Copied these from my blogs. Interested on comments and thoughts.
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[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]2 weeks ago, The Picture People, a national mall photo chain swept through WNY and shut down all 3 studios. Within 1 week, their NY presence dropped from 17 studios, to 5. The count is now down to 4 and I suspect it to level out at 2 when this blood bath finally ends.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]The company is pretty much refusing to comment whenever anyone contacts them. The studios in WNY are pretty much intact. Company goons smashed the cameras and computers and boxed up the lights and hard drives, but other than that, you would think the staffs have just stepped out for a break.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]This massacre came out of the blue and surprised alot of people. The corporate mouthpieces had been telling the local studios that they were in line for a spring upgrade to digital. That new training and new gear was coming soon. The date though, kept being pushed back.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]The sad end result was a lot of good people got hurt and are still hurting right now.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]The disposition of the studios and their contents are currently tied up in legal limbo as the lawyers for the malls and Picture People do the legal-tango. Customers are left in the lurch as photos are now non-deliverable, who knows where their photos and negatives are and are stuck with now useless club memberships. Picture People's reply to repeated inquiries?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]No Comment[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]If you are reading this and worked for Picture People in WNY, please drop me a line. If you worked at the McKinley Mall store, please, please give me a call, or message me.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]And if you are a customer of Picture People, please do not blame the folks at the mall store. They honestly didn't know the axe was coming. Please aim your ire at Picture People the company. They need to answer to you.
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[/FONT]From 317 stores the beginning of March, the current total is 180. It looks like they are closing the majority of their film locations as it doesn't appear existing digital studios are closing. Employees and customers at some locations were told that their location would not be closed, only to have the axe fall a few days later. Again, the comments from corporate are almost always "no comment".
Good luck on getting through to them. Wait time on the customer support number exceeds an hour (I gave up the 3 times I tried calling), and emails are not being replied to.
====================
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]2 weeks ago, The Picture People, a national mall photo chain swept through WNY and shut down all 3 studios. Within 1 week, their NY presence dropped from 17 studios, to 5. The count is now down to 4 and I suspect it to level out at 2 when this blood bath finally ends.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]The company is pretty much refusing to comment whenever anyone contacts them. The studios in WNY are pretty much intact. Company goons smashed the cameras and computers and boxed up the lights and hard drives, but other than that, you would think the staffs have just stepped out for a break.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]This massacre came out of the blue and surprised alot of people. The corporate mouthpieces had been telling the local studios that they were in line for a spring upgrade to digital. That new training and new gear was coming soon. The date though, kept being pushed back.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]The sad end result was a lot of good people got hurt and are still hurting right now.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]The disposition of the studios and their contents are currently tied up in legal limbo as the lawyers for the malls and Picture People do the legal-tango. Customers are left in the lurch as photos are now non-deliverable, who knows where their photos and negatives are and are stuck with now useless club memberships. Picture People's reply to repeated inquiries?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]No Comment[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]If you are reading this and worked for Picture People in WNY, please drop me a line. If you worked at the McKinley Mall store, please, please give me a call, or message me.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]And if you are a customer of Picture People, please do not blame the folks at the mall store. They honestly didn't know the axe was coming. Please aim your ire at Picture People the company. They need to answer to you.
=======
[/FONT]From 317 stores the beginning of March, the current total is 180. It looks like they are closing the majority of their film locations as it doesn't appear existing digital studios are closing. Employees and customers at some locations were told that their location would not be closed, only to have the axe fall a few days later. Again, the comments from corporate are almost always "no comment".
Good luck on getting through to them. Wait time on the customer support number exceeds an hour (I gave up the 3 times I tried calling), and emails are not being replied to.