Does your area still have any Photo Bugs?

[jmecklenborg]

Here is one being used by a psychic (who oddly has a box truck):


Here is one with outdoor seating:

[Steely Dan]

I had no idea what a "photo bug" was til I saw your first pic

We had tons of those little pyramid-roofed film drop-off/photo pick-up huts all over Chicagoland back in the day, but they were under the brand "Fotomat".

I distinctly remember going with my parents to the one near our house for all of our film development needs back in the '80s.

There might still be a few hanging around repurposed as coffee kiosks and whatnot, but the vast majority went the way of the dodo.

[bilbao58]

Yup. Fotomats were everywhere.

[sopas ej]

Yeah we had Fotomats in my area growing up too. I never heard of Photo Bug.

I never knew anyone who used a Fotomat, either. For my family's film developing needs, we would go to a Thrifty, and then later on Price Club, which became Costco.

As was mentioned, many later became coffee kiosks. I know of one that became a psychic/fortune teller business as well. I think some others I remember, became places to get keys made/copied.

[JManc]

I remember Fox Photo and Fotomat

[craigs]

Yeah, they were called Fotomats in California as well. There are very, very few of them left.

[wwmiv]

Austin has none of these. San Antonio none that I know of.

Oklahoma City has a fair number that are now drive thru coffee kiosks.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by jmecklenborg

I don't recall ever seeing a Photo Bug or Fotomat but this kinda looks like an old Dairy Queen.

[jmecklenborg]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

Yeah we had Fotomats in my area growing up too. I never heard of Photo Bug.

No photos come up of any of these on google. Instead we see matts (for frames) and some type of insect.

I think some others I remember, became places to get keys made/copied.

That made me laugh. I had forgotten about those places!

Originally Posted by iheartthed

I don't recall ever seeing a Photo Bug or Fotomat but this kinda looks like an old Dairy Queen.

That building is brick under the wood. For some reason they felt the need to surround it with a layer of wood sometime after it stopped doing photos.

Also, fun fact...Dairy Queen has been owned by Berkshire-Hathaway since 1997 (roughly the last time I went to one):
https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/news/oct2197.html

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by jmecklenborg

No photos come up of any of these on google.

The classic drive-up Fotomat hut was found in random parking lots around the nation back in the day and featured a bright yellow pyramid roof. At its peak in 1980, Fotomat had over 4,000 locations.

Here's a pic of a Fotomat from West Peabody, MA taken in 1987. The one my family went to in Evanston, IL was essentially identical.


source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fotomat


Photo Bug was apparently a competitor to Fotomat, but was primailry located in Ohio, according to google AI.

I don't recall ever seeing a "Photo Bug" in Chicago when I was a kid.

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by jmecklenborg

No photos come up of any of these on google. Instead we see matts (for frames) and some type of insect.

Here's one:


Judging from the cars, my guess is this was taken in the early to mid-1970s.

I remember as a kid, these always seemed to be in somewhat run-down shopping centers, and often looking very forlorn. And even as a kid, I always felt sorry for the people who worked in them, because they were all by themselves. But I guess that might've been a plus for those Fotomat workers... Although I do remember stories of a serial killer or two who kidnapped and or murdered a Fotomat worker or something in the 1970s, somewhere in California.

[craigs]

Originally Posted by jmecklenborg

No photos come up of any of these on google. Instead we see matts (for frames) and some type of insect.

I found a lot of Fotomat pics on Google. I also found the Wikipedia entry.

[mousquet]

Never saw anything like this. I don't even know what a "film" is, cause everything is digital these days.
It kinda looks like tiny photo booths that you'd still find in subway stations, malls or grocery stores, lol.
Except that they're on parking lots and must do something slightly different.

[Steely Dan]

^ back in the day, cameras had film in them that would record individual shots taken with the camera. That film would have to be developed in a somewhat involved chemical process to turn the images on the film into usable paper photographs. This was typically done at larger photo-processing facilities. These photo huts were convenient places located right in your neighborhood to drop off your film, where it would then be collected and sent to the central processing facility to have it turned into photographs, which would then be sent back to the photo hut where you could pick them up the following day.

In the 1980s, the advent of smaller and faster photo processing equipment that could be located inside of drug stores and supermarkets, many of which promised customers that their film would be developed in just 1 hour, began to render the photo hut business model obsolete.

And whatever rotting carcass of it was left by the 90s was given full annihilation by the dawn of digital cameras.

[bilbao58]

Originally Posted by JManc

I remember Fox Photo and Fotomat

Oh yeah... How could I forget Fox Photo?

[bilbao58]

Originally Posted by mousquet

Never saw anything like this. I don't even know what a "film" is, cause everything is digital these days.
It kinda looks like tiny photo booths that you'd still find in subway stations, malls or grocery stores, lol.
Except that they're on parking lots and must do something slightly different.

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

^ back in the day, cameras had film in them that would record individual shots taken with the camera. That film would have to be developed in a somewhat involved chemical process to turn the images into usable paper photographs. This was typically done at larger photo-processing facilities. These photo huts were convenient places located right in your neighborhood to drop off your film, where it would then be collected and sent to the central processing facility to have it turned into photographs, which would then be sent back to the photo hut where you could pick them up the following day.

What Steely said, only I would add that they had drive-up windows so you didn't even have to get out of your car to drop off your exposed film and later pick up your printed photos.

[plinko]

Fotomat by Michael Stroh, on Flickr

Apparently some of them are now drive-thru ATMs as well! This one is at Broadway and McClintock in Tempe, Arizona and was a Fotomat up until around 1990 IIRC.

[llamaorama]

Not really. Also I don't remember the photo huts. Based on the timeline they would have been headed to extinction when I was a young child, so maybe I saw one and our family went there but I wasn't paying attention I guess.

On the other hand, I do remember "dumpy old shopping center parking lot huts" being a thing until fairly recently. Like maybe up to about 15 years ago you'd see the windmill-shaped ones where you could buy ice or refill water jugs. Or get sno cones or coffee. No more pull-up ATMs either. Those are gone now too.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

^ back in the day, cameras had film in them that would record individual shots taken with the camera. That film would have to be developed in a somewhat involved chemical process to turn the images on the film into usable paper photographs. This was typically done at larger photo-processing facilities. These photo huts were convenient places located right in your neighborhood to drop off your film, where it would then be collected and sent to the central processing facility to have it turned into photographs, which would then be sent back to the photo hut where you could pick them up the following day.

In the 1980s, the advent of smaller and faster photo processing equipment that could be located inside of drug stores and supermarkets, many of which promised customers that their film would be developed in just 1 hour, began to render the photo hut business model obsolete.

And whatever rotting carcass of it was left by the 90s was given full annihilation by the dawn of digital cameras.

Those one-hour deals at the drug stores usually resulted in shittier photos.

[xzmattzx]

I pass this building in the back of a historic shopping plaza several times a month. Could this have been a photo hut? Or is it too big?

I vaguely remember these buildings when I was a little kid, and I think I remember my mom dropping off film one time (but who knows where).

This thread (and others once in a while) remind us that we should take pictures of everyday life. You never know when a way of life or a business will fall by the wayside. Modern things like kids looking down at their phones, someone trying to plug in a phone charger at a restaurant or bar, phone screen replacement stations at a mall, modern-day town centers, Amazon delivery drivers and trucks, last-leg restaurants like Friendly's, and so much more, are things we just overlook as part of life but we will tell younger generations about 30 years from now.