Printing at Walmart

[Wags374]

About 5-6 months ago Walmart started hassling me about printing my shots there. Ticked me off so much I haven't so much as set foot in that department. Today after buying groceries I stopped to talk to the portrait studio manager and showed her the shots I took of the kids this week. She wanted to know where they were done I said Costco - she then wanted to know how I got the borders on them and why I printed at Costco. Told her about the problems with Walmart Photo Center (the portrait studio is a seperate business) and she said "you want me to talk to the manager for you?". Well about that time the store manager walked by.... long story short, the photo center manager and asst manager have instructions to print my photos. According to the photo center manager I just have to type something up on letter head (I can make up the letter head) saying that I am the photographer and own the rights to the pictures. Have to bring a copy in every time I order. (before they demanded I bring my SD card to show them the photos on the card!) The store manager is also going to bring it up at corporate that they are losing money to Costco because Costco handles the copyright issue on line with a simple click of a button.

I'm hoping this will work - since its a 31 miles r/t for me to get my prints from Costco and only 6 miles r/t to Walmart. And Walmart quality was fine for getting quick prints for the grandparents.

[NMarti]

Jane
They are so afraid of being sued over copyright infringement that they require it for almost everyone. I had hassles too and haven't been back but it did work out for me as I got new business contacts out of it. The form you have to sign can be downloaded from their website on the photo section.

[LeeOtsubo]

when your photos look "too good". They automatically assume it was taken by a studio and therefore, copyright protected. I get around this by always having the first 2-3 photos look really bad (e.g. red demon eyes, blurred so badly it looks like I have hiccups, blue/orange color cast over everything, etc). They never even bother to look at the rest of the photos. :D

[bwolford]

It's an old and repeated story...

My processing center is at arms length. I upload to a internet site and they send them to my home. I do have to walk to the mailbox, but with physical conditioning I have built the strength to do so. By the way, the cost of postage is about the same cost as gas, less than the cost of my time, and not having to deal with the Wal*Mart police. They come in 3-4 days.

Brice