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No more Frontiers at Dick Smith?

Dick Smith appears to be quitting photo services, with all Frontier labs either already removed or about to be decommissioned.

Dick Smith is not only closing up to 100 outlets, it's also getting out of the on-site photo printing business.

This comes in addition to the closure of up to 100 Dick Smith stores currently underway, and will see the remaining outlets in the chain, for which parent Woolworths Ltd is looking for a buyer, no longer in the photo printing business.

Not all Dick Smith outlets had Frontier labs installed – they were concentrated in the physically larger stores. Snapfish continues to run a Dick Smith-branded website offering online photo services.

The pulling out of photo services has not been announced by Woolworths Ltd head office (Photo Counter is awaiting a response) but reports from retailers, on shoppers’ websites, and calls made to several Dick Smith outlets all point towards confirmation of the withdrawal from the photo business.

The Photo Lab icon has also been removed from the store locator on the DSE website.

‘It’s all over,’ explained one store manager. ‘The labs are coming out of all stores.’

(He advised that the nearby KMart outlet offered a print service.)

At least some stores are or were running sales to clear their remaining paper, chemistry and thermal media, according to a contributor to consumer website Ozbargain:

Some Dick Smith stores have been offering prints at five cent a pop to clear paper and chemistry supplies.

‘DSE are getting rid of their ‘photo labs’. So 6×4-inch photos are on sale for 5 cents until the store’s ink, film etc, runs out. Supposedly…this is across ALL DSE stores, but I can only vouch for the store I was at.’ – The information was attributed to a Dick Smith sales person.  .

It appears that the chain is also exiting from related lines such as albums and frames.

Reports from New Zealand indicate that the same closure of Dick Smith photo labs is occurring over there as well.

NOTE: At time of publication Woolworths corporate affairs office had not responded to our requests for confirmation. We’ll take that as a ‘yes’! 

3 Comments

  1. yvonne yvonne May 17, 2012

    good

    • Keith Shipton Keith Shipton Post author | May 17, 2012

      Very succinct, Yvonne! Can’t help but agree with you.

  2. Phil G Phil G May 18, 2012

    Not been an issue here but the usual lack of service and only hang sell stock has made it a place to avoid anyway.

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