Costco shutting down its entire photo dept

[Vaughn]

Company wide

Our Costco stopped long ago. Don't even do passport photos.

 

[BrianShaw]

Our Costco stopped long ago. Don't even do passport photos.

Yep. The most recent announcement was regarding discontinuance of the Costco ONLINE photo printing services... thus bringing to closure the last of their photo services.

 

[cmacd123]

FWIW, I happend to visit the Costco.ca site today for something else, and they also had a mention of the switch away from there own photocentre.

 

[Agulliver]

Kodak (and all other film manufacturers) know much better than any other the exact film demand: Because they get the exact orders for film in.
Kodak knows exactly how many orders for their films are incoming every months.
And since 2019 these incoming orders are bigger than their production capacity. That is the reason why lots of their film types have permanent shortages.
And that is the reason why Kodak has hired about 300 new employees to increase their production capacity. And said that they will hire more, because the staff-upgrade so far is not enough yet.

Didn't Henning say there's still a backlog of 30 million 35mm C41 Kodak films that Kodak is trying to catch up with.

Thirty million.

But yeah, whatever, nobody is buying film and Costco knows more than the folk who actually manufacture the stuff. Really not sure what some people here are smoking.

 

[BrianShaw]

Didn't Henning say there's still a backlog of 30 million 35mm C41 Kodak films that Kodak is trying to catch up with.

Thirty million.

But yeah, whatever, nobody is buying film and Costco knows more than the folk who actually manufacture the stuff. Really not sure what some people here are smoking.

Perhaps I’m completely missing your point. What does that have to do with Costco? They made a corporate decision to outsource the remaining part of their photofinishing services. So what? What are you smoking; hope it’s a good Cuban.

 

[Duceman]

I too got the email from Costco, reminding me to transfer any photos I may have uploaded to the Costco website, but I haven't used Costco for years, ever since they got rid of the photo printing services in stores. Which is sort of sad, as I had been a regular user of those services. They did a decent job from 4x6" prints to poster-size prints. And they always seemed to be busy when I would stop in to pick up an order. But when they went fully online, even if the shipping was free (at least I recall it being free), for some reason I just quit using their services. I still like the idea of going down to the store to pick up the prints, and ordering them online just didn't have much appeal.

 

[Agulliver]

Perhaps I’m completely missing your point. What does that have to do with Costco? They made a corporate decision to outsource the remaining part of their photofinishing services. So what? What are you smoking; hope it’s a good Cuban.

Another poster has claimed that Costco know the state of the film photography market better than Kodak, and that this announcement means there is no increase in film sales, no level whatsoever of "film revival" and that the sky will fall in.

 

[Henning Serger]

Didn't Henning say there's still a backlog of 30 million 35mm C41 Kodak films that Kodak is trying to catch up with.

Thirty million.

Hello Angus,

to be precise: I have reported here on photrio that in spring 2019 Kodak had a backlog of indeed 30 (!!) million films (I got that information from my Kodak sources).
And Fujifilm also had a backlog of several million films at that time.

The 30 million films backlog at that time significantly surpassed Kodak's p.a. capacity for 35mm film confectioning / converting at that time!! And parallel the demand for film - especially 35mm colour film - increased with rates of 30-40% p.a.
Then a bit later the pandemic happened........with the (for some people surprising) side effect of even more robust increase in film demand. Most probably because people worked in home-office, spent more time on online searching and discovering film photography for themselves.
And demand for home developing also increased significantly in the pandemic time: The equipment and photo chemistry manufacturers all reported that.

So if we put the puzzle-parts together it is quite likely that Kodak even now with running 35mm film confectioning in three shifts per day (24/7) on each day including the whole weekend (24/7) is still working on the backlogs which accumulated during the last 3-4 years.
Severe raw material shortages of course increased the backlog problem as well.
That is the reason why still today certain 35 colour films are either sold out or in very short supply.

For example Kodak Gold 200 and Ultramax 400 have been standard products in each shop of the German drugstore chains (we have several thousands of these shops here in Germany, so you could buy film in Germany in all the years at "every corner of the street" - even very small towns have at least one of these shops, which by the way also offer film developing for C-41, E6 and BW and prints on silver-halide RA-4 photo paper).
But because of the above explained problems since 2019 it has become more and more difficult to buy Kodak amateur colour film in these shops. Of course these huge drugstore chain companies expect continuous supply by their suppliers, and Kodak has not been able to deliver that.

But yeah, whatever, nobody is buying film and Costco knows more than the folk who actually manufacture the stuff. Really not sure what some people here are smoking.

It looks like every community has their own "flat-earther minority group". And the flat-earthers of the film community are the "film is dead" doom and gloom preachers .........duckandhide .
Well, as market research in the photography industry (digital and film) is part of my job, I have the numbers and facts on my desk and can say:
The film revival of the last years is not only very real, it has also been very strong so far.
What the future will bring......we will see.

Best regards,
Henning

 

[Sirius Glass]

Another poster has claimed that Costco know the state of the film photography market better than Kodak, and that this announcement means there is no increase in film sales, no level whatsoever of "film revival" and that the sky will fall in.

Yes, and we will all be killed!

 

[BrianShaw]

Another poster has claimed that Costco know the state of the film photography market better than Kodak, and that this announcement means there is no increase in film sales, no level whatsoever of "film revival" and that the sky will fall in.

Oh, okay. I may have seen that but wouldn’t give that comment even a second thought.

 

[Sharktooth]

Does Costco sell film these days? They used to have Kirkland film back in the day. With all the film shortages, they might have some leverage to get special multi-pack bundles of film from Kodak and Fuji.

Here in Canada, Walmart seems to be the best place to get consumer color film. I haven't been to Costco in a long time, but you'd think this would be right up their alley.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Does Costco sell film these days? They used to have Kirkland film back in the day. With all the film shortages, they might have some leverage to get special multi-pack bundles of film from Kodak and Fuji.

Here in Canada, Walmart seems to be the best place to get consumer color film. I haven't been to Costco in a long time, but you'd think this would be right up their alley.

Costco stopped selling film a long time ago.

 

[ic-racer]

I think Costco make more money selling hotdogs and pizzas

The pizza is pretty good. My wife buys lunch for me when I go shopping with her. The free samples are good too.

 

[MattKing]

At $1.50 Canadian, Costco doesn't make much on the large hot dog and the 20 oz. pop with refill.
But it really does keep customers happy.
Costco in Canada stopped selling film soon after they stopped developing it.
And generally speaking, Costco will only add a product to their line if they can find a supplier who will guarantee availability of a large quantity of it, at a price that permits Costco to sell it lower than most of the competitors. I don't think film is in that position right now.

 

[Sirius Glass]

So are the hot dogs, but I no longer care for their selection of drinks.

 

[Sirius Glass]

At $1.50 Canadian, Costco doesn't make much on the large hot dog and the 20 oz. pop with refill.
But it really does keep customers happy.
Costco in Canada stopped selling film soon after they stopped developing it.
And generally speaking, Costco will only add a product to their line if they can find a supplier who will guarantee availability of a large quantity of it, at a price that permits Costco to sell it lower than most of the competitors. I don't think film is in that position right now.

The hot dogs are a lost leader to bring in people. Probably so is the pizza.

 

[cmacd123]

The hot dogs are a lost leader to bring in people. Probably so is the pizza.

not to mention the rotisserie whole chicken.
but (to try to stay on topic) many moons ago I recall the Kirkland Signature colour film. think it even said Kirkland on the edge printing, and {for it was many moons ago} was apperently made by Agfa.

 

[Cedavis2nd]

Does Costco sell film these days? They used to have Kirkland film back in the day. With all the film shortages, they might have some leverage to get special multi-pack bundles of film from Kodak and Fuji.

Here in Canada, Walmart seems to be the best place to get consumer color film. I haven't been to Costco in a long time, but you'd think this would be right up their alley.

Sharktooth, I'm not seeing film for sale at Walmart here in the Midwest...unless you count Instax as film.

 

[Sharktooth]

Sharktooth, I'm not seeing film for sale at Walmart here in the Midwest...unless you count Instax as film.

I've found it in Walmart stores in southern Ontario fairly regularly since about November. Sometimes it's just Fuji 400, and sometimes just Kodak Gold, but lately I've seen both on the shelves. It's all 3 packs. For Gold it's 24 exposure rolls, while the Fuji is 36 exposure rolls.

 

[Cedavis2nd]

I've found it in Walmart stores in southern Ontario fairly regularly since about November. Sometimes it's just Fuji 400, and sometimes just Kodak Gold, but lately I've seen both on the shelves. It's all 3 packs. For Gold it's 24 exposure rolls, while the Fuji is 36 exposure rolls.

Thanks for this detail. I'll check a few Supercenters. There must be 4 near me in a 30 mile radius.

 

[Sirius Glass]

I've found it in Walmart stores in southern Ontario fairly regularly since about November. Sometimes it's just Fuji 400, and sometimes just Kodak Gold, but lately I've seen both on the shelves. It's all 3 packs. For Gold it's 24 exposure rolls, while the Fuji is 36 exposure rolls.

The closest Walmart is over 40 miles from me and in the past they would throw out the negatives. I would not take a chance on that happening, so I take my film to Samy's Camera.

 

[summicron1]

I've been using Walgreens for printing the last several years...excellent quality.

 

[Agulliver]

From what I understand, Wal-Mart nationally obtained a large quantity of Fuji Superia 400 around September 2022 and distributed it as it saw fit....and the stuff sold out fast. I was in AR/MO in October and managed to obtain a few three packs. Due to my niece working at one of the stores I was able to get a line to the manager who confirmed they'd had "a lot" on the shelves alongside the Instax, and it had gone fast. Whatever was left was what they had. Other stores in the state (AR) were also sold out. One can only hope that Fuji, like Kodak, have been able to ramp up production and will start to fill the gaps ASAP.

Not sure about Canada, that info was regarding Wal-Mart in the US, and a little more specific about AR.

 

[Huss]

Today was the final day to place an order with CostcoPhoto. So I placed an order for three 24x36 metal prints for a gallery. From Costco - $119 each (super quality). Printique? $240 each.

I'm gonna miss Costco.