Tesco competition

[cecilh]

Our small town of 7000 people has a small Tesco and also a similair sized Coop. Tesco is trying to extend and compete with all the small town centre shops with the hope of putting them out of business I assume. Some of you must have had similair experiences. How did it effect you? What is the big Tesco stores doing with our trade at the moment? Thanks Cecil

[NeilT]

Please do not even take me to the damage that a Tesco will do.. They are out for domination... But as I say do not even take me to my view... For help look at -> http://www.tescopoly.org/

[pikestones]

I dont think they will put a photo dept where you are Cecil,The footfall wouldnt give them the returns they look for.

The current plan is to replace the estate of photo me Dks 1500s with HP dry labs -the ML100

http://www.hp.com/united-states/campaigns/rps/index.html#/0/

There are currently 3 on trial,they have 4 kiosks feeding them and a further 2 self serve kiosks with credit card readers for instant 4x6.

They like them as reliability is far higher then the DKS and there is no chemical mixing.

I was told the plan was to have 90 units in the biggest  extra stores,the medium size stores are to lose their photo labs.

Dave

[kioskguy]

This would be good for any minilab nearby that uses a lab or Noritsu/Fuji dry lab system as the quality from HP is still not quite there. Only edge Tesco would have over a minilab is ability for duplex photobooks and cards but the mass merchants rarely make this work for themselves. The staff will always opt for the easy services and shy away from anything too difficult

[marcus]

LIchfield tesco has a bank of kodak kiosks beautifully cased as a single long unit. needless to say theuy have very attractive retail prices etc etc. why wouldnt they do similar anywhere?

[studio237]

Our problem with Tesco is in copying our studio pictures without any care of copyright law.Last week a customer presented me with one of our studio pictures for framing , it had been copied at tesco the customer told me her daughter had made several copies for the family as it was cheaper than us! also last week a school picture by churchbury photographic (one of the largest school photographic companies) was also presented for framing again it was a tesco copy. These are not isolated events,we see it happening all the time .We are collecting our evidence but can we afford to take the to court?

[nash]

studio237 can you not write to the manager at the lab and also cc a copy to head office, as it worked for me when the post office were rejecting all my passport pictures even when they were okay because they wanted the customers to use their post office photo booths.

[studio237]

thanks nash, tried a letter to the lab a year ago with no response but will try again with a copy to head office as well. As for your post office problem we have or are having exactly the same thing happening with our local post office but with the help of PMA and the passport office this seems to be resolving itself

[CerealDave]

Sorry to dredge up an old dead thread, but as someone who works in a Tesco minilab (*ducks to avoid flying objects*) I need to speak on the copyrighting issue:

The problem is that most people don't even know that they don't own the copyright on pictures they have had taken professionally, largely because they can't be bothered to read the smallprint.  They assume that it's "theres", and they can do what they want with it.  I didn't even know this until a few months into the job, when a customer asked me if it would be okay to make copies of some school photos they had.  I rang my Photo Business Manager to ask him about it and he told me everything.  Another curious thing he said was that because we had a disclaimer on the counter and on the kiosk screens stating, among other things, that "orders are accepted on the condition that the customer owns the copyright or has permission from the copyright holder", this makes the customer solely liable for the copyright infringement.  Now I would not be remotely surprised if he was lying out of his back teeth, but this is the kind of thing that Tesco minilab staff are being told.

Along with staff not being fully clued up on copyright law, I have to deal with the aforementioned customers who are also ignorant of it.  I say "I" because my colleagues can't be bothered with the hassle and probably have trouble understanding that all the things they have happily done themselves for years (e.g. taping TV programmes, copying music between formats etc.) are technically illegal.  Customers assume that we spontaneously pull these rules out of our backsides because we take pleasure in making them angry.

They argue that they are able to make their own copies at home, just like they make copies of CDs to put in their iPod etc.  I reply that while that is technically illegal (at least in the UK) the average copyright holder tends to turn a blind eye to home copying for home use.  When someone gets paid to create to create that copy however, there is trouble.  I'm not even sure how correct I am in saying that.  Music companies certainly don't seem to mind copying between formats as long as no sharing or selling is involved.  I don't know how pro-photographers feel when it's their photos.

Along with that the customers argue that they aren't planning on selling them on to anyone and everyone, to which I must refer to the previous point about being paid to create the copy.

They say that they paid to have these done, they wonder why they can't copy a picture of themselves and/or their family ("...BUT THAT'S MY SON!").  The dreaded "J" word has cropped up once (the one that appears in all those articles in right wing newspapers about seemingly bizarre health and safety laws etc. which are rarely if ever entirely truthful), and most customers secretly think it when they have these arguments with me.

Something else that muddies the waters a bit is that, based on a couple of things I read about glamour modelling, I'm sure some photographers do hand over or waive the copyright on their photos, depending on the deal that is made with the customer.  A lot of customers who say that the photographer waived the copyright are either lying or they assume that they can be trusted on sight and not have to present some sort of proof of this deal.

I've had a few customers come in with professional photos taken in the 1960s and 70s.  They tend to assume that if enough time passes nobody will give a toss if a copyrighted photo is copied.  Then there are photos taken by theme parks of the people on the rides, as well as pictures taken by cruise ship photographers.  I don't even know about the legality of copying those.

And on top of the lab assistants not knowing copyright law, the managers in the stores are themselves clueless about copyright law.  The Photo Business Manager I mentioned in the beginning is responsible for a number of Tesco minilabs in a certain area.  He visits us about once a month.  I am pretty certain he and everyone else at Tesco that specifically head photo processing know all about copyright law but are happy to run roughshod over it to make money.  The managers who work in the stores every day however know just as little as the customers do, and will just order us to print them anyway.  Trying to tell them that it's illegal just goes over their heads.

I don't know what can be done about it but a letter to head office would most likely be ignored.

[nwj]

hiya

how about a letter to the RPS or BIPP MPA etc?

[nwj]

hiya reading your post again then it is the person copying and also the person asking for the copy that is creating the infringement and liable to be in trouble. It is possible to try and reduce the problem by having a statement poster displayed. Copyright infringement includes transfer of media ie photo into digital image. technically; written permission is required before an image is duplicated. we get all sorts stickers removed parcel tape on photos, small images on usb sticks that have been taken by a friend. They just donot realise that it is the image has been created and the customer has really only purchased a licensed copy of the image and that they do not own the image.

[QUICKPICS112]

To get back to the original point: depending on the size of the store size a photo point is most likeky to appear. Tesco are quite happy to put you out of business and many in our industry are helping them by subsitising equipment cost (Photo-me, fuji to name two). Your customers appreciate your level of service but will not pay 1p extra for it. So you and your fellow traders must fight it. Stop trading with the companies who supply them is one way.

As for copyright issues, the laws in this country are simply medevil and need to change, only clearly marked copyright images are a problem, images which you know are professionaly taken but are not marked are not a problem to copy. My view always has been if the greedy photographers charge too much for extras (£25.00 for 10x8) thats thier fault. You pay a bricklayer to lay bricks once not every time you use your house.