As the nations attention has been focused primarily on the BP oil-spill, Wal-Mart has perched itself to capitalize on selling disposable cameras. Dun, Dun, Dun…Disposable cameras without a developer! That’s right, folks, you heard it here first.
Where does one get their disposable cameras developed? Nowhere. The machines are broken, the 1 hour photo has been put to rest. For many Middle Tennesseans, this is a travesty that can only be linked back to one place. Dun, Dun, Dun…Wally-World. Wal*Mart will accept your disposable cameras, but they direct you to the nearest wast-paper basket, Kerr-Drug will accept your disposable camera – they throw it in the dumpster…you get the point.
WAL-greens will ship your disposable camera to a development site that has been set up in a more central, secret location sponsored by Red Cross – where Peace Corp volunteers spend countless hours developing pictures from millions of disposable cameras.
“Why?” you might ask.
“Everything’s digital now.” says Walgreens employee Sharonda Williams. Sharonda has watched the 1 hour Photo Section of Walgreens turn into an abandoned corner of her workplace over the past 81 days. “It ain’t fair to people,” says Williams. “People need them pictures the same way they’ve always needed pictures, they memories.”
According to Williams, an old SunBeam bread truck stops by her Walgreens every Saturday to pick up sacks full of disposable cameras. “He return them Thursday,” Williams says, turning what once was a 1-Hour Photo opportunity, into 120-Hour commitment.
Why does Wal-Mart continue to sell disposable cameras, without offering a development service? Does a bear fart in the woods when it’s all alone? What came first, the Chicken or the egg? We may never know the answer.
Perhaps the answer lies a little closer to home than one would think. Perhaps it’s American to turn the business of disposable cameras into a run-around, inconvenient part of society. Besides, why buy a disposable when you can just crush, break, pour beer on, drop into the gutter, step on or scuff up a $250+ digital camera. Maybe the Walmarts out there are telling us we need an optimized, zoom-focused lense to really take a picture these days. Ooh – and don’t forget the $800+ laptop you need to look at the photographs.
Just one more way it’s uber expensive to be a liberal. Disposable Camera = not eco-friendly.
Perhaps BP pulled the disposable camera developing sites off the market because they didn’t want people taking pictures under the water! More on this next-time…
Until then, pack your digital.
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