Washington-area camera store chain Penn Camera is closing most of its stores, including a location near Springfield Mall, according to the company's website.
Due to a disappointing holiday season, Penn Camera announced Wednesday that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Penn Camera will close five of its eight stores immediately, including the Springfield location at 6699 Frontier Drive.
A note outside the Springfield location Wednesday said the store was already closed.
Customers waiting for repairs or other transactions with Penn Camera's Springfield store can handle them at the Tysons location at 8357-E Leesburg Pike, the company said.
Clearance sales will be held in Penn Camera stores on E Street in Washington, in Rockville, Md., and in Tysons. According to DCist, the remaining three stores are expected to close as well once their inventory is sold.
"This is a real bummer," wrote a commenter on Photo.net.
SoA Print Studio
2:59 pm on Wednesday, January 4, 2012
The news about Penn Camera is sad indeed for all photographers in the DC area. They had some of the best service I've ever experienced.
I wanted to let readers know about George Mason University's School of Art Print Studio, which has been in business for about two years. Because the studio is an on-campus non-profit operation, not too many people know about it yet. We offer many of the high quality services that Penn Camera did.
Because we are a non-profit, we work hard to keep our prices affordable for students and artists in the community. The lab was founded by photographers, and is staffed exclusively by artist technicians such as myself.
Some services we offer:
-archival-quality fine art inkjet printing
-high quality laser proofs
-digital chromogenic prints (digital c-prints)
-medium and large format color film processing
-film drum scanning
-high resolution flatbed scanning
-color-calibrated previewing stations
-monitor profiling and calibration services
We want to spread the word to other artists, photographers, and community members that some the services they were able to receive at Penn Camera will still be conveniently available right here in Fairfax, Virginia.
Our website: http://soaprint.gmu.edu.
James Cullum
12:46 am on Thursday, January 5, 2012
Tough break for area photographers. I recently found a new camera shop, though. If you're in the Burke area, try PhotoCraft at 6025 Burke Centre Parkway.
Teresa Li
8:02 am on Thursday, January 5, 2012
Oh no! I always go to Penn Camera and pick something up. Over the years, I've taken many of their classes and been on photo safaris through DC. They have excellent service there. How very sad. Where do I go now?
Kim
1:29 pm on Thursday, January 5, 2012
this is very sad.
Amy Taylor
8:24 pm on Thursday, January 5, 2012
Thank you to all the Penn Camera staff. We only became customers a few months ago but we will miss your advice and help for both our film and digital cameras. We really appreciate the extra time you spent explaining our vintage camera to us.