The other week I was having lunch with a friend at Le Bakery and wondering what the oldest store in the Metro Centre is and I told him I was pretty certain that one of them was the Peoria Camera Shop.

That made me realize I haven’t been in Peoria Camera Shop since they had their Grand Opening celebration last October after photographer Ava Kamm bought the business.

I think we’re overdue for a visit, so let’s just head on over to the Metro Centre and see what’s shaking!

I’m not exactly sure of this, but I think that Peoria Camera Shop is Peoria’s oldest business. They started in 1937 on Monroe Street, moved to Main Street in 1950 and then in 1990 they opened up here in The Metro Centre.

What an iconic Peoria business!

I love the vintage sign in the window!

Let’s go in and see what’s happening at the Peoria Camera Shop today!

The shop looks great, there’s owner Ava Kamm behind the counter talking to a customer.

I don’t want to bother her while she’s doing business, so I’ll just do what I always do, run around like a madman snapping photos!

I love this vintage table up in the front of the shop. So many memories and items from the past.

Nostalgia at its finest hour!

The Peoria Camera Shop has all kinds of photo accessories and fun photography books out on display.

They have computers in-house to work on digital and electronic files.

Plus there’s a wide array of services including scanning, video transfer to digital files, camera repairs and cleaning, passport photos, large format printing and much more!

They can put your photo on just about anything from blankets, tote bags, pillows, mugs and more.

Mother’s Day is coming up and they can help you get mom a cool personalized photo gift here.

Here’s the photo lab at Peoria Camera Shop. All the work here is done in-house, as opposed to most places that send it out to be done.

Just one of the things that makes Peoria Camera a more personalized, customer-friendly shop.

I took a photo from the back of the shop, just because I can. So there!

This room off to the side is loaded with cameras, lenses and all kinds of camera necessities for all of your photographic needs!

Peoria Camera Shop is really a one-stop shop for all of you photographers out there.

Okay, owner Ava Kamm is free and posed for the MBIP camera.

She said things are going great in here since she’s taken over. Ava says she enjoys owning and running the shop and that she’s having a lot of fun with it.

Ava told me that Peoria Camera is going to start offering a nice variety of classes and workshops which includes a workshop in Chicago with a photographer that specializes in architecture.

There’s also a beginner photography class at the shop coming up in May.

Other classes and workshops are being planned, so check their facecrack page for updates!

For those of you that don’t know, Peoria Camera Shop was going to close a little over a year ago.

Ava’s a photographer and a frequent customer, so some of the people working there asked her to buy it. And she did!

That literally defines “chutzpah” and I applaud Ava for rescuing this historical Peoria business and giving it a new lease on life!

Stop in and show your support to keep this business going for another few decades!

Ava said one thing she’s excited about is that Peoria Camera is now selling pre-owned cameras.

Stop in and check them out and if you’ve got a camera at home collecting dust, bring it in and see if Ava wants to make it part of their pre-owned inventory.

(Photo courtesy of Peoria Camera Shop.)