Handing It Over a Counter
The photo counter at a big shop is the easiest place in town to drop off tapes and photographs. It is also, in most cases, not where the work gets done. Worth knowing before you hand over the only copy of something.
The Counter Is a Desk, Not a Workshop
When you leave a box at a retail photo counter, the person taking it is a shop assistant with a form. The work itself goes into a system, and London Drugs' own photo lab terms reserve the right to pass that work to outside suppliers. That is not a scandal, it is how retail works, but it does mean the honest answer to "where will my film be next week" is that nobody at the counter can tell you.
It also means there is nobody in the chain who will look at a particular reel, notice it is shrinking, and ring you about it. Anything that is not a standard job tends to come back undone.
What I do instead is the entire job myself, twenty-five minutes from downtown, and you deal with the person holding your material.
Side by side, honestly
The comparison that matters is not price. It is who ends up holding your material and whether you can reach them.
For everyday printing a retail photo lab beats me comfortably and I do not compete with it. This comparison is only about digitizing originals you cannot replace.
The Difference That Shows Up Later
Somebody watched it
I see what comes off every tape, which is how you get told that reel four is your parents' wedding rather than getting a folder of numbered files.
It never goes in a van
Work handed to a counter is collected, moved and handled by a chain of people. Here it goes into a labelled bin in Colwood and stays there.
Problems get a phone call
If a tape is mouldy or a reel is shrinking, you hear about it while there is still a decision to make, not on a slip when it comes back undone.
When the Counter Is the Right Answer
Convenience is a real thing and I am not going to argue with it. If you are already in the shop every week, your collection is small and ordinary, and you would rather never think about it again, the counter is genuinely easier than booking a time and driving to Colwood.
Prints from digital files, enlargements, passport photos, ordinary reprints: use the shop. That is what a retail lab is good at and I do not do any of it.
Where I would think twice is anything old, fragile, unlabelled or one of a kind. That is the material that needs somebody to actually look at it, and a counter is not built to do that.
Questions People Ask
Does the shop actually send my tapes away?
Their own photo lab terms allow the work to be passed to outside suppliers, so in most cases yes. I would not tell you what any particular store does with any particular order, because I do not know. What I can tell you is that if you ask at the counter and nobody can name where your film will physically be, that is your answer.
You are less convenient. Why bother?
For ordinary reprints, do not bother, go to the shop. The reason to come here is that this material has no second copy. A counter is designed for volume and speed, and the things that go wrong with fifty-year-old film need somebody to stop and look.
Do you print photographs?
No. I digitize originals and hand back files. If you want prints, enlargements or canvases made from those files afterwards, a retail photo lab will do a better job of it than I would and I will happily tell you so.
Ask me what is on it first.
Before you leave a box anywhere, it is worth knowing what is actually in it. Bring it to Colwood and I will go through it with you at no charge.