As the US’s largest photo retailer, B&H Photo has been in the news many times for issues around discrimination. We’ve often been the only photography website to report on it as many others are often in the company’s pockets. Of the large independent photography publications that talk about gear, the Phoblographer is the only one that doesn’t have a relationship with B&H Photo, and continues to not do so. With many of the changes that have happened in the world in the past month, we’re reminding the photo industry why they should be watching B&H Photo very closely.
The company has decades of issues around discrimination that we’ve reported on for several years. With many of the largest companies doing rollbacks on their inclusivity and diversity efforts, the company that has been sued several times for discrimination could be one to watch even closer. A recent thread on Reddit prompted me to remind folks about what’s going on:
Back in November, a B&H Photo employee sent us the following message via email:
I work for B&H and have been fighting with them about discrimination and favoritism for 8 months. I have talked to numerous supervisors, managers, and spent 3 hours with the head of hr. Turned in 30 examples with times and dates. And nothing is being done. And then today they moved us around and we are literally being segregated on the receiving dock. They now are overcompensating for previous lawsuits so basically if your not Spanish you can’t move up and get worked to death, while Spanish people working right next to you get nothing but easy and non heavy work. It’s discrimination based on race and gender.
Understandably, folks may have very mixed feelings about what’s going on there.
When we asked the person who sent us this email for more information, they never responded and it has been over two months. However, we confirmed that the person who sent the email to us indeed was working at B&H Photo at the time.
There are lots of issues with many of the photo retailers online, and so here’s my advice: go buy used. More specifically, buy used camera gear from peer-to-peer sellers. There’s no need to support large companies when they get more than enough money. And we’ve seen many times that when consumers get together, they can change what companies do. You’ll be far less likely to run into issues around discrimination of women, people of color, and those of us who are disabled.