Ritz Camera Files Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

Ritz Camera has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company has approximately 1,000 stores, and locally operates under the names Ritz Camera and Wolf Camera, and also operates the Boater’s World store located on Stevens Creek Blvd in San Jose. In other areas, the company also operates stores under the Kits Cameras, Inkley’s and The Camera Shops names.

Ritz will likely share the same fate as Circuit City, which first filed Chapter 11 as it seeked additional capital, but ultimately succombed to market pressures and finally closed up shop entirely. The problem is that any company in dire straits seeking capital right now will need to issue debt at very high interest rates, often many multiples of the profit margin which they can garner on product sales. As a result, unless a company has substantial real assets, the likelihood of a company pulling through a restructuring in this market is small.

My guess is Ritz Camera has a few more months and then they’ll be gone entirely. As a reference, Circuit City filed Chapter 11 on November 10, 2008. On January 16, 2009 they announced plans to liquidate.

A list of all the San Francisco Bay Area Ritz and Wolf Camera stores is also available below:




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