Tesco on site film processing to end...

RaglanSurf

RaglanSurf

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Just had some test rolls processed at Tescos in Twickenham and couldn't help but notice the rather large Max Spielman banner over the the film counter, got chatting to the operator and he said all Tesco photo departments are being taken over by Spielmans and that all their film processors will be removed from stores. They will still do film but will be sent away with a turn round time of about a week.

Oh, and dev only prices have gone from 99p to £3 :eek:
 
Dang, let's hope Asda don't follow suit..
 
Oh dear...happened to the Tesco at Watford I used to go to (before Asda) about 2-3 years ago. :( Probably a drop in the ocean for Tesco but they lost about £3000 over a year as I used to get the photos done while shopping, now Asda gets my money.
 
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It's disappointing but as a business decision, I can understand it. There might be a small resurgence in film but given that some folk will pay £3 a roll for Agfa Vista on ebay and would never think of looking for it in PoundLand, they probably never considered that their local supermarket could develop it for them.
 
I agree with Brian on this, tesco' have now lost my business. I would always use the 1 hr wait to do my shopping, I'll now be going elsewhere. Even taking account of fuel cost it makes more sense to drive to Asda in Slough and do my shop there if I can get my test rolls dev'd on the cheap.
 
My local Tesco lost their in house machine around a couple of years back & went to mail out which is what stopped me using them. For a short while they used to post them back but then it went to going back to the store to pick them up. They had a good bunch doing the in store D&P & the quality was really good IMO. The local ASDA has always been mail out for processing, as has Morrison's.

I now get my film developed in the local Snappy Snaps franchise. I shot a wedding on film & not wanting to risk Postman Pat losing it took it to them. He is a bit more expensive than Tesco, but he does have a 1 hour option if you can't wait the standard 3 hours & he does a good job. He gets excited when he sees a roll of Kodak Portra. "Where did you get this? You can't get it in shops" It did make me smile.

I still find Tesco handy for prints from Digital. I can upload on their Tesco Photo site & go to store to collect within the hour. Way better than standing in front of one of their horrible touch screen thingies & plugging a memory card in.
 
RaglanSurf said:
I agree with Brian on this, tesco' have now lost my business. I would always use the 1 hr wait to do my shopping, I'll now be going elsewhere. Even taking account of fuel cost it makes more sense to drive to Asda in Slough and do my shop there if I can get my test rolls dev'd on the cheap.
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Had some film done today at Slough,..best to phone them first on 01753 524017 ext 282 as once I went there (about 8 miles by bus) and the m/c had broken down. :eek:
 
excalibur2 said:
Had some film done today at Slough,..best to phone them first on 01753 524017 ext 282 as once I went there (about 8 miles by bus) and the m/c had broken down. :eek:
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Thanks Brian, I'll bear it in mind.
 
Shame but none of the ones near me had their own machine so I've only ever used Asda for quick films.
 
Mine changed to Max Spielmann a few months back but I was assured the prices wouldn't change and they would continue doing film, and they have continued at the same price so far.
 
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Manwithacam said:
Tesco do 1 hour too
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Do you mean they send the negs away then get them back in I hour and still charge for dev and scanned to CD for £3 anytime in the day? I remember about a year ago at Morrison and he said we still dev film but only on a Wednesday.:eek:
 
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Certain stores, if you get the right person you can ask them for higher resolution scans too
 
Manwithacam said:
No they do them in store
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Where are you based Steve? I'd be interested to know whether your local store do keep to Tesco's original pricing structure and whether the film dev'ing on site is maintained, as the guy at the Twickenham store was sure that all machines would be consigned to the scrap heap once the current service agreements ran out and as I posted earlier they've already hiked their prices.
 
I live in Middlesbrough and the Tesco in Coulby Newham is the one I use. To be honest I haven't been in for a few weeks and have 6 or 7 films to take in so I hope not.
 
I've never seen any Vista 400 or any of the 36exp ones. They never have any camera fairs near me either.
 
Popped into Tesco Brooklands today. They have rebranded the photo bit to max speilman also. The chap couldn't find a price but was pretty sure it's 99p for develop only but it was a 7 day turnaround. Forgot to ask about a low res scan.
 
Yeah they have boot sales, most of my cameras were from boot sales, charity shops or second hand and are mentioned in that thread. Tesco scans are usually 1MB by default, the biggest file size I've had being 4MB
 
Manwithacam said:
Yeah they have boot sales, most of my cameras were from boot sales, charity shops or second hand and are mentioned in that thread. Tesco scans are usually 1MB by default, the biggest file size I've had being 4MB
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Well lucky you, anyway I've emailed Tesco to ask what branch in the south develops and scans film. It's just annoying that very large Tesco superstores in driving distances from me have stopped in store film dev.
 
Try Tesco in Addlestone. Used them earlier this year for on site develop and scan. Not bad quality.
 
trevorbray said:
Try Tesco in Addlestone. Used them earlier this year for on site develop and scan. Not bad quality.
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Thanks but that is too far for Nick and me...if Asda Slough after refurbishing their photo dept omit the film gear then all that would be left is Asda North Watford :( If I have to pay £3.50 to have 35mm dev at Snappy Snaps then for the same price would swop to using med format...h'mm I have a stack of 35mm in the freezer :rolleyes:
 
excalibur2 said:
Discrimination against the south....outrageous, and it seems most\all the Vista 400 was oop north as well.
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Well, they don't get much light "oop North" so need the extra sensitivity!!! ;)
 
Checked Tesco today and the prices have gone up. Guess I'll be going to Asda from now on. As long as theirs haven't gone up too. Tesco\Max Spielmann = £3 processing + £1.95 DVD, Asda = £2 processing + £1 DVD so Asda can do two for the price of Tesco's one now.

They had been using Tesco branded envelopes for the films I'd had developed. I noticed today that they had Max Spielmann envelopes. My Tesco changed to Max Spielmann five or six months ago but the prices stayed the same. I wondered if it was while they were using up Tesco's stationery.
 
excalibur2 said:
Well lucky you, anyway I've emailed Tesco to ask what branch in the south develops and scans film. It's just annoying that very large Tesco superstores in driving distances from me have stopped in store film dev.
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H'mm Poundland answered my email under 24 hours and Tesco didn't bother......Poundland is successful and Tesco has problems, sums it up really as even in a small way for my example..... customers are important to any business and if you don't care you loose em.
 
I appreciate that you're an aficionado of supermarket processing, Brian, but I'm not sure your having the odd film developed is either cause or consequence of Tesco over-stating their profits by a quarter of a billion pounds o_O
 
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I was talking to one of the staff in my local Tesco and he thinks they are stopping processing film on site. I asked as they had installed two extra digital kiosks. Maybe they don't realise how many people still use film.
 
Manwithacam said:
I was talking to one of the staff in my local Tesco and he thinks they are stopping processing film on site.
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That's what the guy at my local Tescos said, as their machines start to fail or become uneconomic to repair they will not be replaced and all Tescos will eventually send any film to a central Max Spielman processing lab.
 
RaglanSurf said:
That's what the guy at my local Tescos said, as their machines start to fail or become uneconomic to repair they will not be replaced and all Tescos will eventually send any film to a central Max Spielman processing lab.
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Asda at Slough are back in business....but no telephone line yet which is annoying if the m\c has broken down and it's a wasted journey.
Talk about job's worth types:- About a month ago I asked the operator (to check that they were still doing film)...what was the extension number for the photo dept and she said "she was not allowed to give it over the phone" :rolleyes:
 
excalibur2 said:
Asda at Slough are back in business....but no telephone line yet which is annoying if the m\c has broken down and it's a wasted journey.
Talk about job's worth types:- About a month ago I asked the operator (to check that they were still doing film)...what was the extension number for the photo dept and she said "she was not allowed to give it over the phone" :rolleyes:
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I agree, I went to Asda in Thornaby the other day at 1PM and the bloke at the counter said the machine is being serviced but they are on their lunch. I couldn't get a better idea of a timescale than "maybe 4.30-5.30". I wasn't about to wait that long so mine was a wasted journey. Though I did mention to him that the last four films I brought in all had a dark mark in the same place when scanned, so I asked him to make sure they cleaned the scanner.
 
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