'What would have been a 10 minute drive... ended up being a 4 day wait': One-hour-photo employee tells customer their photos are at another store, customer insists they're at the location 'on her way to work'

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Oct 17, 2023 11:00 AM EDT

Getting your prized photos printed out used to be a common occurance back in the day. Before cell phones, you'd snap photos on your camera, then take the film to get developed at a grocery store or pharmacy. Some places advertised one-hour photos, so your parents might take you grocery shopping and swing back around to collect photos at the end of the trip. Then, they'd have some great pics of the kids to show off, or have a cherished group photo to put in a nice frame. 

Based off these nice childhood memories and a short-lived scrapbooking phase, I actually tried to develop some photos IRL in 2019. I went to a store that advertised this service, and asked if I could get some photos printed. The employees stared at me like I had two heads. I guess people get photos printed so infrequently nowadays that they weren't sure of the correct process. One employee had me fill out two paper forms. I asked when I could pick the pictures up, and she had no idea. "We'll call you when they're printed," she said. Since they had their printers in the store, I figured it would take a day or two. It took three weeks! And that's what I get for trying to utilize antiquated technology. 

Check out this employee's intriguing story. While we're being nostalgic, here's a great story from a movie rental store (remember those?!)

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  • 01
    Hand - 克 四米小
    via Lisanto 李奕良 on Unsplash
  • 02
    Font - One Hour Photo (even if it takes four days) S spoiler Oc In the early 2000s when disposable cameras were all the rage and cell phones were mostly used for playing a game called Snake and making actual phone calls, I worked the service desk at my local grocery store.
    via u/coloscotto
  • 03
    Font - At said grocery store we offered one hour photo service. Customers would drop off their cameras or film canisters. We would process the film using a big machine full of chemicals. Then we would run that film through another big machine that printed actual photographs on
    via u/coloscotto
  • 04
    Font - actual paper. The process took about 15-20 minutes, most of which was spent waiting for the film to process. We charged a premium for one hour photo vs. 2 day pick up even though there was no difference in the time we took.
    via u/coloscotto
  • 05
    Font - A customer called asking to pick up pictures she dropped off at the other store across town about an hour before. I calmly explained that her photographs could not be retrieved at this location, since they are physically located in a store 3 miles away. She loudly insisted
    via u/coloscotto
  • 06
    Font - she could because our store was on her way to work. She was paying for one hour service so she was going to get it. Tired of the stupidity, I got her phone number and said I would take care of it. My first instinct was to drop it, then a light bulb went off!
    via u/coloscotto
  • 07
    Font - My plan was simple: drag this out one as long as possible. I called the other location to have them send the pictures through inter-store mail. It was a Monday and the photos went out on the next dry truck (Tuesday), to the warehouse to be sorted (Wednesday), sent on our next dry truck (Friday).
    via u/coloscotto
  • 08
    Font - What would have been a 10 minute drive to pick up the pictures ended up being a 4 day wait. And of course I charged her the one hour price plus a service fee for re-delivery.
    via u/coloscotto
  • 09
    Font - DeathKringle It's amazing how many brains break and screech to a halt when you say No and not happening. :) or a flat no. Lol
    via u/DeathKringle
  • 10
    Font - Ranos131 It still astounds me when people think that just because they did something at one place that it means they did it at all places. 77 coloscotto OP Reply Share We're over here with linear time and three dimensional space while they're out there living like it's Interstellar.
    via u/Ranos131
  • 11
    Font - DoubleDareFan I guess I'll call it "Bank branch mentality" (BBM). When you deposit money at any bank branch, you can withdraw it at any other bank branch. Those with BBM do not realize most businesses do not, and cannot, work like banks.
    via u/DoubleDareFan
  • 12
    Gesture - SpeakerForTheDeadJD This sparks joy.
    via u/SpeakerForTheDeadJD
  • 13
    Font - boho_carrot I'm only now realising that photo developing was don't by machines. I just always blindly assumed it was hand developed by a man in a dark room. TIL.
    via u/boho_carrot
  • 14
    Font - coloscotto OP That was a thing too! (It still is actually as an art form). My high school had a dark room where we could develop black and white photos for the newspaper and yearbook. Fun fact: the lights are only off for removing the film from the canister and applying chemicals to it. The machine does that automatically replacing the need for a person to do it in a dark room.
    via u/coloscotto
  • 15
    Font - uptooolate I also worked at a grocery store customer service desk that included photos, it was a pretty fun job at the time. We all jockeyed to be on photos because it meant we were t ed up and couldn't help customers. And I saw some wild things in those photos. People really didn't think about the fact that someone else would see these photos before they picked them up!
    via u/uptooolate

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karens cash register pictures retail shopping retail worker demanding photos working cashier Photo workplace karen shoppers malicious compliance malicious-compliance-reddit
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