Kaufmann’s Cameras closing: Rent increase drives family business out of San Mateo

In a rush to vacate the building sandwiched between a jewelry store and nail salon, Kaufmann said they’d begin to sell their remaining equipment online until they run out of inventory. While they initially looked for another shop to rent, their chances seem minimal having already failed to secure five different sites, Kaufmann said.

It’s a story that’s becoming more and more familiar with the price of real estate skyrocketing and new property owners realizing they can raise rents in this high-demand market.

Recently, the city of San Mateo began the 25th Avenue Initiative, which may include street improvements and seeks to highlight the variety of local businesses on what’s been called the city’s “second downtown.”

After purchasing the building also occupied by two other tenants in February, the new property owner tripled the base rent and sought to have the renters pay for other costs such as building maintenance and property taxes, Kaufmann said.

Their rent would have quadrupled overnight, Kaufmann said while remaining patient and understanding.

“It’s too bad. I can’t blame the new guys for having a new price on the place because the price things are selling for are just astronomically high and it’s just more than we can afford,” Kaufmann said. “From the looks of it and trying to find a place, it was very difficult finding someplace in the new economy. I almost kind of doubt we’ll open up a brick and mortar again. We’ll look for it and if we find it we’ll do it, but that’s not our thought right now.”

Instead, they’ll focus on Internet sales. The store has a website, but Kaufmann said they hadn’t needed to resort to selling online until now.

There’s a variety of factors that lead to Kaufmann’s closing — many shoppers turned to the Internet seeking deals or to avoid sales taxes and camera manufacturers have greatly eroded the gross profit margin one makes on a camera. What used to be 20 percent profit margin allowing them to make deals with customers, has dropped to about 5 percent or 8 percent with much of that eaten away by credit card fees, Kaufmann said.

But they were never just about profit margins and Kaufmann said he’d miss the social interactions that come with running a shop.

Our business over the years was “not so much a retail, ‘you’ve got to make a buck’ type of place. We were all very interested in photography and we liked helping people. So it’s a loss in that factor, that you don’t have that personal contact or being able to help them with their photographs,” Kaufmann said, noting they’d tell staff to “‘do whatever is best for the customer,’ whether it results in a sale or not, it was always ‘whatever was best for the customer.’”

Between being on 25th Avenue and in searching for other buildings to rent throughout San Mateo County, Kaufmann noted he’s seen a trend.

“There’s not very much of what I would call retail, where you sell a customer a product like a TV or radio or camera. … It’s all becoming service oriented. Tons of nail parlors and massage parlors and people that are even moving into retail spaces that are not in the business of contacting the general public, like lawyers or dog washers,” Kaufmann said. “Even offices are outlandishly expensive in this area. And I guess that’s because of Silicon Valley expanding all the way up here. It’s getting so small independent dealers just can’t afford it.”

Visit kaufmannscameras.com for more information.

samantha@smdailyjournal.com

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