The Hard Economics Of Film

This post begins with a confession:

I bought Fuji film at a Wal-Mart.*

Of this, I am not proud. Layer upon layer of guilt has been laid upon me with every frame I shoot.

I grew up in Kingsport, Tennessee. The number one economic driver of Kingsport is Eastman Chemical Company. Though a subsidiary of Kodak, "The Eastman," produced chemicals needed in the film development process and was a vital part of the "You press the button, we do the rest" mantra of Kodak. My father's side of the family all worked at Eastman. My grandmother technically retired from Kodak, grand-dad from Eastman Kodak. Dad got his gold watch from Eastman. 

Which is why, standing under the fluorescent lights of a Wal-Mart in Raleigh, clutching a roll of Fuji film, I felt a pang of generational betrayal.

Aerial view of Tennessee Eastman

Posted August 18, 2020

Photographer: Thomas McNeer, Jr.

Date Taken: 1949

Collection(s): Thomas McNeer, Jr. Collection, 1945-1988

ID#: 44-B-49

Rights: Use of this image is governed by U.S. and international copyright laws. Image is property of the Archives of the City of Kingsport. High-resolution versions are available from the Archives in most instances.

Now, a brief economics lesson to explain my pangs of regret. 

Supply and Demand sets the Price of an item. It's one of the basic economic principles, except when price and demand determines the supply, or when supply and prices controls demand....but neither of those exceptions apply here. 

For this case, think about umbrellas on a rainy day. Everyone needs an umbrella, so if you have to buy one (demand), and the store hasn't run out because everyone else needs one too (supply), you'll have to pay more (price). 

Now, let’s rewind to the early 1990s.

A new upstart retail store based in Bentonville, Arkansas is just growing and wanting to increase products on their shelves. Executives from Wal-Mart neighborly approach Kodak (Eastman Kodak had a manufacturing plant in Batesville, Arkansas) with the offer to stock shelves with Kodak film. I wasn't there, but I imagine the Kodak execs jumping up and down. Kodak film, in Wal-Mart stores, meant more Kodak film sold. It also meant more Kodak film developed, and of course more Kodak cameras to shoot this film. That "if it's good for photography, it's good for Kodak" mantra comes through again.

But it didn't.

Wal-Mart wanted to keep the price artificially low. Given that most of Kodak's executives had passed 8th grade economics (and Kodak's budding interest in digital photography), they refused to met the Wal-Mart's demand. 

What, then, does Wal-Mart do? Their best shot at an All-American film on shelves at the headquarters of MADE IN AMERICA declined their offer. 

They struck a deal with the Japanese newcomer, Fuji. Suddenly, across the country—from Kingsport, Tennessee to Longview, Texas to the heart of Kodak- Rochester, NY—Fuji film sat on eye-level shelves while Kodak was pushed to the edges, marked up and left to fade like an overexposed negative.

But, this story doesn't....f-stop.... with Kodak's missed opportunity. Wal-Mart can in 2025, because of the resurgence of film photography, do the same thing to Fuji Films. Right??

Wrong! 

Suddenly, the bastion of MADE IN AMERICA, is letting the laws of supply and demand dictate film prices. That roll of Fuji film, which ran around $2.50 in 1998, cost me $9.50 today. If you watch Nick LoPresti's watch video, you get the idea of just how Wal-Mart has suddenly switched it's tune when it comes to film and film photography.

And I contributed to it. 

I could have gone to Southeastern Camera here in Raleigh, a store that has done nothing be treat me right as I learn this new hobby. I could have waited, supported small business, and walked out with the same roll of Fuji guilt-free...well, a little less guilty. 

But I didn’t. Wal-Mart was closer. And cheaper.

Thus, I am twice guilty: once for buying Fuji, and once for buying it at Wal-Mart. Though this is less about Fuji de-throning Kodak, and more about the means in which an economic behemoth used companies like pawns against each other to ultimately raise prices on a tiny sliver of their bottom line.   

I can, in closing, say that shooting my Wal-Mart bought, Fuji film on my new (and first 35 mm camera) Kodak Automatic 35 does assuage some of my guilt.**

*This has nothing to do with Fuji being produced in Japan, and everything to do with the economic forces as stated. 

**When I get these shots developed at Southeastern, I'll post the best.