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Who needs to print photos? Well, there is still some customer demand: photo services bring traffic to these retail stores, especially during the holidays, graduations and wedding seasons.
More than 50% of photo prints made this year came from retail stores, totaling $786 million in sales, said David Hauter, a longtime photo industry analyst and founder of consulting and market research firm Rise Above Research.
This year, 4.2 billion 4″ x 6″ prints will be produced in stores alone, he said.
“People aren’t printing as much as they used to, but there are still people who like to print,” Hauter says.
Hauter said many consumers like to order photo prints and products at stores like CVS because they get the items right away with no shipping fees. They are often heading to these drug stores to pick up other things as well.
CVS offers photo services in 7,600 stores. “We continue to see high demand for this service – particularly during gift-giving seasons,” the spokesperson said.
More than 8,000 Walgreens stores offer photo services, said Raghu Vallata, Walgreens’ senior director of digital business strategy and planning. “The holidays tend to be a busy time for our photo businesses, with December generally seeing the highest foot traffic,” Valata said.
But in contrast to Walmart, about 3,700 stores have Fujifilm photo kiosks — typically located in the electronics section of the store and often used.
“It’s a service that customers use regularly, including people who don’t have access to a computer to order prints online,” a Walmart spokesperson said. We expect healthy business throughout the year.
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