Costco shutting down its entire photo dept

[faberryman]

I will use Samys or one of the many remaining professional photofinishers in the Hollywood area for custom work.

Custom work? I thought you printed all your own stuff.

 

[faberryman]

Yah, they are getting rid of all the printing now too. Online or in store (if any still have it)

They shut down the photo department at my Costco location at least five years ago.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Walgreen does prints locally here in mid NJ but those are ink jet.

 

[btaylor]

I don’t want to derail this thread, but I am curious as to who you all have had good luck with for machine prints from digital sources (like my phone). I used to go the the local Target, upload the files and then had to return later to pick up the prints. Then I started using the Kodak Moments app and it works pretty well. Unfortunately it seems to ignore my cropping and just fills the 4x6 frame with image. But the quality is good and the prints show up in about a week. They run sales a few times a year I think 9 cents a print. They charge about $10 shipping though. About twice a year I go through my phone and get 100 or so prints to share with family and then put them in the shoe box. It does look like they are using RA4 paper. Other than the occasional 5x7, I haven’t tried them for larger prints. Prints from film negatives are still made in my darkroom, haven’t tried scanning.
What automated services have you all been using with success other than your local custom lab?

 

[Sirius Glass]

Custom work? I thought you printed all your own stuff.

Not larger than 16"x20". I have large enough trays but I do not like flipping paper that large, so I will pay someone who does it for a living. Besides someone has to keep them in business since you are not, evidentially.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

I don’t want to derail this thread, but I am curious as to who you all have had good luck with for machine prints from digital sources (like my phone). I used to go the the local Target, upload the files and then had to return later to pick up the prints. Then I started using the Kodak Moments app and it works pretty well. Unfortunately it seems to ignore my cropping and just fills the 4x6 frame with image. But the quality is good and the prints show up in about a week. They run sales a few times a year I think 9 cents a print. They charge about $10 shipping though. About twice a year I go through my phone and get 100 or so prints to share with family and then put them in the shoe box. It does look like they are using RA4 paper. Other than the occasional 5x7, I haven’t tried them for larger prints. Prints from film negatives are still made in my darkroom, haven’t tried scanning.
What automated services have you all been using with success other than your local custom lab?

I've used Walgreens a few times for small prints that they run off in a machine locally. I download them over the internet and pick them up later in the day. I think they send them out for bigger prints, but I'm not sure. You can check.

 

[Sirius Glass]

I don’t want to derail this thread, but I am curious as to who you all have had good luck with for machine prints from digital sources (like my phone). I used to go the the local Target, upload the files and then had to return later to pick up the prints. Then I started using the Kodak Moments app and it works pretty well. Unfortunately it seems to ignore my cropping and just fills the 4x6 frame with image. But the quality is good and the prints show up in about a week. They run sales a few times a year I think 9 cents a print. They charge about $10 shipping though. About twice a year I go through my phone and get 100 or so prints to share with family and then put them in the shoe box. It does look like they are using RA4 paper. Other than the occasional 5x7, I haven’t tried them for larger prints. Prints from film negatives are still made in my darkroom, haven’t tried scanning.
What automated services have you all been using with success other than your local custom lab?

The only place I trusted was Costco, so the next time this need arises, I will have to figure that out.

 

[Moose22]

Adorama is awesome for prints. My go to for a while now. I think they are called printique

I had less than good first experiences with printique, despite them having a decent reputation. Then I found North Coast Photo a mile from my house and they print for me now. Hard to beat the overly-personal service I'm getting, so I haven't re-tried printique. Glad they're still doing a good job.

I tried a couple of online ones more than once, including shutterfly, and they are meh. Costco used to do a great job a few years back. Alas, I am not a member and haven't used them in a few years either, so maybe I'm part of the reason they are shutting it down!

 

[jtk]

This has been expected for years.

Costco does know what's going on with film market, a lot more than "Kodak's" marketing people do.

The real problem is what will the former employees do now? There are virtually no other options, other than the usual: get seriously into photography and make your own prints or go back to (hopefully) community college.

 

[wiltw]

This web site gives details about the elimination of the Costco on-line photo ordering this month, after elimination of in-store print ordering in Feb 2021
https://clark.com/shopping-retail/warehouse-clubs/costco-photo-center-going-to-shutterfly/
Costco members get discounted pricing, inclusive of the Shutterfly satisfaction guarantee.

Shutterfly's own description of their process (2018)

"We run a fully-automated Silver Halide and Digital Offset printing facility with multiple machines of either kind. We constantly monitor our machines and keep them within 2-3 DeltaE_94 of each other. We have many production processes in place to ensure this level of accuracy. Based on paper and native printing technologies, there may be small differences in color, but these differences are minimal. For example, we keep the color reproduction differences between the glossy and matte papers to be less than 2.0 DeltaE_94."​

 

[gone]

I didn't even know Cosco had a photo dept. Amazing it lasted this long. All I ever saw at Cosco were people on cell phones pushing big baskets of stuff between isles of huge pallets, talking to other people on the other side of the store who were pushing big baskets of stuff between isles of huge pallets. Made me think of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The first one.

My very favorite place was Walgreens for photo developing. 16 year old clerk, "This is black and white film, we can't develop it, Mr". Me, "Yes, but it's C41 black and white film". Kid chews gum, looks dubious, Mgr (or nearest adult maybe just another customer?) comes over, "This is black and white film, we can't develop it".

Repeat as necessary.

 

[GRHazelton]

I shoot both film and digital. Costco at one time was my choice for enlargements of digital images. The Costco in Morrow GA was run by a really knowledgable young woman. I asked her what color space her service used, she gave me a good answer immediately. I also used that Costco for BW prints of scanned 35mm film, excellent results. Sad to see such a good service die.

 

[Brad Deputy]

I had a dozen 8x10s printed by Costco last month, and yep they used the RA-4 process on Fuji CA. $1.79 apiece. Spectacular results and sharp as always. My local shop (who also does RA-4) wanted $5.99 each. Do we know for sure that Shutterfly uses RA-4?

 

[MattKing]

The RA-4 prints that Costco made from digital files were excellent. Their printers were well maintained and, when they were in the local warehouses, were clearly putting through significant volumes. They also provided publicly accessible printer profiles for those who work in a colour managed environment.
Their staff was knowledgeable, and their satisfaction policy meant that if you needed something re-done, they just said "yes".

 

[Film-Niko]

It's a biggie!

No, not for the film consumption.
As a European I am no Costco expert, but I trust in what Huss and others here have explained: That Costco had stopped film processing years ago. So they are not active anymore in this market.
Therefore their decision now about printing cannot affect the film processing market.

 

[Film-Niko]

Yeah, they actually printed on real photo paper.

Thanks.
So now the decisive question is, how the announced transfer of the printing operation to Shutterfly will work. E.g. whether the trained staff will also switch to Shutterfly.
If in the end the service will stay, but just under a different company label, very little will change for the customer.

 

[Film-Niko]

Costco does know what's going on with film market, a lot more than "Kodak's" marketing people do.

Kodak (and all other film manufacturers) know much better than any other the exact film demand: Because they get the exact orders for film in.
Kodak knows exactly how many orders for their films are incoming every months.
And since 2019 these incoming orders are bigger than their production capacity. That is the reason why lots of their film types have permanent shortages.
And that is the reason why Kodak has hired about 300 new employees to increase their production capacity. And said that they will hire more, because the staff-upgrade so far is not enough yet.

 

[mtnbkr]

And Costco still shut it down because they want all their locations to have the same offerings. What was popular in Los Angeles may not have been used in most places elsewhere.

That seems to be "brick and mortar" retailers' answer to flagging sales and thinning profit margins. My dad was a merchandising manager for a large retailer and understood how geographic variations could make or break a store, but toward the end of his career the parent company decided to standardize all stores and seasons. This meant stores in regions with Mardis Gras no longer got the fancy dresses that sold like hotcakes in January (as a single example). Since those dresses didn't sell nationwide at that time of year, they obviously weren't popular.

Chris

 

[miha]

No, not for the film consumption.
As a European I am no Costco expert, but I trust in what Huss and others here have explained: That Costco had stopped film processing years ago. So they are not active anymore in this market.
Therefore their decision now about printing cannot affect the film processing market.

You can keep repeating it but I made my mind

 

[Patrick Robert James]

I remember the $1.89 processing back in the day. They would even leave my rolls uncut. Those were the days. Wish I knew back then how good we had it. I would have shot way more color film in the days when it was cheap all around.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Thanks.
So now the decisive question is, how the announced transfer of the printing operation to Shutterfly will work. E.g. whether the trained staff will also switch to Shutterfly.
If in the end the service will stay, but just under a different company label, very little will change for the customer.

Costco will retain them and put them on other assignments.

 

[original2view]

I think Costco make more money selling hotdogs and pizzas

 

[Agulliver]

It's a biggie!

This has absolutely nothing to do with the revival in film usage.

I suggest you stop trolling.

 

[Sal Santamaura]

This has absolutely nothing to do with the revival in film usage.

I suggest you stop trolling.

Why does someone who considers a huge U.S. retail chain terminating its entire photo department to indicate that the "revival in film usage" might not be as big as promoters of that narrative contend, and who expresses their opinion in a PHOTRIO thread, get described as "trolling?" Is there not room for different opinions?

 

[MattKing]

There is room for differences in opinions.
But Costco hasn't developed film for a long time. So the shutdown is more related to the problem with people not printing their photography than it is with anything specific to film.