In the late 1940's a group of independent New Jersey photo retailers banded together to pool their buying power. At that time the retailers were "Mom and Pop" stores who wanted to get lower pricing that came with quantity purchases. Their original meeting place was the Millburn Inn.  This concept of buying collectively caught on and by the mid 1950's there were enough people congregating that the meetings had to be moved to a larger location. The store owners then founded PhotoFair Stores. They found it was advantageous to be friendly and helpful with their competitors. This "friendly" solution helped everyone as inventories could be shared over all the member stores even though the stores were not owned by the same people.  As the PhotoFair group grew, so did the closeness. This 1950's trait of helping each other still exists today.  Over time the group found an even greater value in the exchange of ideas and marketing strategies as well as product discussions. Photographic industry trends are always a main topic of discussion at the groups monthly dinner meetings.

PhotoFair Stores are clean, well stocked and staffed with people who really know what they are selling and what they are talking about!  Throughout New Jersey and New York you will find locally owned and operated Photofair Stores.  We are a far cry from those giant chain stores that are clueless about the cameras and products they sell or what the customer wants and needs. PhotoFair Store owners and their employees eat, drink and sleep photography.

Please email membership@photofair.com with questions or inquiries about joining PhotoFair Stores.

We are a cooperative buying group - As Members, we pool together our purchasing power to negotiate special deals with many suppliers - but that's only part of the story.

We are an educational organization. At our monthly meetings, a wide
variety of informative programs are presented. The best education, however, has always been Member-to-Member conversation.

We are a social organization. With whom does a photo specialty retailer have more in common than another photo specialty retailer? We've shared the same successes and the same sort of problems over the years, we've been meeting each other over the years, so it's not surprising that most of us count the other Photofair Members among our closest friends. In addition to monthly meetings we have hosted trade shows, training seminars and we have purely social events such as dinner dances, picnics, softball games and even an occasional tailgate party or white water rafting trip.

Now with even more store locations in New Jersey and New York we've been helping photographers for over 60 years.