Buyers: simple point-and-shoots grab customers

Drug Store News, Feb 20, 1989

Buyers: Simple point-and-shoots grab customers

Chain drug buyers expect simpler and lower priced point-and-shoot 35 mm cameras to keep their photo and film sales clicking.

With them, merchants have more ammo to convey a strong value statement in photography. Chains have commonly promoted this latest wave of rangefinder cameras with values on film, processing and camera bags. For instant photography fans, buyers use Polaroid's Impulse as the under-$50 price point.

When selling cameras, most drug chains interviewed stay under $100, even on sale.

Walgreen, for example, recently featured a Kodak 35 mm, which sells regularly at $64.99, for $60, offered a $7.99 camera case as a tie-in, and promoting photofinishing in the same ad.

Eckerd featured one of the highest price points in its ad for a Kodak K80 35 mm at $109.99 - and threw in free processing of the first roll of film.

Peoples, foreshadowing the kind of pricing buyers expect will be more evident this year, showcased the Keystone Easy Shot 35 mm, with "fool-proof" film loading, advance and flash, for $20.

At press time, buyers were expecting to see overall lower prices for point-and-shoot cameras at this month's PMA show. They'll provide an entry level to 35 mm photography for customers who are leaving their disc cameras behind. Keystone will still make a disc camera, but buyers expect Kodak's exit to spell the format's end.

"I think you'll see the customer upgrade to 35 mm," Jerry Houghton, photo buyer at Kinney Drug, told Drug Store News, "often at a $29.95 price point."

Consumers have taken to the 35 mm format at Kinney, which sells more than a dozen models of 35 mm cameras from Kodak, Fuji and Ricoh, as well as Keystone and Kodak 110's and disc models. At Kinney, 65 percent of film processed is 35 mm, compared with 35 to 45 percent five years ago, Houghton said.

At Douglas Drug in Rhode Island, photo buyer Paul Chabot also anticipates renewed movement toward 35 mm usage. Douglas this year has emphasized Kodak's blister-packed rangefinder cameras at $39.99 to $49.99. Polaroid Impulse also sold well. The chain rounds out its mix with Ansco and Concord cameras at $19.95 to $29.95.