Calumet Photographic Abruptly Closes All U.S. Stores, Files Chapter 7 (UPDATE)

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Calumet Photographic Abruptly Closes All U.S. Stores, Files Chapter 7 (UPDATE)

{UPDATE, 3:05 p.m.; PetaPixel has an exclusive interview with a former employee that just went up. It might shed some light on why the company abruptly closed all their stores and filed Chapter 7. Check it out here.}

Chicago-based Calumet Photographic abruptly shuttered all their U.S. stores and filed for Chapter 7 liquidation Thursday morning. The Chicago Tribune reports Calumet's bankruptcy filing lists between $50 million and $100 million in assets and $10 million to $50 million in liabilities.

The Chicago photography company first opened in 1939 and has locations across the U.S. and Europe (a statement from the company on their Facebook account said that “European stores will continue, but they have now taken their Facebook account offline), including two locations in Chicago. Their Goose Island location was a hub for not only many professional photographers in need of supplies, repairs or renting equipment but also a great resource for photography students and the casual photographer.

Their website was down as of this morning, and only two messages appeared on their Facebook account earlier today. As of 1:45 p.m. local time, the Facebook page is no longer online The first one was announcing the closing:

"After 75 years of business, it is with a heavy heart that we announce our immediate closing in the United States (our European stores will continue)," the post reads. "It has been a joy to share our passion for photography with you all of these years. We'll miss each other and we'll miss all of our customers. Thank you for everything."

In DC, Calument took over Penn Camera a few years back.