Wallmart and E64T

[Paul L.]

So let me get this straight: You think that Walmart trucks over a load of super8 to Qualex and then Qualex trucks it over to Dwayne's?

Do you realize how inexpensive shipping is for large accounts for corporations such as Kodak? It's not like they are sending them one-by-one in little packets.

[Evan Kubota]

What does Kodak have to do with anything...? As I said, the infrastructure is already in place for the trucks (Wal-Mart has trucks going everywhere, as you would know if you drove on the freeway).

Shipping is inexpensive, but throwing it on the freight truck is cheaper. Someone on this forum tracked it down at some point, AFAIK, and confirmed that it is transported by truck.

[Paul L.]

Why did you mention Qualex?

[Joe Gioielli]

I thought I'd just share my thoughts on the matter in general, as to why I won't just buy a "professional" super8 camera. BTW- nothing to do with not being able to use a light meter :roll:

It isn't worth it. I'm done buying things on ebay (too much hassle) and I don't want to go to a camera store because I don't want to invest any more "real" money into it.

I think that the main "job" of Super8 is teaching new filmmakers what certain film stock will "look like." It will help students to shoot neg stock, transfer to video, output to dvd. That's how the industry more or less works. It makes a lot of sense. It is no longer for home movies, it is not a professional format {Please don't be upset with me on this one, take it up with Kodak. Their words, not mine. }. It is a teaching tool. There is very little use of reveral stocks in professional films. 64t was what the new market (film schools) wanted (a tungston balanced film close to 40 asa that did not require special lab treatment) and that's what they got.

If you can set your feeings aside, it does all make perfect sense. I understand why Kodak did it, I would have done the same thing.

Now, if you have 16mm budget, but perfer Super8, you can buy the non Kodak aftermarket 40asa reversal stocks. Personally. I'm not prepaired to spend $45 USD on what used to cost $20. I'd rather spend a little more and go 16mm. YMMV

That's why I'm not going to spend any more money on Super 8. After I do the "pass the cart" project I'm done with it. I'm not the "market" for it anyway. I'm sure I'm not the only one that feels this way. It has nothing to with not being able to use a lightmeter.

I can still enjoy shooting and projecting Kodak reversal stock with my "Std"8 and (if there is budget) 16mm. These are all manual cameras, and I can shoot what ever is on the market. No worries about who is stuffing what fim inside which cart and how it's notched. I also believe, because there is no cart to bother with, as long as there is 16mm film that can be reperfed, regular 8mm will be around.

It just a matter of finding the format that works for you style of shooting.

Joe

[Joe Gioielli]

Paul, for what ever it's worth, here in Florida, I've seen the whopping big clearplastic zip top bag, loaded with processed film, wih the word "Qualex" on the side.

I also agree that I would expect that Wal-Mart uses their own trucks. Unless you have traveled across America, it is hard to believe just how many Wal-Mart trucks there are on the roads at any given moment.

I also agree that it would be better to just send the 64t to Dwayne's directly. In the email that was posted, it seems pretty clear that there is no Wal Mart shipping.

Thanks
Joe

[CHAS]

"You actually think that a Wal-Mart tractor trailer pulls up at Dwayne's to drop off a few super8 carts? Seriously?"

Technically, it's probably Qualex. They outlab other stuff to Dwayne's also, AFAIK, not just super 8. Do you actually think they send them in little packages by mail? Seriously?

A few months ago I wrote in here about my experiences dealing with Wal-Mart/Qualex. What normally took 1 week took a nerve-wracking 3 and a half weeks -- and while it was "missing" the clueless folks at both Wal-Mart and Qualex "weren't sure" where it was. The issue here wasn't the fact that it took so long but rather the laissez-faire, passive, unconcerned attitude of the Wal-Mart and Qualex operators. No one seemed too concerned about my valuable footage. So, yeah, I can understand why having it sent from the retailer to the middle-man to the final source and back again might upset people. It upset me. I agree with Paul, if you want to make sure your film gets to Dwayne's, spend the extra bucks. I've never had any troubles sending directly to Dwayne's with either USPS or FED EX/ UPS.

[Evan Kubota]

I understand that if anything goes wrong, their lack of service can be annoying. However, UPS in my area is awful, and FedEx is absurdly expensive. Just the shipping one-way for some film would cost more than processing through Wal-Mart. Shipping kills the pricing structure, IMO, and since I've had at least 20 carts processed through Wal-Mart with no problems, I will continue using them as long as I have K40 in my fridge (5-6 carts left...).

Joe is correct about the massive number of trucks. Drive for two hours on any major interstate and you'll see at least a dozen trucks, maybe more. Their supply and logistics infrastructure is larger than any private shipping concern in the continental 48 and possibly larger than USPS.

[Paul L.]

The reason I think that using Walmart is a waste of time (other than the fact that I hate Walmart with a PASSION), is that I would never do anything to jeopardize having my film handled in a professional manner. I want it to go straight to the lab and straight back to me.

I shoot much more 35mm still photography than I do super8, and I agonize every time I send something out to the lab. I had a one-time-only shoot a couple weeks ago, and even thought about hand-delivering the film to NY but ended up settling for Express Mail. I live in Philadelphia and don't trust the labs we have left in this town to handle my film properly.

If you spend a lot of time on something (and we all know how long it can take to shoot 2.5 minutes of super8 film), it is worth your time to ensure that you will get it back. Could you imagine working with a cast and crew for an entire weekend (one shot to get it right) only to have a slip of paper in your Walmart envelope that says, "Sorry, we lost your film, we'll give you some new cartridges as replacements." I think I'd age ten years on the spot if I saw that.

[CHAS]

[quote="Evan Kubota"]since I've had at least 20 carts processed through Wal-Mart with no problems, I will continue using them as long as I have K40 in my fridge (5-6 carts left...).quote]

I had over 50 carts processed by them without fail. And I felt the same way you did until they lost my last 4 carts. If it's 4 carts you desperately need you might have a different point of view.

[Evan Kubota]

"I had over 50 carts processed by them without fail. And I felt the same way you did until they lost my last 4 carts. If it's 4 carts you desperately need you might have a different point of view."

Maybe so, but UPS/USPS/FedEx aren't perfect either, not to mention the (rare) cases where the lab forgets to change their chemistry or scratches your film. The point is that shooting film always involves an element of risk. That risk can be minimized, or not. Realistically, if you send a batch of film by FedEx $20 is not a huge extra fee for 'peace of mind.' Given that my results with Wal-Mart drops have been fine so far, I'd rather save the money, though.

BTW, were you ever able to contact a customer service rep and see what happened to the missing carts? I've read of many cases where it comes back unprocessed, but yours was the only instance on this forum where the film was actually lost.

(Note that the Swiss lab had this happen periodically also)

[Angus]

You know, the wal-mart processing service is not intended for professionals or for "valuable footage". Its for ordinary bozos such as myself.

It's been correclty stated that Kodak feel we are extinct, and the focus of super 8 marketing will be on film schools now. I am told I should feel lucky there is a reversal film at all.

It really wouldn't make sense for wally-world to handle 64T super 8. I know one can argue the effort wouldn't be great...but the fact they were still handling K40 is probably only a historical anomily. Now that stock is gone they're clearly not going to make any effort to arrange 64T processing with Dwaynes....or has anyone considered the possibility that the whole $4.88 thing where *someone* clearly was making a loss has finally caught up with us?

There are surely even more wal-mart trucks per acre of road in the USA than there are Eddie Stobart trucks in England!

[Arislan]

The $4.88 thing might have came from the fact that Walmart thought Super-8 was dead so they never bothered to look into price changes for processing, especially considering they don't stock the stuff.

So I guess it is final, Walmart does not process E64t?

[CHAS]

"I had over 50 carts processed by them without fail. And I felt the same way you did until they lost my last 4 carts. If it's 4 carts you desperately need you might have a different point of view."

Maybe so, but UPS/USPS/FedEx aren't perfect either, not to mention the (rare) cases where the lab forgets to change their chemistry or scratches your film. The point is that shooting film always involves an element of risk. That risk can be minimized, or not. Realistically, if you send a batch of film by FedEx $20 is not a huge extra fee for 'peace of mind.' Given that my results with Wal-Mart drops have been fine so far, I'd rather save the money, though.

BTW, were you ever able to contact a customer service rep and see what happened to the missing carts? I've read of many cases where it comes back unprocessed, but yours was the only instance on this forum where the film was actually lost.

(Note that the Swiss lab had this happen periodically also)

I work at a major university and use FED Ex and UPS every week. In the ten years I've been here I've not had one instance of a package being lost using either of these carriers. Not once -- so we're talking thousands of deliveries.

I'm too lazy to find the post where I described this in detail but yes, I did contact both Wal-Mart and QUALEX and neither of them were helpful in the least. Both of them kept saying, "call back at the end of the week, we should know more then" so they kept me in suspense. Eventually they did find my film but it took almost 3 weeks longer than usual.

I know that labs can screw up your film. That's not my point. If you want to use Wal-Mart go ahead. All I'm saying is that I, personally, would rather not take the risk I went through again, even if it happened only once in 50 times. As I've never once had a problem with UPS/Fed Ex with my films or with any other package in the thousands of times I've utilized these carriers, the odds are in my favor to continue using them.

[tlatosmd]

So I guess it is final, Walmart does not process E64t?

It would be news to me that Walmart or Qualex do process any S8 stock, be it K40 or 64T. They only send your carts to labs that actually are the ones processing them.

That's why I suppose scribbling 'QUALEX' and 'Super8mm movie film' would get your carts to a lab (probably Dwayne's, or maybe even another one for E6 S8 processing) able to process it, the question would be if said lab would be able to tell by themselves which stock and process it is, or if you have to note it in your scribblings as well.