former type subsidiary of c & a marketing industry photographic products and services founded 1918 defunct 2012 headquarters 2 bergen turnpike ridgefield park nj 07660 united states key people harry klein president chaim pikarski vice president website www.ritzcamera.com ritz camera & image is a photographic retail and photofinishing specialty store headquartered in edison new jersey . the company owns and operates a chain of six locations throughout the united states under the names wolf camera inkley s and ritz camera . in 2012 ritz camera was acquired by c & a marketing . contents 1 history 2 services 3 ritz interactive 4 bankruptcies 4.1 2009 bankruptcy and purchase by rci 4.2 2012 bankruptcy and liquidation 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history edit the family owned company ritz camera centers inc. predecessor in interest to ritz camera & image llc was founded as a portrait studio in 1918 by benjamin a. ritz in the ritz hotel in atlantic city new jersey . whether the occasion was a wedding graduation or confirmation the tradition in atlantic city in the early 20th century was to have it captured with a b. a. ritz portrait . 1 in 1936 benjamin and his brother edward opened the first ritz film processing lab in washington d.c. ritz camera was headed by edward s son david ritz . services edit ritz camera was the first chain photo finishers to offer 4 6 prints from 35mm film as well as free bordered prints as standard . ritz camera is also the first national chain to offer 4.5 6 commonly known as 6d prints . unlike the traditional 4 6 prints used for film ritz s 6d prints reflect the different aspect ratio of 4 3 digital images . ritz stores stocked 6d sized frames and albums . a ritz camera store inside a carlsbad california shopping mall in 2009 in july 2003 ritz camera introduced ritzpix.com which also offers customers online ordering and in store pickup within an hour . ritzpix.com is currently powered by lucidiom . in 2010 customers had an option on ritzpix.com to have an online order delivered next day to their home at no extra charge . in may 2006 ritz camera announced a partnership with yesvideo to start offering same day dvd transfers in all stores nationwide . these stores can transfer vhs svhs minidv digital 8 and digital media to dvds in about the time any particular tape takes to play . 2 in 2007 and early 2008 ritz began installing oki and xerox equipment in their locations to enable the production of hard back photo books photo calendars and custom greeting cards by customers via in store kiosks or through ritzpix.com for in store pick up . ritz and motophoto are the only two national retailers to offer these services in a one hour lab . beginning in 2008 ritz began installing lamination mounting machines in many of their stores to offer foamcore mounting and laminating up to 24 36 inch prints in store . in february 2010 ritz started offering metallic printing up to 30 40 size on kodak professional endura metallic paper and deep matte prints on fujifilm paper . in may 2010 ritz camera started the ritzpix network which for up to 20 month in imaging products customers could get up to 100 off any qualifying camera . after multiple requests from customers ritz camera & image created the ritz & wolf photo patrol . photo patrol consist of private tutoring four free photography classes with camera purchase and 2 hr . seminar classes . ritz interactive edit in 1999 david ritz and others founded ritz interactive inc. an irvine california based e commerce company formed to bring the retail store brands to the internet . despite the fact that the two companies share warehouse space and some personnel ritz interactive and ritz camera centers are officially separate companies . in 2002 ritz interactive acquired the internet division of cameraworld.com a portland oregon based company . 3 cameraworld.com s store and catalog business were acquired by ritz camera rather than ritz interactive . 4 in 2003 amazon.com formed a sales alliance with ritz interactive inc. in a deal to broaden the online retail giant s selection of camera products and accessories . 5 according to the wall street journal ritz interactive inc. which operates the websites for such retailers as ritz camera and boaters world filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on august 19 2011 . the irvine calif. company reported assets of about 809 000 and debts of 7.2 million in its bankruptcy petition filed friday with the u.s. bankruptcy court in santa ana calif. court papers show ritz interactive s executive committee of its board of directors deemed the chapter 11 filing in the best interests of the company its creditors and stakeholders . court papers show that david ritz holds an 18.55 % stake in the company . among ritz interactive s debts are a 3.55 million secured claim held by ritz camera . ritz interactive s top unsecured trade creditors include american express owed about 434 000 ; federal express owed nearly 104 000 ; and google owed more than 45 000 . in may 2012 ritz interactive was acquired by ritz camera & image . bankruptcies edit 2009 bankruptcy and purchase by rci edit on february 22 2009 ritz camera centers inc. filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection . chief restructuring officer marc weinsweig cited the 2008 ongoing recession caused ritz s 2008 holiday sales to be materially lower than a year earlier . boater s world also suffered heavy losses in 2008 as gas prices soared . 6 on april 2 2009 it announced the closure of more than 300 stores nationwide and the liquidation of its boaters world subsidiary in an attempt to reorganize and emerge from bankruptcy . 7 on july 21 2009 reuters reported that a group called rci had agreed to purchase the firm s remaining 375 stores for 33.1 million ; the group included david ritz . the group said it would attempt to keep all 375 stores open . the purchase agreement required approval of the bankruptcy court which was scheduled to hear the case on july 23 . 8 in november 2009 the new company ritz camera & image llc rci opened five new stores with a total open of about 300 with a wider range of products including televisions compact laptop computers and smartphones . 9 2012 bankruptcy and liquidation edit on june 22 2012 ritz camera & image filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection again and closed 128 of its stores . on september 6 2012 liquidation specialists gordon brothers retail partners llc and hilco merchant resources llc won an auction for ritz camera s assets and began the process of closing most of the 137 stores that remained . new jersey based camera distributors c & a marketing have acquired the online ritzpix business and will operate a few of the retail locations across the country . 10 on september 10 2012 it was announced that all ritz wolf and other associated subsidiaries would close by the end of october while a few would reopen under c & a marketing alongside ritzpix and ritzcamera.com on november 1 2012 11 and other stores were sold individually or in small groups to other retailers including three locations to calumet photographic . see also edit maryland portal companies portal digital camera film camera photography references edit ritz camera company july 2009 . ritz camera company history . retrieved 2009 07 15 . press release may 2006 . ritz camera offers yesvideo dvd transfer products and services . retrieved 2006 05 08 . earnshaw aliza may 3 2002 . cameraworld.com purchased by ritz interactive . portland business journal . retrieved 2015 02 04 . kosseff jeffrey may 15 2002 . cameraworld sells flagship store to ritz . the oregonian . p. c1 . havlik dan august 2003 . ritz and adorama join forces with amazon.com . imaging business magazine . retrieved 2006 09 05 . jonathan stempel february 2009 . ritz camera files for chapter 11 bankruptcy . reuters . retrieved 2009 02 24 . ritz camera to close more than 300 stores nationwide ; store closing sales scheduled to begin april 4 . businesswire . april 2009 . retrieved 2009 04 26 . ritz camera president group buys chain in auction . reuters . july 21 2009 . v. dion haynes december 28 2009 . ritz camera aims to remake itself by diversifying its inventory . washington post . joseph distefano september 11 2012 . ritz camera brand will survive liquidation . philadelphia inquirer . retrieved september 11 2012 . eli zandman september 12 2012 . another dark day for retail as ritz camera announces it will shutter all stores . tomorrow s news today atlanta . retrieved september 12 2012 . external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to ritz camera stores . website for ritz wolf inkleys & kits camera stores ritzpix.com commercial corporate site for ritz interactive inc. http blogs.wsj.com bankruptcy 2011 08 22 ritz interactive clicks into chapter 11 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title ritz camera centers & oldid 744209483 categories beltsville marylandcompanies based in prince george s county marylandcompanies disestablished in 2012companies established in 1918companies that have filed for chapter 11 bankruptcyconsumer electronics retailers in the united statesphotographic retailershidden categories commons category with local link same as on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version in other projects wikimedia commons languages add links this page was last modified on 13 october 2016 at 20 01 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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