UK Boots photolab shut down!!

I heard this on the LBC news yesterday, to be honest I never knew they had any still going,

Boots is shutting more than two-thirds of its photo processing laboratories as demand for traditional photo processing falls, putting up to 400 jobs at risk.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/boots-to-close-photo-labs-jobs-at-risk-a7606501.html

The Luton mall branch of Boots still does 1 hour C41 processing, printing and scanning. Last year I availed myself of their services and they did a great job, but just last month they made a right hash of a couple of rolls I sent in.

Here there never were such labs in chain-drugstores.

Drugstores cooperated (and still do) with industrial finishers.

It is a shame, as Boots has a long history of great service in photography....Mr Boot himself was a chemist and Boots were into photographic processing decades before C41 and mini labs. I guess demand is still falling for high street C41 process and print services. In the heyday of high street labs, Boots could always be relied upon even if they cost a quid more than Fred in his newsagent or the local supermarket.

I was really pleased with the results of their C41 P&P service last year, done in one hour and to a high quality. Just last month I used the same branch and the results were poor. In addition, I requested both films I sent in to be scanned and they scanned one twice and produced two identical CDs from that one film. And the price had gone up from £7.50 to £9.50 per roll.

I want to see film processing remain on the high street but I doubt I shall trust Luton Mall Boots again to be honest. There are spots on the negatives and prints indicating both dust/dirt and areas which have not been processed correctly.

the first time I came to England I was really chuffed to see they had their own colour slide film (probably fuji) with the pre-paid envelope to send your film to the lab! I still have one of those slide film. Really sad to see it going. This christmas, though, when I was in Coventry I went to boots and they had a nice selection of ilford and kodak film both in 35mm and medium format.

Boots colour films both negative and positive were made by 3M who owned Ferrania at one time. The company had a long tradition in photography even selling Boots brand wood and brass plate cameras around 1900.

Ian

Berri said:

When I was in Coventry I went to boots and they had a nice selection of ilford and kodak film both in 35mm and medium format.

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I was surprised when I learned that some Boots stores were offering up to now type 120 films. Even more I am surprised to learn that such even is the case in a place like Coventry.
That at all makes Boots different from german drugstore chains, who to my knowledge never offered type 120 films.

AgX said:

I was surprised when I learned that some Boots stores were offering up to now type 120 films. Even more I am surprised to learn that such even is the case in a place like Coventry.
That at all makes Boots different from german drugstore chains, who to my knowledge never offered type 120 films.

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Many of our photo stores started as Pharmacies (drug stores0 including the two chains Jessops and Jacobs. You can still find some pharmacies where part of the shop is a photo-store.

Ian

Here in Germany there even was a special breed of drugstore called within the trade "photo-drugstore".

At the local drugstore in the 70s and 80s high on their shelves they had their 4x5 Master Technica. A showpiece already back then.

I like boots, but when my girlfriend brings me there she just spends ages in there and I just get bored, I wish their film section was bigger so I would have something to look at

It is always sad to hear the closing down of high street labs, but it's a sign of the times.

As some of you may know I own a minilab in rural Ireland. In the late 1980's and early 1990's our small town (population 19.5k, county 65.5k) had 4 onsite processing minilabs. One photo chain store with Agfa, one photo independent with Kodak , one pharmacy with Kis/photome and ourselves a photo independent with Fuji. Even back then the quality of some of the labs was very bad and it gave everyone a bad name. I must admit that while our quality was spot on (we did all the usual test strips etc) the Agfa lab was hard to beat. But the Kis and Kodak were very badly run and the quality very poor.

Those poor quality labs were basically installed because minilabs were the new cash cow. Photo processing knowledge was not top of the agenda. And of course when the market is in downturn they are the first to leave the market.

I believe there is a return to printing photos (digital) and I have seen an increase in film processing in our lab. Having said that, we actively promote film processing and film cameras and film sales. It has become a niche market. I know instore can't compete with online regarding film sales etc, but online film processing (mail order) is 75% of all our film processing.

Maybe smaller companies can adapt quicker to a changing market and that is their strength compared to the large chain store.

The down side to Boots closing 2/3 of the labs is that people think film is really gone, dead and buried.
The up side is that there is more film for me to process
It's just a matter of getting that info out there and Google is our friend.

To me the saddest thing is that the vast majority of people do not produce prints from their photos, they just keep (and loose) them on their smartphone or computer. I like rummaging through my parents old photos and see what I find. I don't know what tomorrow's kid gonna look at if they want to see what their folks looked like 50 years before.
Part of the problem of photo lab loosing business and eventually being forced to shut down is because of that.

Most larger Boots with any sort of photo division still sell a fair amount of film. Generally I can get a few Ilford B&W films in both 35mm and 120 with some Fuji 35mm colour print film. Back in the day Boots offered a full range of C41 and E6 colour films under their own brand name as well as Ilford B&W, Kodak B&W etc. . There's still a section on the photo processing envelope where the operator can place a tick if it's a Boots own brand film...maybe there's a discount? Though as far as I can tell their Boots films disappeared a few years ago - quite possibly when Ferrania shut it's doors.

Down the years Boots had their own line of cameras, cine cameras, and accessories...and all made by reputable OEM's. They did a good line in audio cassettes too (sourced from EMI and later Maxell). Today you can still get Boots branded cosmetics which are highly regarded and a few small appliances such as hair dryers.

I recall reading in the business news that Boots and Walgreens (US based Drug store chain) have combined.

I recall one of my high school teachers showing off some of the film he had shot in a trip back to England, and recall the "Boots" edge printing on what otherwise looked like Ilford B&W film.

cmacd123 said:

I recall reading in the business news that Boots and Walgreens (US based Drug store chain) have combined.

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Not so much "combined" given that Walgreens owns 100% of Boots.