B&H Foto & Electronics Corp.

What does B&H own?

B&H operates one retail brand, B&H Photo Video, plus the B&H Used marketplace, B&H Rentals, the Explora content platform, and the Payboo credit program. All operate under the B&H name with no separate subsidiary banners.

Is B&H publicly traded?

No. The company is privately held by the Schreiber family and partner Sam Goldstein. It has never gone public or raised venture or private equity funding.

Who founded B&H?

Herman Schreiber and Blimie Schreiber founded the business in 1973 as a film shop on Warren Street in Tribeca. The name comes from their initials.

Where is B&H headquartered?

The company is headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, with its SuperStore at 420 Ninth Avenue at West 34th Street and warehouses in Manhattan and New Jersey.

How many stores does B&H operate?

Exactly one. The company sells primarily online and by phone, with the Ninth Avenue SuperStore serving as its only physical retail location. It ships to 179 countries.

Who owns B&H?

The founding Schreiber family owns the company together with longtime partner Sam Goldstein. It remains under original family control after more than five decades.

The company began in 1973 when Herman and Blimie Schreiber opened a film and camera shop at 17 Warren Street in Tribeca. The location placed it inside the orbit of Manhattan's Radio Row and the professional photography trade concentrated downtown.

A move to 119 West 17th Street in the late 1970s put B&H in the Photo District, the industry's professional heart at the time. The store expanded from film and darkroom supplies into the full professional imaging assortment and built a national mail-order business advertising in photo magazines. That catalog operation, run on phone orders and warehouse shipping, was the direct ancestor of its e-commerce business.

The 1990s brought two changes that define the company today: the product mix widened into computers, lighting, and audio, and in 1997 the store moved to 420 Ninth Avenue at 34th Street. The new space grew into a roughly 70,000-square-foot multi-department store, equipped with an overhead conveyor system that became a signature of the shopping experience.

B&H moved online early and aggressively, building one of the first sophisticated specialty e-commerce operations in electronics. Subsequent decades added a used-gear marketplace, equipment rentals, the B&H Payboo credit program, and the Explora editorial platform. The company celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2023 with the same ownership structure it started with.

B&H has resolved multiple employment discrimination matters. A 2007 lawsuit by Hispanic warehouse workers alleging discriminatory pay and treatment was settled. In 2016 the U.S. Department of Labor alleged systematic hiring discrimination at the company's New Jersey warehouse; B&H settled in 2017 for approximately $4.98 million in back wages without admitting wrongdoing. Separate overtime-pay suits were also settled.

The matters produced no admissions of liability, but they represent documented legal exposure in labor practices that the company has since addressed through revised hiring processes.