Wegmans supermarkets to close photo shops. Rats.

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squirrel$$$bandit

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Ah, crap. This is where I get my C41 processing done.

http://www.theithacajournal.com/article/20081004/BUSINESS/310040001/1001/NEWS

Effective Oct. 11, Wegmans Food Markets Inc. will shutter the photo departments at 62 stores, including 13 in the Rochester area, and its central photo lab in Henrietta.

Ithaca's Wegmans will also lose its photo department, Store Manager Gary Woloszyn said.


For most of the stores, that space will be used for additional merchandising, spokeswoman Jo Natale said.


Natale said Wegmans decided to quit offering film processing and digital print and photo product ordering as its digital photo business was not growing quickly enough to offset the loss of business from traditional film sales and processing.
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I'm not sure what to do now. Do all Wal-Marts do film processing, or just some? I may have to go with them from now on. Do they do 120? Or am I going to have to send my stuff away forever now?


Or, alternately, should I learn to do C41 at home?
 
I don't think I've recently seen a Wal-Mart that doesn't have film processing, but I also haven't been to more than the few in my town. None of them do 120 on-site.

Self-souping C41 would be fun, but I can't justify the expense of buying a Jobo and there's no way I'd be able to, holding fixed current pluming circumstances, be able to consistently keep chemicals at the elevated temperatures required. This isn't even mentioning the absolute toxicity of some of the chemicals--my high school photography teacher nearly killed himself in college from the gas produced after pouring two different chemicals in the same refuse tank.
 
Walmarts are systematically changing their processing centers from film to what they are calling "Dry Processing" centers. I.E., no film processing and only digital prints. Already happened to the one here and the store manager tells me that the plan is to replace in all stores all film processing and printing. It will be digital prints from digital files only.

I'll be sending everything off, I guess.
 
There's a place in Rochester I like to send Velvia to...I'll use them. But still...having a muffin and a cup of coffee while waiting for my negs...I will really miss that.
 
indesertum said:
you're from ithaca?
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Yep! Do we know each other?

I actually brought some negs to Ritz Camera, at the mall, yesterday. They're more expensive than Wegmans, but the results were pretty good. No scratches anyway. They don't do 120, but there are going to be a lot of bummed out photo geeks in town who will not be wanting to send their medium-format stuff to Rochester. So maybe they will see a business opportunity.

Oh yeah, evidently our local Wal-Mart doesn't do, and has never done, film processing.
 
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