Walmart Photolabs Being Phased Out In USA and Canada?

[apconan]

I really don't see how shoddy workman ship and incompetent workers can help out the film business. They get so many things happening they can't be good at everything . Do you really think that they are concerned about how well your prints turn out or just how much you are willing to spend ? You screw me around once shame on you. Do it twice and shame on me !!!!

Working at a photolab myself, I know the average consumer doesn't care about stuff like damaged negs, or color balance, as long as the prints look half-decent. A lot of them throw out the negs and only keep the prints and CD.

It never ceases to amaze me how many members here can't grasp that the average person doesn't think like them.
"That woman thought my MamSselGraphicBladPusCanKinDorff shot video! What an IDIOT!"

 

[Ric Trexell]

Wal-Mart still does MF and 35mm in Berlin.

Here is Berlin, Wi. the local Wal-Mart does both 35mm and 120, but they send it to Fuji which I think is in Green Bay or Appleton. The last roll of 35mm I had a few weeks ago cost $6.50 and took a week. I can take it to the camera store in Oshkosh and have it done in an hour for the same price. The last MF cost less than 35mm, I think it was only a couple of bucks. I have had some gobs of something on 120 negatives though. The 120 takes two weeks. I plan to start sending my 35mm films to York in Chicago I think it is. Their price is cheaper (a couple dollars I think) and considering the time in the mail, it is just about as long. I guess I will have to start my own darkroom eventually. York doesn't do 120 format. My local grocery store has stopped taking film over a year ago. I don't know about the local drug store or some others but I don't see them advertising it. Ric.

 

[CGW]

Cheap C41 dev/print service has all but vanished from the big box stores around the Toronto area. Costco warehouses apparently dropped c41 service altogether with the refusal to fix a busted Fuji processor at their Brampton location a few months back--one of the last. Frankly, though, the quality was painfully inconsistent over the past few years as film work thinned. Not sure Walmart even bothers hereabouts. My pro lab does superb work but charges a good deal more, so I put most of my $ into 120 processing and prints.

 

[M.A.Longmore]

I really don't see how shoddy workman ship and incompetent workers can help out the film business. They get so many things happening they can't be good at everything . Do you really think that they are concerned about how well your prints turn out or just how much you are willing to spend ? You screw me around once shame on you. Do it twice and shame on me !!!!

You screw me around once, shame on you.
Screw me around twice, I won't get screwed again.

Just Saying ...

 

[nyoung]

From what I can tell from talking to WM people here in south Texas - Austin-San Antonio-Houston - area its a local decision based on volume of film being run. Have heard of no plans to discontinue the Fuji send-out service.

 

[fotch]

From what I can tell from talking to WM people here in south Texas - Austin-San Antonio-Houston - area its a local decision based on volume of film being run. Have heard of no plans to discontinue the Fuji send-out service.

Is this said in regards to in house 1 hour lab or send out Fuji service, or both?

 

[removed account4]

If they are phasing it out it's no big loss in my opinion. The quality was always terrible, bad csutomer service, and quite frankly the prices weren't that great either.

There are tons of good quality labs that you can send your film to if you don't want to do it at home or there isn't a local alternative. The turn around time is quick and the prices can be more than reasonable.

we sent most of our 35mm color out through sams to fuji
first in ct then ny now in sc.
the price was very good, and the service and prints in got
back were as good as the pro labs when i lived in boston.

 

[wblynch]

My complaint about this cycle is that Wal*Mart came into many communities, proceeded to put a lot of Mom and Pop photo processing companies out of business, then turned around and abandoned their own on-site photo processing.

In my sub-metropolitan area there are no Mom and Pop photo processors left.

Why couldn't they leave well enough alone? The damned tyrants!

 

[CGW]

The Mom&Pops weren't uniformly wonderful and it's hard to dispute that the plummeting demand for consumer C41 processing wouldn't have killed 'em anyway--Walmart/Costco notwithstanding. The disappearance of hundreds of minilabs around Toronto was due to digital, not cutthroat price competition--hardly news...

 

[removed account4]

i don't think it is wally's that did it, it is the lack of demand,
no pros left in my region that shoot film, and everyone else just facebooks their snappies.

1 lab in ri is left to process larger than 120 film
but they are trying to sell their building and lab-stuff
after they are gone, game-over.
there are 2 pro labs to do 135 + 120 ( 1hour + round trip )
we are lucky to have 1 mom and pop. she does great work, and it
is less $$ than sending to SC even. i thought send out was a bargain ?

 

[nyoung]

Is this said in regards to in house 1 hour lab or send out Fuji service, or both?

The techs I've talked to say that its only the in-store labs to be phased out.

One photo manager told me that it was also getting hard to hire any one who wanted to work hard enough to learn to operate the system and do all the chemical refreshes and such.

Given that I've had students drop my photo classes when they found they would have to handle the chemicals, that didn't surprise me at all.

 

[BetterSense]

Here in Dallas they all went to send-out only. I haven't had any complaints with their send-out, but I don't use it much anymore.

Our walmart stores back in rural OH are still running tons of film. Every time I go back for holidays I shoot color negative and they are swamped.

 

[Josh Harmon]

The CVS pharmacy's around me still do c-41 although they don't even mention e-6 or slides anywhere. I am fortunate to live within 5 miles or 15 minutes of a pro lab that has excellent quality for c-41, e-6, and even B/W! Although they don't even do hand made color wet prints anymore, their machine is faster and more accurate, but hey its still on Fuji Crystal Archive paper .

-Josh

 

[bblhed]

SCORE! I just found a place that is less than 15 minuets from my home and 5 minuets out of my way on the way home from work that does C-41 120 with next day service! I will still have to sneak into a dark ally some place to do my D-76, but now all my C-41 is covered by someone else. I have a Rite Aid, and a CVS that do a fine job of scratching er, ah, um processing my 35mm film for $2 or $3 a roll respectively for process no cut service. I shoot a lot of 3D so I do not want my film cut, it's easier to pair the images if it isn't cut, so I just get everything that way.

I have to say a jobo is looking better and better every day, I just need to figure out how to easily dispose of the used chemicals, stupid septic system.

 

[nickrapak]

I live in Connecticut and at least my nearest Walmart no longer processes in house, it all goes to Fuji NY. I have tried the Walmart photo finishing of 120 using Fuji NY, and I was not even unimpressed, I was downright angry.

I asked Walmart for "Process and scan to CD, no prints", I got process and print, no CD. I thought of it this way, at least I have my prints low res as they may be, I can still scan them, but then came the next insult as the clerk at the counter tried to charge me for the CD that I ordered but did not receive. It was my first roll of 120 ever, and almost my last, I'm glad it didn't let it get me down.

From what I have been told, Walmart used to do a great job in house, better than a lot of 1 hour places, and other parts of the country report good things about their Fuji processing center, as for me when it comes to Walmart and Fuji processing centers, I might try them again some day, but they will get a roll or two of test film before I trust them with anything I might care about.

Fuji NY actually shut down earlier this year, so now it gets sent god knows where.

 

[bblhed]

Fuji NY actually shut down earlier this year, so now it gets sent god knows where.

It's good to see that the capitalist model that states that if you provide a poor product the market will drive you out is still working. Maybe I will try Walmart again, but the new lab is actually in a better and safer location for me.

 

[apconan]

My complaint about this cycle is that Wal*Mart came into many communities, proceeded to put a lot of Mom and Pop photo processing companies out of business, then turned around and abandoned their own on-site photo processing.

In my sub-metropolitan area there are no Mom and Pop photo processors left.

Why couldn't they leave well enough alone? The damned tyrants!

It's naive to be blaming Wal-Mart for being 'tyrants'. This is what 14 year olds do when they feel they need to develop 'social awareness'. I'm sure you're older than 14, and have had time to make up your own mind instead of believing dumb documentaries and internet crap that makes Wal-Mart out to be the sole reason mom-and-pop shops are dying.

 

[wblynch]

Your love for Wal*Mart doesn't make them less predatory.

 

[apconan]

Your love for Wal*Mart doesn't make them less predatory.

I don't love Wal-mart. It's just simply stupid to target Wal-mart as some evil 'predator'.
Here's something most people learned early on in life:
The nature of capitalism is predatory. So unless you grow your own food, make your own emulsions, coat your own film, etc, etc... your argument doesn't stand for much.

 

[Darkroom317]

It's naive to be blaming Wal-Mart for being 'tyrants'. This is what 14 year olds do when they feel they need to develop 'social awareness'. I'm sure you're older than 14, and have had time to make up your own mind instead of believing dumb documentaries and internet crap that makes Wal-Mart out to be the sole reason mom-and-pop shops are dying.

If you only knew. :rolleyes:

The worst part of all of this is that it reinforces the idea that film is dead among consumers. How can someone buy something they don't know about?

 

[fotch]

It's naive to be blaming Wal-Mart for being 'tyrants'. This is what 14 year olds do when they feel they need to develop 'social awareness'. I'm sure you're older than 14, and have had time to make up your own mind instead of believing dumb documentaries and internet crap that makes Wal-Mart out to be the sole reason mom-and-pop shops are dying.

Its not just Walmart, but many larger big businesses will get free land, free financing, no interest, no-payments for 10 years, maybe no taxes as well.

Any wonder why small existing business close up?

 

[braxus]

My lab I work at still does film, but I expect the lab to close first before we stop doing film. I give it 2 years at worst and 5 years at best.

 

[aloha]

Every Full Size walgreens has a one hour photo in it, with the exception of one roll, everything I have dropped off has come back looking great.