility serves more than 3,000 professional photography studios. Bullard said Richmond Camera doesn’t plan to provide retail services at the Chesterfield lab.
“We do the fulfillment for photographers all over the country and that business has really grown and been successful,” Bullard said.
The company has 100 full-time employees in addition to 40 part-time and 200 seasonal workers.
Richmond Camera’s former downtown lab facility at 215 W. Broad St. was sold in 2022 to local development firm Bank Street Advisors, which is planning a sizable development next door.
Richmond Camera Shop is planning to close its retail store at 3128 W. Cary St. at the end of next month. (Jack Jacobs photo)
Richmond Camera is about to shutter its last retail store.
The long-running local company plans to close its Carytown shop at 3128 W. Cary St. in late August, according to President Ted Bullard.
But while the camera store at Cary Court shopping center is preparing to close, that doesn’t mean the end of the nearly 90-year-old company.
Moving forward, Richmond Camera plans to focus on its wholesale professional photography operations, which will continue to operate at its 50,000-square-foot facility at 7545 Midlothian Turnpike in Chesterfield.
That side of the business, known as the Richmond Professional Lab, handles the printing of school and sports team photographs among other products and services aimed at pro photographers.
Bullard, 71, whose father James Bullard started the business in 1938, said that while it was difficult to see the retail arm of the company wind down, the decision was made to close the Carytown shop to focus on what has become the company’s core operations.
“That (retail) was a small piece of Richmond Camera’s business, and it was a distraction from our main business,” Bullard said. “It’s more of an emotional, sentimental thing to stay in the retail business, because we had been in that so long I didn’t really want to get out of it.”
The Carytown store has operated for years and is the company’s last retail outpost. It remained open after the company closed six stores in the Richmond area and in Fredericksburg and Charlottesville during the pandemic, according to a Richmond Times-Dispatch report.
Richmond Camera also previously operated a lab facility downtown before moving it in 2022 to the Chesterfield property, which an LLC tied to Bullard acquired the previous year.
The company said the Midlothian Turnpike facility processes photo orders for more than 10 million K-12 students, competitive dancers, youth athletics and high school seniors annually, and the facility serves more than 3,000 professional photography studios. Bullard said Richmond Camera doesn’t plan to provide retail services at the Chesterfield lab.
“We do the fulfillment for photographers all over the country and that business has really grown and been successful,” Bullard said.
The company has 100 full-time employees in addition to 40 part-time and 200 seasonal workers.
Richmond Camera’s former downtown lab facility at 215 W. Broad St. was sold in 2022 to local development firm Bank Street Advisors, which is planning a sizable development next door.
Richmond Camera has reliably served our community for nearly a century. I’m sad to see this staple of Cary Court go, but understand why it makes sense. Best wishes to them on their continued wholesale success!