Do you have a Walgreens in your town?

[Heath]

Here in Australia we have neither Walgreens nor WalMart. But we do have K-Mart and their main competitor is Big-W. IN my town we have numerous places to buy film and get it processed. Big-W is the cheapest and the best place for processing is the local Fuji Image Centre, which has the best Frotier in town, plus the guy behind the controls is good at his job. Best thing is he can develop and print 120 film (yay) but unfortunately there is only one place that sells 120 (a local photographer/camera store), but he has limited stock of Agfa film. Mainly 160 ISO.

Heath

 

[mtokue]

Guys, thanks for the explanation RE Walgrens & Wally World!
I knew about Walmart & K-Mart (Apparently Walmart is trying to open up in Japan)
seem to remember a National Lampoon Film with reference to "WallyWorld"??
Mike.

 

[dmr]

Walgrens........equivalent to a 7-11 or a chemists?
Wally World......I thought that this was a theme park like Disneyland...NO?

Walgreens is a pharmacy chain (chemist), probably the best in the country overall, and usually has a good stock of film at fair prices and, depending on the individual shop, does a so-so to very good one-hour processing. Their film prices, however, are MUCH higher in tourist areas than in residential areas.

Walmart is a HUGE chain department store, for which predatory pricing is an understatement. They are often the lowest in price for film, and the one near me does a quite decent one-hour develop-only and scan to CD.

The name Wally World was for an imaginary theme park in the film National Lampoon Summer Vacation, and was intended to be symbolic of Disneyland. Lots of people refer to Walmart as Wally World.

A competing (and much nicer) chain department store here in the States is Target, and it too has a well-known slang name, "Target'" with the accent, pronounced Tar-ghay as in French. 🙂 They usually are not as low as Wally World for film, and I used to take film there for DO-CD, but they lately have been doing a very nasty job on scans. 🙁

 

[kiev4a]

The trouble with the local Wallmarts (aside from their goal of running all little stores out of business) is if they don't sell a lot of an item, they don't sell it at all. The local store carried a few rolls of Tmax and Tri-X when it first opened. Within a few months the B&W films (other than c-41 process) disappeared. I suspect it was partially because they didn't see much and partially because they couldn't process it in their labs. Wallmat's business model is to control EVERYTHING.

 

[Sonnar Brian]

Skinny,
Thankyou for the tip. I'll have to look for a Walgreens.

 

[chioubaccalovin]

Wally World was the name of the theme park that Clark(Chevy Chase) took his family to in National Lampoon's Vacation. It's was set in California and was kind of a "mock Disneyland".

 

[Roger Hicks]

How could anyone mock Disneyland?

Cheers,

Roger

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

Walmart is kind of like the railroad robber barons of yesteryear here in the U.S.

I take it you don't like their hyperinflated, crappy, tossed-around, second-rate, outlet-priced-at-Rodeo-Drive items?

 

[dmr]

But, their management seems to be on dope and dogfood. 🙂

The only real gripe I have against Wally World lately is how I was treated a while ago when their Nark-O-Matic beeper went off when I (and several others) were walking out. This kid security guard, maybe 18 years old, stopped me and was sure he had busted the grand larcenist of the year. I demonstrated by walking in and out of the Nark-O-Matic that I was not the one who set it off, but he just couldn't get it thru his head that the real perp was already out in the parking lot and long gone.

 

[dmr]

They also can not physically touch you to make the stop.

Oh, he didn't touch me, but he was not exactly courteous either. I also admit that I was not Miss Mary Sunshine about it, since I was running late. He stood in front of me, said "would you come with me" and pointed back in the store. I then said that I was in a hurry, walked back and forth thru the Nark-O-Matic several times and did not set it off. He told me to "wait here" and I just told him that I did not have time, sorry, and left. He didn't pursue anything. I've been back a number of times since and I haven't seen that kid there again.

Oh well. ...

 

[bmattock]

Greyhoundman is correct, to the best of my knowledge. I have been asked to open my bag or display my receipt at Best Buy or CompUSA or so on - I always refuse. Arrest me if you believe I have stolen something. If they lay a hand on me, I'd have a lovely case in court.

If the beeper goes off, I continue walking. That's THEIR problem, not mine. I don't steal - if they think I'm lying, they need to do something about that - but they'd better be really really sure, or I'm gonna own them.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[Solinar]

Back when I was able to grow more hair, I was a teacher in small rural community. The Walmart was where I'd get to meet the parents of troublesome students. I believe at the time it was the only place in the county to buy a roll of 36 exposure Kodak Gold 100.

You could buy film and get it developed at the local Rexall, Super S grocery and believe on other local grocery, but if I remember correctly all three sent their film out of town to be developed.

That was back in the 1980's, when their motto was to "Buy American." Things have definitely changed since then.

Now I live in the center of large city and one by one my local camera shops are giving up the ghost. The big box stores can and do often sell for less than what a small locally owned shop pays their wholesaler. Plus, real estate prices are rising yearly. I currently support my locally owned camera shop while I can, but they are one bad season away from extinction.

I guess when day comes that the big box stores rule and decide that they can sell reboxed "Lucky" film at a huge mark-up, we'll see less and less Kodak or Fuji on the shelves. There is popular C&W tune with title which states, "We just can't make here anymore."