Ritz wrapup

Photo courtesy of
‘new toy’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

It’s only barely DC-related but I figure since we talked about the Ritz bankruptcy, fire sales, and restructuring I should at least link the Washington Post article that details what will happen to the company going forward.

There’s not too much new there from when I told you last month that the company was looking for a buyer of its assets. As was widely reported at the end of last month, CEO David Ritz managed to cobble together a group of investors and put in a bid for the entirety of the company’s assets. The Post doesn’t specify that the bankruptcy judge has approved the deal but it’s implied so I’m not going to spend the money pulling the documents from PACER.

WaPo says that Ritz indicated in an interview that the new company plans bring in a more hip crowd, though it sounds to me more like they’re simply planning their activities between now and their next bankruptcy. The best indicator may be Ritz’s quote about how the customer base out there Just Doesn’t Get It.

“They don’t understand that you need to archive your history,” he said, “and if you have everything on a hard drive, it’s subject to being lost at any time.”

In my experience, when a business starts talking about how their target market just doesn’t know what’s good for them, it’s a sign of trouble.

Missing from the article is much mention of what the repercussions are going to be for existing customers. The new company, though it shares some of the name with the existing Ritz Camera, will be a different corporation – one that purchased the old companies assets but may not have all or any of its liabilities. If you’ve been sitting on Ritz gift cards or coupons you shouldn’t take this development as a sign that they’re going to be worth something again – those are with the old corporation and it’s going away, even if the sign looks a lot like the old one.

Well I used to say something in my profile about not quite being a “tinker, tailor, soldier, or spy” but Tom stole that for our about us page, so I guess I’ll have to find another way to express that I am a man of many interests.

Hmm, guess I just did.

My tastes run the gamut from sophomoric to Shakespeare and in my “professional” life I’ve sold things, served beer, written software, and carried heavy objects… sometimes at the same place. It’s that range of loves and activities that makes it so easy for me to love DC – we’ve got it all.

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