Page 6 — THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN, Friday, February 4, 2011
Photo store ending its run in downtown PHOTO from page one
Opened in the 1950s by Edward A. and Bertha Bicknell, Bicknell’s Photo Services was bought out by several employees in 1974, becoming Fotoshops and employing a full-time staff of five. The first in-house development machine arrived in the early 1980’s (previously all film was sent to Kodak) and later that decade, Good’s husband proposed to her on the bench outside the shop. “So this place means a lot to me,” she said. Good bought the store six years ago, but has been forced to steadily lay off staff. Today, she is the only one left. Good has a close relationship with the Mechanics Hall building’s board of directors, but said the building manager is very familiar with her budget problems and is taking a hard line. The building manager, it should be mentioned, is Good. “Basically I’m evicting myself. I told the board I would be the first one to kick myself out, it’s just not good for the building,” said Good. While some might assume that the rise of cheaper, faster, easier digital photography is to blame for the fall of such speciality film camera stores, Good said the recent economic slump has been a much bigger factor. “There is a decline in this industry across the board, but the economy has certainly hurt it much more, much faster,” she said. “I don’t think we’ll see film disappear, in fact, we’ve probably been developing more film in last year than in years prior,” she said. Good credits Fotoshops’ increase in film development to the closure of another area camera store, Ritz Camera, and chain pharmacies decision to slowly phase out film developing in favor of do-it-yourself digital printing kiosks. “We’ve seen a resurgence, but that alone isn’t enough,” she said. “I haven’t raised my prices and in freight alone costs have gone up so
“On Black Friday I did $100 in business. You could have thrown a snowball and not hit anybody, it really is the worst year I’ve ever seen.” — Fotoshops owner Sandra Good
much.” Increased regulations for the transportation of chemicals needed for the developing process has also taken a tole of Good’s bottom line, rules that she said seem at least a little paranoid when talking about the relatively harmless chemicals. “As far as I know you can’t make a bomb out of them, but the rules have become very strict. You can’t get chemicals shipped overnight and the price has doubled because of fuel costs,” said Good. Good said she’s also seen a steady decrease in commercial traffic along Congress Street, a change most noticeable during this year’s holiday shopping season starting on Black Friday. “On Black Friday I did $100 in business. You could have thrown a snowball and not hit anybody, it really is the worst year I’ve ever seen,” she said. “This was also the worst December ever, not just for myself, but many other businesses on Congress and others in my industry,” she said, citing the sales figures from the month before Christmas. “Five years ago, from mid-November to mid-December I did $23,000 in business. This year i did $9,000, that decline has come quite rapidly in the past five years,” she said. Good said she’ll stay open for one last Art Walk, though the monthly stroll never contributed to a big increase in business for Fotoshops. “People are not in a spending frame of mind. It’s a night where they can go out and socialize for absolutely free.” As the mother of a middle class family, Good said she understands how the hard economic times can affect people’s spending habits, and said she can’t really blame them for trimming back on nonessentials. “I hate to We Accept EBT Cards www.freshapproachmarket.com say we’re a luxury item, but with the services we Fresh Boneless Skinless Fresh Jumbo offer, we’re not really a Chicken Breast Party Wings necessity,” she said. $ $ Good said the rise of lb lb online photo-sharing
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sites like Flickr and Facebook have stopped people from seeing photos out to their physical conclusion — no one is going to print out a couple hundred photos of a family vacation when they can be posted free online in minutes. “It’s a very economical and easy way to share things with people,” she said. So Bicknell will start to close up shop over the next week, unless a generous investor shows up to save
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Sandra Good, owner of Fotoshops camera store at 517 Congress Street, made the decision to close one of Portland’s longest-running shops on Thursday amid mounting debt. Here, Good holds a photo of the Mechanics Hall building, home of Fotoshops, taken by Richard D. Bicknell whose family owned the shop in its original incarnation as Bicknell’s. (MATT DODGE PHOTO)
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the business from the brink of bankruptcy, something Good hasn’t ruled out. “I’m still waiting for a Christmas miracle. $125,000 would keep me going,” she said. But shop or no shop, Good said she would like to stay involved in photography in some way or another. “I love what I do, I walk with 20-plus years of camera equipment experience, and to not be able to share that with people will be quite difficult,” she said.
Bath firm wants to run golf course PORTLAND — Bath-based Harris Golf wants to manage operations at Riverside Golf Course, a 27-hole golf course owned by the city, the Portland Press Herald is reporting. Financial terms were not included in an unsolicited proposal sent to city councilors, the paper said. The deal must still be approved by the city council, which won’t act until it sees a detailed business plan from the company, which manages or owns seven golf courses in Maine, the paper said.