# Sears/PictureMe Studios Closed, Employees, Customers not notified



## jowensphoto (Apr 5, 2013)

pictureme.com
searsportrait.com

Sears Portrait Studios announces it's closed | News - Home
CPI Corp. in midst of closing some portrait studios : Business

How horrible is that? People have families to feed, customers have photos to pickup (that have been paid for!)... so glad I never worked at one of those!


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## kathyt (Apr 5, 2013)

The article says they can still place and pick up their orders until a certain date. Right?


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## snowbear (Apr 5, 2013)

Sad.  There are still a number of empty store and restaurant spaces around here.

I remember (several years ago) going to a steak house one night.  There was a handwritten piece of paper on the door telling the employees they were out of business, and how they could get their final checks - really?


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## 2WheelPhoto (Apr 5, 2013)

Whats sad is Sears Holding can't run a business any better than Sony Corp has.


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## Majeed Badizadegan (Apr 5, 2013)

I was surprised to hear this news.


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## Tony S (Apr 5, 2013)

They must have sold too many DSLRs to people turning pro and selling on Facebook.  It's not surprising when you would see the ad in the Sunday paper for a package with an 8x10, 4- 5x7, and 16 wallets for 19.95.  Probably why they had a 20 million dollar loss.

Not all is lost for those who had pictures taken there.

"The company also said anyone who has an album or recently had a portrait session can order their products at searsphotos.com thru April 18. "

And Walmart's response... ""CPI informed us of their decision to close their photo studios in Walmart stores. We are currently working to ensure customers receive the orders that they have placed.&#8221;


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## Mully (Apr 5, 2013)

This was the message on their website. 

After many years of providing family portrait photography, we are sad to announce our PictureMe Portrait Studios are now closed. We appreciate your patronage and allowing us to capture your precious memories. If you currently have an album or have had a recent portrait session, you can order products at myonlineportraits.com thru April 18, 2013.If you have had a recent session, your portraits may be available at your local studio.​


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## Derrel (Apr 5, 2013)

Who's got a link to a GOOD version of Queen's song *Another One Bites The Dust*???

And, from Wikipwedia, ""Another One Bites the Dust" was used in a study to train medical professionals to provide the correct number of chest compressions per minute while performing CPR. The song has close to 110 beats per minute, and 100&#8211;120 chest compressions per minute are recommended by the British Heart Foundation,[SUP][20][/SUP] and endorsed by the Resuscitation Council (UK).[SUP][21]"

Yeah...Sears cannot compete with all the MWACs and GWC's and such. 50 photos on a CD for $25-$50 is a powerful substitute for formal family portraiture.[/SUP]


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## 2WheelPhoto (Apr 5, 2013)

Derrel said:


> Who's got a link to a GOOD version of Queen's song *Another One Bites The Dust*???
> 
> And, from Wikipwedia, ""Another One Bites the Dust" was used in a study to train medical professionals to provide the correct number of chest compressions per minute while performing CPR. The song has close to 110 beats per minute, and 100&#8211;120 chest compressions per minute are recommended by the British Heart Foundation,[SUP][20][/SUP] and endorsed by the Resuscitation Council (UK).[SUP][21]"
> 
> Yeah...Sears cannot compete with all the MWACs and GWC's and such. 50 photos on a CD for $25-$50 is a powerful substitute for formal family portraiture.[/SUP]



^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Always read the fine print!


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## vintagesnaps (Apr 5, 2013)

CPI in St. Louis is the company that went out of business abruptly; they were licensed to manage and operate portrait studios in Sears and some WalMart stores.


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## Josh66 (Apr 5, 2013)

snowbear said:


> There was a handwritten piece of paper on the door telling the employees they were out of business, and how they could get their final checks - really?



Yup.  You have to keep living the lie until the last possible second.

I'm sure they were thinking (and might have been right) that if they had told the employees that they were in trouble, everyone would have quit as soon as they could find another job - and then they would definitely be shutting down.  At least by 'living the lie', they could smoke some crack or something and convince themselves that they might turn it all around at the last minute.  This is 'the system', and it can't be changed.

The irony is that it is likely that the only way they could have turned it around is by being open with the employees.


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## 2WheelPhoto (Apr 5, 2013)

vintagesnaps said:


> CPI in St. Louis is the company that went out of business abruptly; they were licensed to manage and operate portrait studios in Sears and some WalMart stores.



Can't blame them, Sears Holding and JC Pennys have been unable to attract folks to thweir sales flors


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## Ysarex (Apr 5, 2013)

vintagesnaps said:


> CPI in St. Louis is the company that went out of business abruptly; they were licensed to manage and operate portrait studios in Sears and some WalMart stores.



Yep, it's pretty big news here in StL. I did some consulting work for those folks back when they first faced switching from film to digital. They handled that transition well enough but they couldn't handle the progressive disappearance of the hard copy print. It's the physical media change that did them in. More and more people are happy enough just sharing photos of the family and kids straight from their galaxy-android-iphone-whatever it's called device. CPI's money was all weighted toward the print order and they couldn't figure out how to shift that profit source to the images and alternative delivery options.

 Some of my students got the text messages they sent out informing them not to show up for work. H*ll of a crummy way to deliver a pink slip. They had just recently told all their employees to deliver a good old college try for Easter so the shut down was abrupt and jarring.

Joe


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## imagemaker46 (Apr 8, 2013)

Digital kills another one.  It's tough everywhere, and only going to get worse.  Newspapers are dropping their staff photographers as well, this has been going on for years now.  The new reality of digital.   It's a sad point when the low end studios are closing up, these are places where some people pick up portrait/business skills before jumping into running their own studios.  It's like playing on the farm team until they get enough game experience to move up to the pros.


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## IByte (Apr 8, 2013)

jowensphoto said:


> pictureme.com
> searsportrait.com
> 
> Sears Portrait Studios announces it's closed | News - Home
> ...



Another reason why full auto or program mode doesn't work.


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## texkam (Apr 8, 2013)

Wallets = Facebook


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## texkam (Apr 8, 2013)

> And, from Wikipwedia, ""Another One Bites the Dust" was used in a study to train medical professionals to provide the correct number of chest compressions per minute while performing CPR. The song has close to 110 beats per minute, and 100120 chest compressions per minute are recommended by the British Heart Foundation,[20] and endorsed by the Resuscitation Council (UK).[21]"


Yes, this is true, as they taught it this way at my re-certification, however when I recently had to put it to use I fell back on the popular "Stayin' Alive" by the BeeGees which is the one they used in my initial training, and BTW I can tell you from experience, either one works!


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## pixmedic (Apr 8, 2013)

texkam said:


> > And, from Wikipwedia, ""Another One Bites the Dust" was used in a study to train medical professionals to provide the correct number of chest compressions per minute while performing CPR. The song has close to 110 beats per minute, and 100&#8211;120 chest compressions per minute are recommended by the British Heart Foundation,[20] and endorsed by the Resuscitation Council (UK).[21]"
> 
> 
> Yes, this is true, as they taught it this way at my re-certification, however when I recently had to put it to use I fell back on the popular "Stayin' Alive" by the BeeGees which is the one they used in my initial training, and BTW I can tell you from experience, either one works!



we learned with the BeeGees as well.  CPR is like sex though. after doing it enough times you just know whats hard enough, fast enough, and deep enough to get the job done right.


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## texkam (Apr 8, 2013)

Yikes! ^


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## pixmedic (Apr 8, 2013)

I have worked for stone shops that we kinda knew weren't really doing that well, but noone knew just how bad until our paychecks were turned down by the bank. 
that's a bad feeling, standing there at the bank with your paycheck earned by two weeks of hard work, and someone telling you there's no money in the account to cash it.


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