News

Digital camera boom boosts business for photo kiosks

December 17, 2003

NEW YORK-Despite booming sales of digital camera and home-office photo-printing equipment, a USA Today report claims that photo developers-who have lost business during the digital revolution-are recapturing some of that business on the printing end.

According to the report, digital camera users trust photo labs and photo-printing kiosks to make prints that are better than those they can make at home. Less technically minded users of digital cameras also don't want to spend the effort required to print photos at home.

"The truth is that the majority of people don't want to come home from vacation and sit at their computers reviewing and printing all those shots," Mark Roth, president of Argraph, a maker of photographic and imaging products, wrote recently in Photo Trade News.

Now drugstores, supermarkets and photo shops are installing new mini-labs and photo kiosks in an attempt to steer customers away from home printing. The Walgreen pharmacy chain is even upgrading equipment that allows consumers to order digital prints via the Internet.

"We don't think consumers are interested in becoming photo-finishers. They want us to take care of that," said Michael Polzin, a spokesman for Walgreen, the No. 2 U.S. photo developer behind Wal-Mart.

One advantage to letting the pros do it is the cost: 24 cents per digital print at the lab, compared with up to 75 cents per print at home. Walgreen even charges 20 cents for 50 or more prints.

Scott Auer, Kodak's director of worldwide kiosk strategy and operations, said his company's kiosk installations at retail photo developers were "growing by the day," with about 25,000 machines in place in the United States.