Dramatic drop in demand for printed pictures closes Leetsdale store
Robert Basl thinks a printed picture is priceless. But it seems society believes otherwise, so after 27 years of processing film and framing photos, Basl will close The Photo Depot in Leetsdale's Quaker Village Shopping Center Feb. 12.
That doesn't mean he's quitting. Just moving -- online. He intends to continue serving his customers at www.photodepot.com and begin delivering completed orders.
The reason is obvious -- people aren't getting their pictures printed, but are opting to store them on their computer or on the Web.
"There was a time in the late '80s and early '90s where we were doing well over 100 rolls of film a day," he said. "Today, right before Christmas, we were lucky if we were doing one or two rolls a day. So, it's a dramatic change.
"When film was in its heyday, people were shooting close to 3 billion images a year. They got them all printed because they were on film.
"Today, there's somewhere between 3 to 4 billion images being shot. But the printing is only about 12 percent."
In a business that began in 1983, offering services such as color film processing and 8-by-10-inch reproductions, Basl said he went from serving mostly amateur photographers then to mostly professional photographers now.
"The really interesting thing about that was, when we started here, our marketing sphere was 4 to 5 miles," he said. "Occasionally, you'd get someone outside of that. This was a destination business. People came here to get their film processed. You didn't have to worry about it going somewhere.
"Where we are today, 27 years later, over half of what we do is shipped out of town. ... Now, we literally ship all over the world. We've had to broaden our skills with shipping and packing and customs."
As digital photography grew in popularity, Basl said his store changed. But it's the digital process that led Basl to his ultimate decision to shut his bricks-and-mortar operation.
"Digital is very nice and very convenient, but there is an inherent danger that we have tried to warn people about many times," he said. "The greatest archive of your photo is a picture. It isn't the negative. It's the picture. The picture can always be reproduced.
"When they're shooting digital, and they don't move them off the camera cards, a couple of things can happen -- they lose the camera card because it's so small, they drop the camera card, and it gets mixed in with their change and it gets short-circuited.
"Once those images are gone, they are gone. The next thing that happens is, if they do copy them over to their computer, they don't back them up to a CD or DVD. They have a computer crash, adios, their pictures are gone.
Basl said he hopes printed photos will regain popularity.
"The only downfall to film is that you had a shoebox full of pictures. And now, in hindsight, I'd rather have a shoebox full of pictures than all the management it takes to digital."
