# Industry News: Costco is closing all of their in-store photo centers on February 14, 2021



## Canon Rumors Guy (Jan 13, 2021)

> Costco announced today that they are closing all of their in-store photo centers on February 14, 2021. You will still be able to order photo services via the CostcoPhotoCenter web site.
> The following was sent to Costco members today.
> We are writing to inform you about the upcoming closure of the photo department at all Costco locations on Sunday, February 14, 2021.
> Since the introduction of camera phones and social media, the need for printing photos has steeply declined, even though the number of pictures taken continues to grow. After careful consideration, we have determined the continued decline of prints no longer requires on-site photo printing.
> Digital technologies allow consumers to do more with their photos, including the ability to personalize canvas, metal & acrylic prints, or create photo books, stationery, calendars and other gifts. We will continue to ship these high-quality products and prints to your home or business...



Continue reading...


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## marathonman (Jan 13, 2021)

Valentine's Day is *******!


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## slclick (Jan 13, 2021)

I used to love getting my C-41 rolls negged for me @ 99 cents at Costco. Sad.


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## josephandrews222 (Jan 13, 2021)

...how long before Walmart does the same. Their Fujifilm machines, when properly maintained (as it is in my hometown) print *WONDERFUL *4x6s.


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## ISO64 (Jan 14, 2021)

What a loss! Printed so many of my travel photos there. Extraordinary consistency in quality and always followed "No corrections" instructions.


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## dolina (Jan 14, 2021)

When social networks loses people's photos everyone will regret not having a print!


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## usern4cr (Jan 14, 2021)

I'll be sad to see these photo centers go. But as long as they keep their main online photo center open I'll be happy. I've printed over a dozen 12"x12" lay-flat photobooks from it, and have been very happy for the great (maybe not topmost) quality and least expensive prices of any photobook sites I know. I'm glad it's still around and with very affordable shipping to your door prices.


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## Tangent (Jan 14, 2021)

The Valentine's Day Photo Massacre


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## c.d.embrey (Jan 14, 2021)

One step closer to ILCs going the way of the buggy whip. Times change and tastes change. Your grandchildern don't need shoeboxes full of 4x6 prints—they carry around thousands of photos on their phones.

How long until Costco closes it's Tire departments. With te rise of Uber/Lyft many people have stopped owning cars, therefore no need for replacement tire purchases.

Progress marches on!


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## Jester74 (Jan 14, 2021)

Ken will be sad.


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## Antono Refa (Jan 14, 2021)

dolina said:


> When social networks loses people's photos everyone will regret not having a print!



People don't have backups, not even a copy of their smartphone / PC?


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## slclick (Jan 14, 2021)

Antono Refa said:


> People don't have backups, not even a copy of their smartphone / PC?


For every tech savvy person I bet there is >1000 who have no clue. Plus, when you need to prioritize your budget due tp the economy, covid, etc these days, an iCloud or whatever backup plan might be on the short list of things to go.


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## Antono Refa (Jan 14, 2021)

slclick said:


> Plus, when you need to prioritize your budget due to the economy, covid, etc these days, an iCloud or whatever backup plan might be on the short list of things to go.



If the 15GB Google gives for free aren't enough, $20/mo will get you 1TB + Photoshop from Adobe. How many people have more than that without a paying job?


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## slclick (Jan 14, 2021)

Antono Refa said:


> If the 15GB Google gives for free aren't enough, $20/mo will get you 1TB + Photoshop from Adobe. How many people have more than that without a paying job?


It's more about not knowing, not caring, not understanding, not being informed -properly or not. We here do not represent the average user. (something that needs to be reinforced time and time again it seems) I've run into this day after day, for years!


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## dolina (Jan 14, 2021)

slclick said:


> For every tech savvy person I bet there is >1000 who have no clue. Plus, when you need to prioritize your budget due tp the economy, covid, etc these days, an iCloud or whatever backup plan might be on the short list of things to go.


Exactly


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## AaronT (Jan 14, 2021)

Antono Refa said:


> If the 15GB Google gives for free aren't enough, $20/mo will get you 1TB + Photoshop from Adobe. How many people have more than that without a paying job?


I have about 3 TB worth of photos. I have been paid a few times but 99.999 % of my photos are unpaid. Some of us just like taking photos for themselves.


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## Antono Refa (Jan 14, 2021)

AaronT said:


> I have about 3 TB worth of photos. I have been paid a few times but 99.999 % of my photos are unpaid. Some of us just like taking photos for themselves.



I didn't intend to imply there aren't any such persons, just that they are a minority. With that much storage, it might make more sense to buy a couple of external HDDs, keep one away from home, and switch them every so often. A friend used to rent a locker in a gym, and kept his backup there.


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## privatebydesign (Jan 14, 2021)

c.d.embrey said:


> One step closer to ILCs going the way of the buggy whip. Times change and tastes change. Your grandchildern don't need shoeboxes full of 4x6 prints—they carry around thousands of photos on their phones.
> 
> How long until Costco closes it's Tire departments. With te rise of Uber/Lyft many people have stopped owning cars, therefore no need for replacement tire purchases.
> 
> Progress marches on!


Er, don’t Uber and Lyft autos need tyres?


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## privatebydesign (Jan 14, 2021)

AaronT said:


> I have about 3 TB worth of photos. I have been paid a few times but 99.999 % of my photos are unpaid. Some of us just like taking photos for themselves.


A 4TB HDD is less than $90, have two and keep one at a friend or relatives house in a little Pelican case then sync and rotate them once a month. Cheap simple robust and doesn’t rely on any firm staying in business.

If somebody wants it I have an old Pelican case I used to do this with but have since moved to a remote NAS setup, just pay the shipping.


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## cayenne (Jan 14, 2021)

c.d.embrey said:


> One step closer to ILCs going the way of the buggy whip. Times change and tastes change. Your grandchildern don't need shoeboxes full of 4x6 prints—they carry around thousands of photos on their phones.
> 
> How long until Costco closes it's Tire departments. With te rise of Uber/Lyft many people have stopped owning cars, therefore no need for replacement tire purchases.
> 
> Progress marches on!




Hm...I don't know anyone that has stopped owning cars. IN fact, everyone I know has MULTIPLE cars in their driveways.

I suppose not having a car might work if you live in a densely packed ultra urban environment stacked like rats on each other, like a NYC type thing.

But for most of the country (US), that's just not the case at all.

Heck, I don't see the demise of gasoline powered ICE vehicles in the US anytime really soon, even with electric vehicles starting to get slightly popular.


I do think it sad about the Costco photo development in store going away. I saw something the other day that I can't remember the exact quote...but something to the effect of "never have so many people taken so many photos that so few will ever see".

Yes, so many are taking pictures, that pretty much just got to the internal memory of the phones.

More and more these days, I'm thinking an image that isn't printed and hanging on a way, is almost a waste.

Is it Friday yet?


cayenne


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## stevelee (Jan 14, 2021)

Years ago when my aunt was visiting from Texas, she and Mother went through hundreds (thousands?) of family pictures and threw most away. The majority of them were of (or at least included) the dog my grandparents had when I was an infant. I don't remember him myself, but of course have heard stories and seen hundreds (thousands?) of pictures. None of my family wanted to store them forever, and we didn't have contact information for his family. 

Somehow, I have inherited the pictures from both sides of my family. I even have the original of my great-grandfather in his Civil War uniform. I and the offspring of a late cousin are his only living descendants. One of the girls might be interested in the antiques from that side of the family, and maybe my friends who get the contents of my house will get her to take the pictures, too. I have scanned a few and printed out or sent JPEGs to cousins, and that really covers all they are interested in. Perhaps my favorite picture is Grandmother (my father's stepmother) on her wedding day surrounded by her new children. Daddy is the little guy about to turn 5 or 6. Uncle Carl looks like an adult.

Whether on paper or digital, photos are really considered disposable for most folks. My cousin who is the only living person who remembers Tippy the Wonderdog has no interest in pictures of him, just her grandson in Seattle, whom she can't visit right now. When people have asked me how much memory to get on their phones, I reply (even when I know), "Do you have grandchildren?"


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## cayenne (Jan 14, 2021)

Antono Refa said:


> If the 15GB Google gives for free aren't enough, $20/mo will get you 1TB + Photoshop from Adobe. How many people have more than that without a paying job?



Not sure I want to store my images with Google and give them free data they'll use to train their AI engines.


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## privatebydesign (Jan 14, 2021)

cayenne said:


> Not sure I want to store my images with Google and give them free data they'll use to train their AI engines.


You can encrypt any file, including image files, before you upload them so no Ai can ‘look’ at anything.


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## dolina (Jan 14, 2021)

AaronT said:


> I have about 3 TB worth of photos. I have been paid a few times but 99.999 % of my photos are unpaid. Some of us just like taking photos for themselves.


People on photo forums are outliers.

There are over 100 million EOS bodies and over 140 million EF lenses

This comes out as for every 1 EOS body there are 1.4 1st party lenses. Assuming 3rd party are 0.6 then it comes out as 1 body per 2 lenses on average.

I would hazard a guess that about 80% of EOS body buyers buy the kits with 1 lens and never add a 2nd lens.


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## slclick (Jan 14, 2021)

privatebydesign said:


> You can encrypt any file, including image files, before you upload them so no Ai can ‘look’ at anything.


Once again a case of a tech savvy person and not the majority. I guess it's up to us to have those teachable moments with them!


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## privatebydesign (Jan 14, 2021)

slclick said:


> Once again a case of a tech savvy person and not the majority. I guess it's up to us to have those teachable moments with them!


We try...


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## EOS 4 Life (Jan 14, 2021)

slclick said:


> For every tech savvy person I bet there is >1000 who have no clue. Plus, when you need to prioritize your budget due tp the economy, covid, etc these days, an iCloud or whatever backup plan might be on the short list of things to go.


The best thing about social media is that the world is your backup.
The cloud is another matter.
Private data lost is gone forever.


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## EOS 4 Life (Jan 14, 2021)

privatebydesign said:


> You can encrypt any file, including image files, before you upload them so no Ai can ‘look’ at anything.


The type of people who encrypt files are not the type of people who upload them to the cloud, especially not with Google.
Google is Big Brother incorperated.


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## SteveC (Jan 14, 2021)

privatebydesign said:


> Er, don’t Uber and Lyft autos need tyres?



But those 'tyres' cost many shekels.


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## SteveC (Jan 14, 2021)

dolina said:


> People on photo forums are outliers.
> 
> There are over 100 million EOS bodies and over 140 million EF lenses
> 
> ...



Even I got off to a better start than that. My first Rebel came with _two_ kit lenses (the 18-55 and the 75-300) because I tacked on the value pack that included that lens and an extra battery. I still have one of those lenses, the other one got stolen with the camera. (Dumbass burglars ignored my 100mm (non L) macro that was worth much more than the camera.)


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## dolina (Jan 14, 2021)

SteveC said:


> Even I got off to a better start than that. My first Rebel came with _two_ kit lenses (the 18-55 and the 75-300) because I tacked on the value pack that included that lens and an extra battery. I still have one of those lenses, the other one got stolen with the camera. (Dumbass burglars ignored my 100mm (non L) macro that was worth much more than the camera.)


Big surprise you're on this photo forum for early adopters then. 

If the perp was any smarter he'd be earning his way to a Rebel rather than stealing one.


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## stevelee (Jan 14, 2021)

SteveC said:


> Even I got off to a better start than that. My first Rebel came with _two_ kit lenses (the 18-55 and the 75-300) because I tacked on the value pack that included that lens and an extra battery. I still have one of those lenses, the other one got stolen with the camera. (Dumbass burglars ignored my 100mm (non L) macro that was worth much more than the camera.)


Same for my first Rebel, which also came with a case in the kit, which you didn’t mention. It was an impulse purchase when I went in to look at washers, dryers, and TVs. It turned out to be an expensive purchase. The body did OK, but higher ISOs were noisy. The 75-300 has a lot of CA. But it could do OK at f/11. I used it for the solar eclipse at that opening and the pictures were good.


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## privatebydesign (Jan 14, 2021)

SteveC said:


> But those 'tyres' cost many shekels.


You can take me out of England, but you can’t take the English out of me! We pay for our tyres in £


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## privatebydesign (Jan 14, 2021)

EOS 4 Life said:


> The type of people who encrypt files are not the type of people who upload them to the cloud, especially not with Google.
> Google is Big Brother incorperated.


And those aren’t the kind of people who are worried about Ai searching through their images. I was specifically replying to a poster that was, so they miss your generalization by one being here and two tech savvy enough to know about the digital conglomerates trolling everything you lend them to monetize. 

But it seems they were not savvy enough to realize their concern is easily overcome.


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## c.d.embrey (Jan 14, 2021)

Antono Refa said:


> People don't have backups, not even a copy of their smartphone / PC?



Over the last serveral years I been deleting my digital files, and running negatives, slides, photo CDs, etc through a shreedder. I've been shooting with ILCs since the 1960s—that's a lot of photos. I don't have many photos that are over several weeks old—I cull my phone and cloud account constantly. When I need a sample of my editorial or advertising work, I have to get it of the internet.

No I don't have backups, or the orignals! That's by design!


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## c.d.embrey (Jan 14, 2021)

privatebydesign said:


> Er, don’t Uber and Lyft autos need tyres?



Not at a volume to be profitable for a mass marketer.


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## privatebydesign (Jan 15, 2021)

c.d.embrey said:


> Not at a volume to be profitable for a mass marketer.


So your point has now changed from one of people are not making trips in their own vehicles they are using ride sharing vehicles instead, which would mean the same mileage is covered ergo similar tyre wear, to there are now fewer trips carried out because people are using ride sharing apps?

I would speculate the popularity of ride sharing and total vehicle mileage covered are not well correlated.


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## c.d.embrey (Jan 15, 2021)

cayenne said:


> Hm...I don't know anyone that has stopped owning cars. IN fact, everyone I know has MULTIPLE cars in their driveways.



I've recently sold my car. I live in coastal Orange County, California. Where even the rats wear either Maui Jim or Oakly sunglasses 




> Heck, I don't see the demise of gasoline powered ICE vehicles in the US anytime really soon, even with electric vehicles starting to get slightly popular.



In Huntington Beach and Newport Beach, California there are more Tesla than Toyota vehicles. BMW i3 and i8 are also common. If you live in Sedalia, KS this is probably not true.

cayenne
[/QUOTE]


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## SteveC (Jan 15, 2021)

dolina said:


> Big surprise you're on this photo forum for early adopters then.
> 
> If the perp was any smarter he'd be earning his way to a Rebel rather than stealing one.



That was quite a number of years ago.

I originally came here to try to get some sense for where Canon was going; I've stuck around because it's educational. I wouldn't claim to be 1/100th of the photographer many people here are.


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## SteveC (Jan 15, 2021)

privatebydesign said:


> You can take me out of England, but you can’t take the English out of me! We pay for our tyres in £
> 
> View attachment 195302



I guess the "Shekel of Tyre" pun got lost in there!


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## c.d.embrey (Jan 15, 2021)

privatebydesign said:


> So your point has now changed from one of people are not making trips in their own vehicles they are using ride sharing vehicles instead, which would mean the same mileage is covered ergo similar tyre wear, to there are now fewer trips carried out because people are using ride sharing apps?
> [/QUOTE}
> 
> I do fewer trips! I used to drive my private car a minimum of 30,000 miles a year in town. Today I use Yellow Cab or Lyft maybe 1,000 miles a year. I have not driven to a movie theater (3 to 5 movies a week) since NetFlix and Amazon Prime arrived on the scene—why would I? The same with shopping, everyting is available online, from alcohol to clothing to food. My Amazon purchases arrive by a USPS mailmen, My Instacart food orders are delivered by a driver who has several stops on his route.
> ...



In my case you would be wrong.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Jan 15, 2021)

I've used them for prints maybe 3 or 4 times in 20 years, I have usually printed my own, but don't even do that any longer. My printer is likely clooged up pretty solid.


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## usern4cr (Jan 15, 2021)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> I've used them for prints maybe 3 or 4 times in 20 years, I have usually printed my own, but don't even do that any longer. My printer is likely clooged up pretty solid.


I know we should try to support local businesses to do printing (if we don't have our own printer). But I have found that Whitewall, in Germany, can make any size prints of the highest quality up to almost the size of a 4'x8' sheet of plywood, and they're surprisingly affordable. I've used them for all my big wall prints and been very happy. As in lenses & bodies, it's good to have choices.


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## cayenne (Jan 15, 2021)

c.d.embrey said:


> I've recently sold my car. I live in coastal Orange County, California. Where even the rats wear either Maui Jim or Oakly sunglasses
> 
> 
> 
> ...


[/QUOTE]

LOL...well, those "kooky" Californians are pretty much the outliers on most any measurable metric....

They're certainly not the litmus test for any normal behaviors or trends across the USA.


cayenne


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## usern4cr (Jan 15, 2021)

LOL...well, those "kooky" Californians are pretty much the outliers on most any measurable metric....

They're certainly not the litmus test for any normal behaviors or trends across the USA.


cayenne
[/QUOTE]
sounds a little political there. If so, it's a shame they're not the "normal" behavior.


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