Employees left jobless and customers let down as Picture People studio chain shuts down without notice

May 24, 2018 by Dunja Djudjic 22 Comments

Without prior notice to either its employees or customers, The Picture People studios abruptly closed its doors last week. With the parent company going out of business, studios all over the USA have closed, leaving their employees jobless. Furthermore, customers who have paid for, but not yet had, their shoots and those with gift cards are all in a state of limbo.

Reportedly, The Picture People has been on the Better Business Bureau’s radar for a few years. The business had an “F” rating due to 50 complaints filed against it over the last three years. The chain operated across the USA in WalMart, Buy Buy Baby, Sears, and other in-mall locations. Dead Pixel Society writes that the chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2016.

As CBS Pittsburgh reports, the manager of a local studio inside a Sears received a call from her district manager who told her to close the doors and take the money to the bank. She called customers first to come and get their waiting portraits. They were the lucky ones, but many others have been let down, not knowing when or if they will get the photos they paid for.

After the abrupt closure of the entire chain, employees and customers reportedly complained on social media, wondering about photos that had been taken but not yet collected. The company was silent for a couple of days, and its website has been taken down. But CBS managed to get a local studio on its phone number, and there was a recording as a notice to the customers:

“Due to significant financial challenges, adverse business conditions, and unforeseen circumstances, TTP Operating, Inc., the company, or Picture People, is no longer able to continue its business operations. While the company is unable to continue its operations, we are hopeful that it will be able to continue under new ownership soon. If new ownership emerges, we will contact you directly to book your appointment and offer you special incentives for the inconvenience.”

Considering the “if new ownership emerges” part, it doesn’t seem like it’s a certain thing to happen. In the recording, The Picture People invites customers to leave a message and share their concerns. However, there’s no following beep that lets you record a message.

The company was apparently struggling financially, but its customers and employees were still let down as the business closed so abruptly. It reminds me of Calumet’s story, a chain that also closed without prior notice. For now, there is no further info on The Picture People case. We don’t know what will happen with the employees who were suddenly left jobless or the clients who paid for photos and didn’t get them. But if we hear more, we will let you know.

[via CBS Pittsburgh]

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Sean

As a photographer who does portraits, while I feel for the employees and those who lost their pictures and money, I am in no way sad and actually a little giddy at this news. PP was the Walmart of the portrait photography world. Their cookie cutter approach devalued the servers of true portrait photographers and cause many of us to struggle to compete. Good riddance to another trash company.
- mistajay
  
  Obviously, they’re definitely not the Wal-Mart of the photography world, otherwise, they’d be flourishing, not closing. As a Portrait Studio owner, inside a strip mall, after and working 9 years as a freelance photographer and videographer prior, you quickly understand consumer level pricing and the perceived pricing scale. Some people will not pay $225 to $1000 for a session, others will without hesitation, but there’s a market for consumer at that sub $200 pricing point once provided by Picture People. I’ve seen some great portraitry coming from some PP studios. Some very bad ones too.
  
  My studio had to adapt, and take a different approach (positioning) to compete. And we have our loyal base. I understand Picture People had some talented people working for them, they’re management team, customer service, and rapid expansion ultimately lead to this day.
  
  But there’s no winners here. Just more proof that the photography industry is a archaic art form, losing relevancy. Cellphones with enhanced editing software are only getting better, and unless the industry changes, the classic Portrait Studio will become fossilized. It will die with Millennials. The importance of portraitry is dying.
  
  Wedding, Quinceanera, Fashion, Commercial, etc will survive, for now. The closure of Picture People should be a cautionary tale for professionals in the industry: we need to evolve or we too will become a “I remember when they had…” story.
  
  I’m not sure what that evolution looks like, but I know, after this, we should all be taking notes and not basking in the demise of a juggernaut that temporarily brought relevancy to the photography industry for the time being.
  - Sean
    
    I don’t see it becoming fossilized. Only more selective. Yes, cellphones are a problem but that just means us portrait photographers need to be more creative and specialize. A cellphone does not make you a photographer just like Instagram does not make you an artist. I understand the concept of appealing to the masses with cookie cutter cheap portraits. Still does not mean I feel sorry for PP. still bottom feeders in my eyes.
    - mistajay
      
      It’s a dog eat dog industry but you’re right, I’m not going to lose any sleep over PP like I didn’t when 1 hour photo went down. In fact, my sister in law claimed her “iPhone” can take pictures as good as my Canon 5d mark iv. So I did her sons preschool promotion portraits. Then she took shots with her iPhone, the stark difference in quality was laughbly apparent. It’s crazy how many consumers think their iPhone make them a pro photographer, jumping in front of me at weddings and Quinces with their imitation phone shutters going off. Lol.
      - lddcw
        
        Those drinking that apple koolaid are a joke. I’d like to see these people have their weddings shot on a cell phone compared to professional equipment. It would blow their minds. People remain ignorant until they are taught.
    - Amanda Lanning
      
      I can tell all of you what the difference is between you and PP, it’s that most of you photographers don’t have the props that picture people do, the backgrounds, the amount of poses, and can’t offer same day pictures, or the stuff that PP does. Example: digital pictures, frames, canvases, and pictures on puzzles, cups, tile, ect. I use PP because of the digital photos, because I have all the poses and don’t have to choose, I also love there frames. I don’t buy the pictures on things like cups, puzzles, tiles, etc because I can do that myself, but I love their props and things. Parents don’t want to have to buy props, or drag them around because they will only be used once. I have tried a photographers that worked for themselves, but I would much rather use PP, and it has nothing to do with the price because I always end up spending a lot of money when I take my granddaughter to have her pictures made, I use them because of the props, backdrops, and the amount of pictures I can get.
      - Sean
        
        PP is the McD’s off the portrait world. Difference between fast food and fine dining.
      - Amanda Lanning
        
        lol, y’all are just upset that people like them. Sorry McD suck, so no comparison. PP actually take great photos, I have lots of great pictures from them. Plus they are great with kids. If y’all want to compete with them offer props, backdrops, and some of the other things they offer, plus some young parents might use y’all if your prices was lower and you offered more photos, and more outfit changes. JS
      - Sean
        
        See, the issue is you are looking.at it from the perspective of the consumer. I’m looking at it from the perspective of the photographer trying to make a living. How would you feel if you were a creative and business came along and undercut your livelihood by offering cookie cutter product at a fraction of your cost? I feel I and others like me offer something McPP does not. A personal touch. Most of those working at PP are not professional photographers but quickly trained minimum wage workerbees who point and shoot. From the consumer side, if price is the only measure you care about then you probably will be happy having images that look like everyone else’s. And props are nothing but filler and easy to come by so I don’t see that as even close to a valid argument. But enough said I have nothing more to add and please enjoy your images because in the end if your happy with your product that’s what matters. But as a photographer I would not be upset at all if McPP went under.
  - Christopher Fisher
    
    They were too eager to capitalize with a bad change in CEO who only saw dollar signs. Expressly Portraits was a great company at one time with 300 locations and when I worked for them (6 years), they were very much a photographers company, not a money making Walmart, Sears joke like they became. We shot with medium format Maymia RB67’s and had top of the line gear all around. I watched after I left and “Picture People,” turn into a joke. Ironically, “Expressly Portraits,” sounds more like what they became while
    “Picture People,” sounds more like someone with true interest in photography.
Rachael Rivas

This is disappointing. We always had a great experience with Picture People and the product looked fantastic. Now I’m in a bind to find a new photography studio for our early birthday pictures.
- Andrea
  
  Use Yuen Lui! :)
Shana Emerson

I am heartsick. We’ve used Picture People for years, in fact we got the most gorgeous portraits just this month. Often local photographers charge a huge price and even if they need to or deserve to, the fact is many families simply can’t afford it Even though yes your child’s portraits are luxury items, everyone should have access to affordable photography. Picture People provided this valuable service.
Alex

I worked at a picture people for 2 years and it was horrible. Upper management always shafted the employees and I even voiced my concerns that one day we would come in and not have jobs anymore. Hate to say I told you so but this company was horrible to employees til the end.
Debbie Horve Strobel

This is not the first time that Picture People has done this to wmployees and customers. I worked for them beginning when it was Expressly Portraits, 15 years later they shut down many stores in the same manner. Right before Easter. It was the worst way to treat both the employees and the customers.
- Christopher
  
  That’s what you get when money hungry CEO’s keep changing what built Expressly Portraits up to the 300+ location strong business it was back in the early 90’s. I worked for them for 6 years and they should have left Expressly Portraits alone only upgrading equipment, backdrops etc. Changing the name and going into Sears (a failing company even in the late 90s), and Walmart? did they honestly think they would keep the interest of the demographic that they targeted to get them there to begin with? How sad…
Jen Knight

Picture People were bought out by new ownership and are now open again, many under new management. I am the new manager in Nashua, NH. Most of the old stores reopened and are ready to help you capture your memories.

I have worked with all of the companies, JC Penny/Target (lifetouch), Wal-mart and Sears (CPI/PCA corp) and now the Picture People/Sears. I will say that the death of the industry will be cell phone camera. Until then, as an industry we know that parents want to document their children and their memories for less money than a private photographer, and as long as there are outlets, I will always work childrens’ photography.
- lddcw
  
  It’s extremely sad to think we live in a time when people find cell phone pictures an adequate replacement to to studio photos. What a joke. These chain studios are at least affordable. That cannot be said of individual photographers, whose target customers are those who’ll spend over $1000 and get very few products for their money.
Joan Mahon

I lost money for two separate packages because when I got to the store they just closed down! I don’t think this is right to the customers!
- Stacie Smith
  
  It appears they have reopened under new management, thet migh take your packages you purchased, call!
Benjamin

I graduated high school in 2000, and went to Expressly Portraits, in Bellis Fair Mall in Bellingham Washington, to get my senior photos taken. When I came back to pick up my developed pictures I also filled out an employment application. The staff was young and artistically gifted, so I fit right in. At that time Expressly Portraits was in the process of changing its brand over to The Picture People. Initially as a photographer, I believe we had a lot of room to be artistic, and free to work with specific customer requests. It became a perfect job for someone like me, a graphic design major at WWU, who got a chance to have fun with customers, and to be artistic and creative. Eventually, I worked my way up to being an assistant manager. In the meantime, the business model of The Picture People quickly took deeper roots in our studio, giving us exponentially less artistic freedom for ourselves, and also for our loyal customers. The new brand of photography we were mandated to learn from our district manager was very specific. We were required to produce 5 poses for every customer sitting. It was called the Five Pose Wiffy. (Keep in mind our main customer base was mostly mother’s bringing in their small children or families for things like birthdays, holidays, and milestones.) 1st Pose: Full length on a white background. 2nd post: Full length on bright colored background (yellow/teal) at a high angel. An orange ottoman bean bag could be used in this shot. 3rd pose: Close up on black background. Getting really close to the face was encouraged. 4th Pose: This pose required using the large seasonal props given to us from our corporate offices, with the subjects interacting with it. During Christmas the prop was a large Xmas tree ornament. During summer, we were given props like a large firetruck that could seat up to 3 toddlers for example. Some of the props were fun, but most were cheesy, and obnoxious. And finally, the 5th and final pose: The personality shot, which aimed to capture the subjects true vivacious personality, not too many limits on this final pose, thank goodness. Many times, this 5 Pose Wiffy formula worked great. However, as photographers, we were now being forced to push this exact photography model onto every single customer, regardless of their initial request or photography goals. I now was forced to deny specific requests to loyal customers, who for years previously, requested me as their photographer based on my creativity and originality. And even worse, we were mandated to take only 1 shot per pose. The reason for this is because at the time, 2000-2006, we were using a medium format camera and each roll of film only contained 8 shots until it ran out, and we were required by our district manager to use only 1 roll of film per sitting. Being only allowed 8 shots to perfectly capture an entire 5 Pose session of difficult toddlers who blink at every flash, was nearly impossible. The final blow to my sanity came with the new rule, demanded by our district manager, that required us to over book our sessions intentionally. We were told that it’s statistically proven that 1 out of every 4 customers will be a no-show. And from that logic, we we’re required to fill in appointments as if we had 4 photography rooms, when in fact, we only had 3 physical camera rooms in our store. You can see how this would become problematic on a daily, if not hourly, basis. It got so ridiculous. Many times throughout the day, I would have to multitask like my life depended on it, first taking one shot of my sitting in Camera Room 1, then running up to the cashier to ring up a customer, but not until I first ran back to our printer to print a few sheets for the other customer whose been waiting in the lobby for 30 mins with a screaming baby, only so I could scramble back quickly to my original session in room 1, where by that time, the little child I was trying to get to smile for their 2nd pose in the Wiffy platform, is now running out of the store because the mall playground right outside looks 10x more fun. I was a junior in college by this point. I had pulled many all nighters for finals and other project deadlines, but nothing gave me more anxiety than just knowing I had to go into work at The Picture People. I eventually trained the staff to make fake appointments in our non-existent camera room, which was our only saving grace, but even by then, things were just too corporatized and gross. One night, I woke up screaming with heart palpitations, from a nightmare I was having about work. That’s when I knew I had to quit. It was very hard to do, for a couple reasons. I was awesome at my job. I took amazing pictures. Some of my photography work was used nationally in stores. Quitting was also hard because I loved my fellow artists and co-workers, as well as a few loyal loving customers, who let me capture the joy of their growing beautiful families, year after year. But witnessing Picture People evolve into what I called the fast food of photography, was too much. All manner of quality and integrity was sacrificed for speed and profit. I gave The Picture People my blood, sweat, and tears for half a decade. I learned a lot. I met my best friend and fellow co-worker there, who eventually moved on and up to become a very successful lifestyle photographer in the Seattle area, (www.heatherlynnphotography.com) So, my Picture People days were definitely not in vain. However, when I learned they had gone out of business a few years ago, I wasn’t very surprised, and not too sad. However, I loved the skills I gained, and I’m also nostalgic for the fact that while I was constantly capturing milestones of children and thier families during my 5 years at The Picture People, I was also capturing my own. I’ve got a filling cabinet filled with photos from hundreds of after-hour photo shoots of coworkers, friends, and family. And those are priceless. -Benjamin L.
Amanda Lanning

What the difference is between you and PP, it’s that most of you photographers don’t have the props that picture people do, the backgrounds, the amount of poses, and can’t offer same day pictures, or the stuff that PP does. Example: digital pictures, frames, canvases, and pictures on puzzles, cups, tile, ect. I use PP because of the digital photos, because I have all the poses and don’t have to choose, I also love there frames. I don’t buy the pictures on things like cups, puzzles, tiles, etc because I can do that myself, but I love their props and things. Parents don’t want to have to buy props, or drag them around because they will only be used once. I have tried a photographers that worked for themselves, but I would much rather use PP, and it has nothing to do with the price because I always end up spending a lot of money when I take my granddaughter to have her pictures made, I use them because of the props, backdrops, and the amount of pictures I can get.