For 17 years, Le Camera owner Phat Le has weathered technological and business upheaval to serve area photography enthusiasts
By: Lauren Otis, Business Editor
WEST WINDSOR — Any Mercer County resident with more than a passing interest in photography has almost certainly encountered Le Camera, the camera shop founded by Phat Le (pronounced "Lee") 17 years ago.
Through the years, as the digital revolution transformed photography, and the Internet and "big box" stores transformed photographic equipment retailing, Mr. Le has continued to offer professional photographers, serious amateurs, and just plain old-fashioned shutterbugs a wealth of photographic expertise, service and equipment choice that usually wasn’t available outside of large cities like New York and Philadelphia.
Not so long ago, every good-size town had a camera store and cities had scores of them, but today a store like Le Camera is an increasingly rare breed. "Do you know why there aren’t any camera stores left? It is just too tough for a camera store to stay in business," Mr. Le said. "But we are determined to stay and I think we are doing well, people love us," he added.
If the world of photography has changed radically, Le Camera hasn’t been immune from the forces of change, and has undergone a number of transformations over the years. The latest incarnation of the store can now be found in Nassau Park Shopping Center, in a clean, well-lit space Mr. Le moved to two months ago.
"We have a real forte in customer service, local customer service," said Mr. Le. Customers may have a wide range of shopping options from the Internet and big box retailers like those nearby in the same shopping center he has moved Le Camera to, but as such retail options have grown, there has been a corresponding falloff in expertise and support, he said.
"You need a real photographic store that gives service," he said, adding "with the advent of the Web and cutthroat competition, the general public really yearns for a full service store."
In addition to serving the public locally, Mr. Le said he attends trade shows on a regular basis, selling equipment there as well as through the Le Camera Web site, and auctioning excess inventory on eBay. "To make the business work I have to work extra hard," Mr. Le said.
In both his personal and professional life Mr. Le, 49, has been no stranger to change and upheaval.
He grew up in war torn Saigon in South Vietnam, where his father ran a gas station. He remembers the war, and the fall of Saigon to the Communist North Vietnamese on April 30, 1975 "very vividly." At first there was jubilation, even among the South Vietnamese, that the war was over, he said. But the willingness to cooperate with the North Vietnamese "to make a new future" soon waned and turned to distress after the Communist regime began sending people to reeducation camps, Mr. Le said. He said he sees parallels to this period in Vietnam’s history and the period in Iraq’s immediately after the U.S. toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003, and there was a brief period of good will on the part of Iraqis which the U.S. subsequently squandered.
Mr. Le’s family became refugees, going to Thailand and eventually making it to the United States in 1979. "I was one of those boat people that you’ve heard about if you are old enough," he said.
Mr. Le, his mother, two brothers and a sister came to Michigan first. "The Midwesterners were very kind," he said. Another brother came later, while his father stayed in Vietnam.
Like many immigrants and refugees who have found a toehold in America, Mr. Le is proud of his adopted home, and appreciative of aspects of it that those who have lived here their whole lives may take for granted.
"I have found that this county is extremely generous, and the people are wonderful people. I am a naturalized citizen and I am very proud to be a part of this country. People complain about this county but I believe it is the best place to be," Mr. Le said.
Today, Mr. Le resides in Lawrenceville and shares parenting duties for his six children with his ex-wife. Two of Mr. Le’s brothers live in California, another in Philadelphia. His sister runs Princeton Tailoring on Chambers Street in Princeton. Mr. Le’s parents both passed away several years ago.
Mr. Le’s interest in photography began early. "I always liked to take pictures. My brother gave me a camera when I was ten," he said. From there he became the designated photographer for his family, at school and in college.
But, initially, mathematics seemed to be his career path. Mr. Le received his undergraduate degree at the University of Chicago, and a masters in mathematics at Princeton. He wound up teaching mathematics at Trenton State College.
The pay at his teaching post was "not that good," according to Mr. Le and, seeking some extra income, he brought some cameras to a trade show and they all sold. "I was knowledgeable about cameras and so gradually it became a side business," he said.
He operated the business out of his apartment for about a year, but "it got to a point we had too many cameras in the apartment, so I made a decision — will we just still sleep with all the cameras or find a place to put them?" Mr. Le recalled. So in 1991, calculating that he could meet the $1,600 a month rent, Mr. Le opened the first Le Camera store on Quakerbridge Road in Lawrence.
"And it really took off," he said. The combination of selling to mail order customers nationally, even internationally, and catering to residents of the Mercer County region through the store was a good one.
Despite an expansion into an adjoining space, Le Camera was needing more room and so in 1997 moved to larger quarters on Route 1 in Lawrence. It’s reputation had grown and it’s name had become a national brand in the camera equipment trading community. But the success was only to last a few years.
Going through a divorce, Mr. Le was forced to close his store in June 2001 and auction off his inventory. "Business-wise it was a good event because it was time to clean up inventory, so it was a good thing. The bad thing that happened was, I was out of business for like half a year," Mr. Le recalled. His customer base disappeared as a result.
Mr. Le managed to reopen Le Camera in November 2001. The new location, in a small shopping strip on Business Route 1 in Lawrence, was if anything more modest than his original Quakerbridge Road site. Today, at his new Nassau Park Shopping Center location, Mr. Le continues Le Camera’s tradition of used equipment dealing and customer service. An imaging lab has been set up at the rear of the store. An important task for the near future is to revamp Le Camera’s Web site to enable much more extensive online sales, he said.
"This is still a very small business," Mr. Le said. "I want to take it to the next level, finish the Web site, and compete again on the national level like 15 years ago," he added. "We certainly have the expertise and the resources to do that."
Through all the changes, Mr. Le is more than philosophical, he is upbeat. He says he doesn’t think his business, or his life for that matter, has had highpoints and setbacks. "In my mind it’s all up. For this reason: because family happiness is much more important."
Of having to liquidate the business because of his divorce, then restart it, he said, "I made a change in my life to have a better life, so that is all up. And business — if I am healthy I can make a business anytime. That is the easy part. One thing that works for me in my favor, I always like what I do, and teaching in college or selling cameras or going to a trade show far away, I always enjoy doing what I do."