My own observations based on a couple weeks getting an in store lab back up and running.
This is an upscale big-box chain department store. The store I'm working in is one of the smaller stores in the chain and it's located in a revamped yuppified retail center catering to a clientèle with slightly more than average income: 1. We do C-41 print film. More than half of the film we take in is in the form of disposable cameras. 2. Even from disposable cameras people want premium processing - meaning we edit what gets printed taking out red-eye, compensating the lighting (lots of back-lit w/weak flash), and weeding out the OOPs shots. And they want double prints. 3. In addition to film we also do one hour prints from inter-net orders, kiosk orders from camera cards and CDs. People will dump a hundred shots willy-nilly from a camera card and order double prints from all of them ... PLUS a CD ... although 90% of the shots don't rise even to the level of "snapshot", and the customers willingly plop down $40 or more for an inch thick stack of 4x6 prints of their dogs tearing up the Christmas wrapping paper. 4. People love the kiosks, especially the one with the printers and scanner attached. I've got customers I recognize already as daily regulars, including one old gent who's going through his family albums and scanning the photos 4 or 5 at at time to make re-prints to send to friends and other family members. If the lab's not busy, I can almost do the one hour prints in the time they wait for the wax-thermal prints from the kiosk, but they'll pay the premium to get "prints in seconds". The "prints in seconds" are pretty damn good BTW. The store didn't have a photo lab specialist until I applied for the job. The equipment didn't get all the attention it needed. I've had the Kodak tech in just about every day for the last week and have repair parts coming in almost every day. As of yesterday, I've got it running about95 % - have a CD reader that failed in one of the kiosks yesterday ... Kodak should have it fixed by the time I go back to work on Friday. But I can already see that this thing could actually be a profit center for the store as well as something to attract customers in. It's pretty well automated, so productivity is high for the labor input, and the print quality is very good which, along with the convenience, brings in the customers. Which in turn makes me think Kodak ... or someone ... will be around for a while to service this market. The demand is there, and someone will supply it. > My friend the camera store owner must be a unique case, then. His > sales are as I described; I was mistaken to extrapolate them across > the whole market. > > At 9:30 PM -0500 2/8/07, Paul Stenquist wrote: > The opposite is actually true, due to the still healthy sales of > disposables. Most E6 labs have shut down. > Paul > On Feb 8, 2007, at 8:48 PM, Steve Sharpe wrote: > >> It is my understanding that it's the print films that have crashed in >> sales, since that is what the point-and-shooters use...and they have >> largely gone digital. E-6 and black and white are holding up well, > > though. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
