Costco is shuttering all remaining in-store photo departments

Doesn't affect me much, but it's not surprising

 

Costco is shuttering all remaining in-store photo departments in Canada, US by February 14

We were talking recently at our home about the lost practice of photo printing. We continue to produce more photos and various kinds of digital images than ever before, but as far as we remember there hasn't been a photo printed here for over a year despite some nice equipment and supplies being available. No one wants them, or really knows what to do with them. This came up because I have a cabinet full of paper stock and associated items, and we were deciding where it should be stored next. The last batch of photos printed at a service center (I think it was likely a now non-existent camera store in Fairfax, Virginia) was in 2007, so we certainly haven't helped the industry.

That happened here over two years ago.

 

There's always Dwayne's, but it isn't nearly as nice as going down to the local camera store and gabbing while they do your negatives

Costco labs were capable of good output once their printer profiles were circulated.They did crush many a custom lab that once lived off far-pricier colour enlargements. Just another chunk of old school imaging gone missing.

Thats a shame. The cell phone will kill the camera industry next.

"The cell phone will kill the camera industry next"

 

It has certainly killed the small sensor compact camera market already. Frankly for most casual photo takers (not Photo.net users), a current generation smart phone camera is more than adequate.

"The cell phone will kill the camera industry next"

 

It has certainly killed the small sensor compact camera market already. Frankly for most casual photo takers (not Photo.net users), a current generation smart phone camera is more than adequate.

 

I've begun to consider the phone/imaging device (perhaps better described as the imaging/text/sometimes phone device) as the device that highlights and creates the separations from those of us who still carry a "camera" as the last true photographers. We are again nerds with a hobby/fetish as we used to be back in the last century. One of the things I observed at race tracks a decade ago was the sheer number of DSLRs in use - it was really stunning. Today meeting someone with a "big camera" with a bag of lenses is one of those quick nods "how ya doing" moments. There are lots and lots of images shot at these events, and yet those posted in the online racing forums are almost exclusively from those big cameras. Film vs digital is not the discussion now. Film is an art form that a few practice and the world is better for their work.

 

Anyway, that's clearly a tangent from the OP subject. Back to the discussion at hand - as you were.

I always ensure that we have an enlarge family portrait (A3+ or bigger) at least every year. 50 Years from now your great grand children would have a hard time having a decent picture of you and your family. :) I still enjoy looking at my kids when they were small from our family albums. :)

My print odyssey began at the corner drug store with 127 Verichrome Pan, in the fifties. A B&W darkroom and one-hour film labs for color took me all the way to 2003. Then it was (expensive) home inkjet printing until the discovery of Costco printing, in 2012 - I was enthralled with what they did locally, simply, quickly and cheaply. I'm going to really miss them.

Between Walgreens and Target, there is not a shortage of in-store photo printing.

 

It seems that some of the time Costco had lower prices than many others.

Walgreens has sales often enough.

 

Then there are some large mail-order places that can produce small and large prints

for fairly reasonable prices from digital images, including previously scanned film.

 

I am not sure now when Costco stopped doing film, though.