My Walgreens stopped developing

[goamules]

Not that they did a grand job, and the price of developing a roll has gone from $7 in 2008 through $13 the last time I used them, but they were right down the street. Walked in tonight with a roll I'd be a "big spender" on, and their photo section had been dismantled. Always had a lot of film packs waiting pickup too....

 

[Livesteamer]

I'm told ours is about to. They will switch to a service where your film is sent out and all you get back is a CD and prints. No negatives. Are they keeping the negatives for silver recovery? Joe

 

[goamules]

Hey, I'm from Winston-Salem too! (I think we've spoken before, I'm bad at names/handles) So when I go back to see my mom, no dev there either I guess. I'll just send everything out to Duane's and learn to wait.

 

[ajb7661]

That stinks, but we have a "Jen-you-wine" photo lab here in town, so I'm a bit spoiled!

 

[zuiko85]

No c-41 here in the capital of Washington state.

I keep promising myself to order a Tetenal kit but ain't got a round tuit. So there you are.

 

[TXForester]

I'm told ours is about to. They will switch to a service where your film is sent out and all you get back is a CD and prints. No negatives. Are they keeping the negatives for silver recovery? Joe

I won't do that. What if the negs are good, but the scans are low end and done completely by a machine? You can't have them redone or do them again yourself for better results.

 

[Takkun]

May not be any down in Oly, but up here the two ones near me (Columbia city, rainier beach) are showing no signs of stopping, and every location of our local bartells chain does in house.
They're always nice too; "these are so great! You must be a professional" is something I hear a lot...

 

[3rdtrick]

Our Happy Harry's (now Walgreens) has also done away with the center photo section and wet lab. They did however replace it with an array of DNP dye sub printers that can be accessed directly through the kiosk. They often have sales on the different size prints and I try to get in on the $2 8x10 days. Except for Polaroid, I am shooting mostly digital so this works for me.
Pete

 

[68degrees]

My local CVS pharmacy stopped doing c41. I thought all was lost and I checked at another in my town and they still have the lab going. They warned that after the 1st of the year the lease with Kodak (who they said was going out of busiiness) is over and they are going to pull their machines out. Ill have to do it myself I guess or do more b&w.

 

[lynnb]

Most drugstores in Australia used to be agents for Kodak photofinishing services (and occasionally, Agfa and Perutz) but it's now very rare for them to act as photofinishing agents - it's been many years since I've noticed one that does. The equivalent here is probably K-Mart and Big W department stores which usually have a Fuji or Kodak minilab on site; as well as some camera stores.

But this past week I took some C-41 to my local Big W and found they have changed their on-site printing services to a Fuji dry process; and all film is now sent by satchel somewhere else to be developed.

There's two camera stores that still do C-41 on site, but I do wonder how much longer that will last.

 

[Livesteamer]

Our Walgreens uses a Fuji minilab and the person I know there implied it was Fuji who wanted to do away with the wet lab. If I can't get my negatives back Ill not go there. I'm told there is still one CVS in town that does film. Joe

 

[grantb]

No c-41 here in the capital of Washington state.

When did that happen? I got some done at the Walgreens on Cooper Point not too long ago.

 

[goamules]

I'm in a suburb of Tucson, AZ, and the Walgreens that just stopped wet developing usually had packs of developed prints in every alphabetical tray, waiting pickup. They "showed now signs of stopping" either. One day doing it, a couple weeks later, it's all moved out and a bubblejet kiosk for digital printing is all that remains.

I'm sure there will be a lab or two in every country developing color neg and slide into the future. But it's AMAZING how fast it changes. 15 years ago every drug store and many 1 hour drive up developer stores were in every town in America.

On a related note, I found a Youtube vid of Ron Wood interviewing Paul McCartney. It had a few hundred hits. These used to be the two biggest musicians in the world! Now there is barely a following, about the same as film and RF.

 

[HHPhoto]

The film infrastructure is very different between countries.

Here in Germany (and most other European countries) minilabs have never been installed in supermarkets or drugstore chain shops.
Minilabs have been (and still are used) only by local photo shops.

Drugstore chains have always used the big high volume photofinishing labs. Labs with 300 - 500 employees.
These gigantic labs are developing thousands of rolls of film each day, and make RA-4 silver-halide prints. And deliver RA-4 prints from digital files (as online service).
So you put your film in the envelope in the drugstore chain shop, and about two days (or sometimes a little more like now in fall / winter with less photographic activity) later your developed film (with prints) is back.
Cost for developing and prints are extremely low here in Germany.
All drugstore chains are offering this service (including E6 and BW).

In Germany alone there are at least seven of this high volume mass production labs:
CeWe is operating several, Fuji Eurocolor as well, and OrWoNet, allcop, dplab.
With more than 3500 drugstore chain shops we have "at almost every corner of the street" a possibility to get our slide film, negativ film developed.
And of course the local photo shops offer development and prints (minilab and send out service).
And most of the professional labs offer nationwide (or even international) mail order service.

Cheers, Jan

 

[Range-rover]

I have three CVS's in my area and two no longer process film, I have been told the last
one is staying, there is a Walgreens but I don't know if they still do it??

Range

 

[farlymac]

My nearest CVS still does developing, but I swore I'd never set foot in their store again after getting too many rolls of film wrecked by their incompetence. I switched to a different store that was a few miles distant, and was pleased with the service, but they quit developing at the first of the year.

So if I want to use CVS for a quick test of a camera on the weekend (the lab I normally use is only open Mon-Fri), I have to drive ten miles to get to one that is decent. Still better than waiting a week or two sending it out in the mail.

Many places are dropping photo service because it just doesn't fit in their profit margin guides. You can thank all the corporate raiders for that philosophy.

PF

 

[68degrees]

The film infrastructure is very different between countries.

Here in Germany (and most other European countries) minilabs have never been installed in supermarkets or drugstore chain shops.
Minilabs have been (and still are used) only by local photo shops.

Drugstore chains have always used the big high volume photofinishing labs. Labs with 300 - 500 employees.
These gigantic labs are developing thousands of rolls of film each day, and make RA-4 silver-halide prints. And deliver RA-4 prints from digital files (as online service).
So you put your film in the envelope in the drugstore chain shop, and about two days (or sometimes a little more like now in fall / winter with less photographic activity) later your developed film (with prints) is back.
Cost for developing and prints are extremely low here in Germany.
All drugstore chains are offering this service (including E6 and BW).

In Germany alone there are at least seven of this high volume mass production labs:
CeWe is operating several, Fuji Eurocolor as well, and OrWoNet, allcop, dplab.
With more than 3500 drugstore chain shops we have "at almost every corner of the street" a possibility to get our slide film, negativ film developed.
And of course the local photo shops offer development and prints (minilab and send out service).
And most of the professional labs offer nationwide (or even international) mail order service.

Cheers, Jan

that settles it. I'm moving to Germany.

 

[KoNickon]

The Walgreens in my neighborhood still does developing, and does a decent job. But lately their Fuji Frontier equipment has been out of commission a fair amount. I'm concerned that once that equipment can't be repaired anymore, they will no longer offer the service. I have a CVS nearby too that I've never used, but they still offer onsite developing and printing, as far as I can tell.

 

[farlymac]

Lot of nice folks over there. But the winters are much different than Florida's.

PF

 

[Photo_Smith]

Our Walgreens uses a Fuji minilab and the person I know there implied it was Fuji who wanted to do away with the wet lab.

This is what I've been told. A last year i went to get a few rolls of Ektar processed at a lab owned by an old friend "we can't do C41 anymore" he replied.
I was dumbstruck, here was a committed film guy (owns a tele Rollei) not offering D&P anymore.

It seems when he had to upgrade his minilab Fuji UK told him they'd sell him a film processor but no service contract, in other words it goes wrong and you're on your own.

He is now using a drylab.

For film the outlook isn't very bright use it while you can, either that or we'll all have to go and live in Germany 🙂