General Imaging to sell cameras at Walgreens

LAS VEGAS General Imaging used the first day of the Photo Marketing Association show to announce it will begin selling its cameras at Walgreens in April.

The buzz on opening day at PMA centered on the new wave of new cameras loaded with such features as face and smile recognition at lower prices, a product of a mature market that’s unlikely to match the 34 million cameras sold in the U.S. last year. “Walgreens has been selling some of our cameras on their Web site but they’ll soon be selling them in 6,000 stores,” said Rene Buhay, General Imaging senior vice president of sales and marketing, Americas. “And this will be our first venture into the food and drug category.”

Speaking from the PMA show floor in Las Vegas, Buhay said stores would carry the basic A735 and E850 models with prices starting at $89. “Having our cameras available in stores that are so familar to generations of Americans is a great accomplishment,” he said. “This will help us greatly in further extending our brand.” Buhay said entering Walgreens would expand its GE branded line of cameras to more than 22,000 storefronts. The company also unveiled nine new cameras at PMA.

The PMA show will run until Feb. 2 and is expected to attract more than 20,000 attendees who will check out the latest cameras and printers from major vendors, including Canon, Kodak, Sony, Nikon and Hewlett-Packard.