Ritz Camera Centers is a photographic retail and photofinishing specialty store, headquartered in Beltsville, Maryland. The company currently owns and operates a chain of 375 locations throughout the United States. While the company has maintained the names of other retailers it has acquired such as Wolf Camera, Kit’s Camera, Inkley’s, The Camera Shop, Cameras West, and PROEX, the stores are all owned and operated by Ritz Camera (officially now known as Ritz Camera & Image). Ritz Camera & Image (the retail store) was affiliated with marine and boat supply store Boaters World, until the chain was liquidated during bankruptcy.

History

The family-owned company was founded as a portrait studio in 1918 by Benjamin Ritz, in the Ritz Hotel Atlantic City, New Jersey. In 1936, Benjamin and his brother Edward opened the first Ritz film-processing lab in Washington, DC. Ritz Camera is currently headed by Edward's son, David Ritz.

Ritz Camera owes much of its expansion to the acquisition of its competitors. Ritz Camera's largest acquisition was Wolf Camera, which it effectively rescued from bankruptcy. Wolf Camera's financial difficulty was largely due to its own unprofitable $64.5 million acquisition of the 450-store Fox Photo chain from Eastman Kodak.

In the end, Wolf Camera finally peaked at approximately 800 locations, half of which were closed by the time it was acquired by Ritz.

After the acquisition of Wolf Camera, Ritz Camera Centers claimed over 1,300 locations. Due to the decline of film and with the strained economy, the company has closed a number of stores. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on February 22, 2009.