Drive thru Fotomats - Life in America

[@chrismastromonaco3306]

Man this is emotional stuff,I hate modern times and miss when America was friendly

[@msirilla]

Me, too.

[@1982MCI]

Amen!!

[@gacjpc7157]

Lol everything wasn’t “friendly” back then...rose-colored glasses effect

[@ArtificialBanana]

@@gacjpc7157 Well, advertising generally emphasized friendliness a lot more than today.

[@PilotVBall]

I don't recall a single time when America was "friendly". Back in the days, due to lack of competition and innovation, companies were ripping off Americans left and right. I sure don't miss paying $18 to develop and print 24 pictures. Or paying $5 for a roll of film for 24 pictures. The modern world has liberated us. I can't wait for the day when robots finally make face to face interaction a thing of the past and I never have to deal with a store employee.

[@reneguzman720]

Love the piano and the voice it truly takes us back when America was America 🇺🇸

[@InFltSvc]

I was born in 1964 so I remember these in the 70’s. This was when we really only had 110 cameras as they were the most popular and affordable to most Americans. I truly wish we could go back and do it all over again. We had to wait for everything and that made a slower way of life. I just hate what technology has done to us as a whole!. I really believe we lived in the last of the best decades in America during the 70’s and 80’s A note to the owner of this channel ****** It would be great if you did one on the Kodak disc camera and it’s failures due to the processing… And thank you fir this channel, it’s a wonderful thing to look back on and a very positive channel…

[@bubhub64]

Gosh I remember when Fotomat's were so common to see, and then in the blink of an eye you realize it's been decades since you've seen one.

[@parsifal40002]

Those were the good ole days! Fotomats were everywhere in my hometown!

[@rosezingleman5007]

I very briefly worked at one of these in 1976. I was 16. It was a fun job really. Yes, I used the restroom in a gift shop across the way.

[@nickhill8612]

Haha yeah I always wondered about that.

[@robertmoir5695]

Are you 61 now Rose Zingleman ?

[@gerribarnett919]

me too!

[@laureencriss8220]

Lucky! My 10 year old self in 76 longed for the day I could have that job! It looked like a very important position running the whole business by yourself.

[@cgee6532]

I remember, being in the back seat with my siblings, mom & dad in front, ( none of us wore seatbelts) in dad's Chevelle...I was excited to see the picture's, but had to wait till mom saw them first...and mom would warn us, "Don't get your fingerprints all over the picture's"...happy memories

[@nickhill8612]

Haha I can relate. I love the old pictures.

[@Barnabas45]

My mom would carry me on her lap in the front seat when I was an infant, No seat belt of course!

[@thumperjdm]

+1. "Glossy" photos always looked better, but "matte" finish didn't show fingerprints! ;-)

[@thebewitchinghour831]

When they came out with matte finish, that's all we ever got because of that reason.

[@michaelbienes548]

Dear Sir, I've just started to watch your website on forgotten places of long ago. It takes me back to a friendlier and a nicer time in our lives. A time when people were nicer to each other and life was normal and peaceful. Thank you for these moments to remember. Mike Bienes

[@shawnbeckmann1847]

Thank you for the trip down memory lane

[@conigjo62]

I came across your channel about a week ago and this is the second or third video I watched. You have very nice content on your channel and you do great work. This brought back some great memories. Thanks

[@luisreyes1963]

Today's digital camera owners will never experience the thrill of getting your pictures & film from a Fotomat. 📷

[@joeheid4757]

I remember eagerly awaiting my dad to get home knowing he was picking up pictures.

[@FreihEitner]

And only then discovering that you had your finger over the camera lens and just spent 20 or 30 cents to develop a photo of nothing.

[@joeheid4757]

@@FreihEitner Or having your mom pick up a roll from your 1st semester at college and finding out your room mate stole your camera and took a picture of the heavy set guy on the floor naked in the shower. 😖😝

[@joniangelsrreal6262]

Or being disappointed with too many bad shots…..🤣

[@gkprivate433]

or getting them from any store. To open that packet was like Christmas morning every time

[@RickJZ1973]

I remember Fotomat when I was a kid. The location was close to home and I would ride my bike to drop off the film.

[@vickiladu6755]

I didn’t use them that much but I sure remember them in every shopping strip mall!

[@bluebear6570]

Your videos remind me of how rich our life was back then, and how poor in humanity it is today!

[@mo5383]

Man! You are doing a great job! Your series should be developed in a documentary for the whole world to enjoy! Keep it up!

[@hearttoheart4me]

The whole world can enjoy it now. I love these short little videos. So many memories packed in them.

[@FoOtFoOt542]

They’ll be making one of these nostalgic pieces about Amazon in the future, where you’d have to wait an entire day for what you impulse-purchased from your smart phone.

[@noahpartic7586]

😆.

[@vickiladu6755]

Probably right! 50 years from now, the things we’re doing now will seem so weird to the young people in 2072.

[@imjusttoodissgusted5620]

I still use film cameras. Film is still there and makes a bit of a comeback among the young who like the fact that something in their life isn't digital. Still I miss the amount of available film types.

[@suzannelawson9215]

Where can you buy film for cameras? I still have a Nikon EM or something like that. It is a fully automatic camera and I bought it back in the early 1980's or late 1970's. Where can you get this film developed nowadays?

[@arricammarques1955]

@@suzannelawson9215 Google film processing in your city.

[@lindasimons691]

Best part of working in one of those booths was looking at everyone's pictures.

[@cdfreester]

I remember seeing Fotomat shacks everywhere. They were so small, you could fit them in any parking lot.

[@curtisbug]

I worked for Fotomat in the Greenville/Spartanbug SC area from 1977-1979. There were about 12 locations in that “district” and over time I worked in all of them. The store hours were 10-7 and stores had two shifts 10-2:30 & 2:30-7:00. I was the only male associate and yep I wore the pale blue polo knit shirt, until the end of 79 when they issued a unisex zip up blue and yellow smock that the girls & guys both wore. Fotomat was always rewarding associates with monetary and products when “up sold “ customers to order double prints or for 35mm customers to order “Pro-Series” developing (larger higher quality prints). It was a great job for after school for me ( I could do my homework between customers). In those days two employees worked in one store, each doing one of the 4.5 hour shifts then we’d alternate Saturday’s and the hours on Sat were 10:00-4:00. Closed on Sunday.

[@johnvaldez8830]

My mom loved Fotomat. We literally went just about every other week for herself or my aunt. They loved their albums and sent pictures to everyone in the family. They guarded those negatives and albums like hawks. Fun times.

[@calbob750]

Who could forget turning in a 36 exposure role of Kodacolor and getting back an envelope of some overexposed, some underexposed and blurred prints.

[@nickhill8612]

Haha yeah I remember that

[@MrPGC137]

Couldn't say; it never happened to me in all the rolls of film I turned in for development (except on the rare occasion when it was a result of my own mistake.)

[@emilybailey4457]

I anticipated so much waiting to get my film developed at fotomat 🙂 Those were the days...

[@thewaitingape]

As a kid I always figured there were stairs that led to an underground photo lab.

[@anthonychihuahua]

😆

[@arbjbornk]

I had the exact same thought when I was a kid.

[@ontogeny6474]

A relic of the past but it seemed like a good business model for the time.

[@milos.8131]

And after the closed the were turned into hot dog and food stands, flower stalls and all sorts of "little shops." But they were revolutionary when they opened. Everybody I knew used Photomath.

[@dr.hookyeah2883]

The days of physical media. Like everything else... so different from today.

[@jkanclark]

You can still buy, shoot, and develop film. Not cheap, but immensely satisfying

[@russwentz3957]

@@jkanclark You can't replace the world of tangibility and the warmth of film photos.

[@mikemcclune1440]

The more things change the more I wish they would juts stay the same

[@robertknight4672]

I just picked up an old Kodak brownie camera.

[@jimurrata6785]

SD cards are still physical media.... /s

[@wayfarer4578]

Sometimes we would wait a few weeks before going to Fotomat, then when pictures were ready, I would tear open the little envelope they give you and re-live that great uncle’s birthday party again. Right in the car. Lol

[@frankrizzo4460]

Yes I do remember going to those free standing places in shopping plazas. It was always exciting getting those pictures and reliving great times. I miss those simpler times now more than ever. Rip Fotomat thanks for the memories 🤔

[@everready19373]

I remember spending several weeks allowance on a roll of film and getting it developed. Man, that was a expensive hobby back then for a teenager.

[@joelyates2404]

Maybe it's just me, with the advancement in technology to save us time, it seams the time we have passes by so much faster.

[@MiyamotoMusashi9]

Entropy is the subconscious cause of anxiety

[@Mike4metal]

This goes back to the late 60”s,early 70”s every adult in my family went to the Kodak shack! Seemed they were in every town! By the time I was a young adult, I went there for my photos! I miss those days!✨

[@Thesaltymedic36]

Had one in the local shopping center until the whole shopping center was torn down and rebuilt. I remember it being open but sat empty for years. Another American icon gone.

[@wallacegeller2111]

When I was a cop in Phoenix the fotomats got held up alot by dopers who needed just enough money to get their next fix. Fotomat usually had young women working at the formats and they would get scared to death when held up.

[@coreybabcock2023]

Such a dumb thing

[@martybethterry3605]

Yes, very emotional. My husband used to drive from one photo barn to the other in town picking up pictures and delivering film from film barn to the other. That was in 1972 and we were very young and just married. I would ride with him a lot of times. He of course moved on to a better Post Office position. But melancholy memories. In Indiana they were called Film Barns.

[@cyberi4a]

The old Fotomat near me has been a Key cutting place for years now.

[@floydsemlow8253]

No s*** if you don't mind me asking whereabouts? It's even hard to find key cutting places these days 🤦

[@cyberi4a]

@@floydsemlow8253 I'm in California. No lock smiths in your area or hardware store? I don't trust those key making kiosks you see in stores.

[@floydsemlow8253]

@@cyberi4a surprisingly no cuz I'm in like a little hometown of chardon Ohio, I'm in Maple country you would think that we would,🤦

[@cyberi4a]

@@floydsemlow8253 Now that I thought about it, there is only one physical locksmith shop in town that's been there forever, and anyone else is a mobile business run out of vans.

[@jcaflinco]

Good Morning. Another excellent video. I really like these videos, which tell the story, of life in the past, which in my opinion, was better. Congratulations on the channel.

[@franlooving4203]

I loved them. Only remember 1 near me in the 80s. Don't recall it in the late 70s. I remember waiting was hard. Now the young people have instant photos. These were much cooler than a selfie stick in my opinion.

[@nickhill8612]

Do you know the Miranda Lambert song Automatic?

[@mikefitchNYC1971]

I miss those carefree times. Awesome video!

[@donaldvisconti5483]

I liked Fotomat! I went to one in Farmingdale, N.Y., which I could walk to from my house! I still use a film camera, and sadly must have the pictures sent out of state, from the local CVS Pharmacy. They come back developed, usually within a week. I know what younger people would say, "When are you going to get a digital camera"!!

[@nikkibest5010]

Me too. I love using actual film camera's. My husband and friends laugh at me but I'm still using them. 🤗

[@tomruggiero8414]

I went to school with a VINNY VISCONTI. I'm from the same place 1950s-1999.

[@emeyer6963]

@@tomruggiero8414 I worked at the King Kullen in Farmingdale when it opened in 1983.

[@girl4rm80s]

walmart and walgreens will develop while you wait

[@hazcat640]

I still have my K1000 and more lenses than I care to count. Thankfully the new Pentax cameras still use the same mount for the lenses. Still, I can take better shots with film than digital.

[@cynthiaprice1261]

Fotomat was my first job after high school! Lots of good memories. 🙂

[@scrappyjunk8793]

we used to ride our mini bikes buy the window and throw a smoke bomb in the window lol

[@itsthehumidityyall8303]

We have photos over 100 years old. Will digital be able to last that long? Technology changes. Negatives can be reprinted from, but a corrupt digital device is just gone.

[@cujoedaman]

Computer experts say if you don't have at least three different back-up options, nothing is backed up.

[@BassPlayerSusan]

My husband the train fan would agree with you. He still shoots 35mm black & white.

[@PilotVBall]

Negatives degrade, paper photos degrade. Digital lasts forever. I have over 12TB of vacation pictures and videos dating back to 2001. They are available at my fingertips from anywhere in the world. They are encrypted and backed up on the cloud. My house could burn down tomorrow and printed pictures would be lost forever. Those digital pictures and movies are safe in the cloud.

[@dflf]

Imagine sitting in that booth all day in the middle of summer

[@chargermopar]

The one near here had air conditioning. I always wondered where the restroom wss.

[@deborahdesanto2313]

Probably air conditioning

[@n6vcw]

They were air conditioned. We would use restrooms in nearby stores.

[@Stellaluna88]

@@n6vcw Did you have to put a sign up stating you were temporarily closed?

[@stvlu733]

@@chargermopar In a soda bottle probably.

[@vincecarnevale4406]

I was just starting out in my photography hobbie in the 70's,would drop my film off in the morning could pick it up in late afternoon.How convenient was that!

[@kemgreene2293]

I still to this day miss photomat

[@MisterMikeTexas]

I miss the 20th Century!

[@josephalfonsoamantia7028]

I loved my little Kodak 110 camera. I would take the film to the K-Mart Camera Department for developing. I remember calling K-Mart everyday to see if my film was ready to pick up. When they would say yes, it would make me so happy. Of course I was just a kid then,.

[@debbied9997]

Yes, I remember those days when you took 24 pictures of your once-in-a-lifetime trip and did not know if any actually were any good until you got back home to have them developed. On one camping trip, I kept the lens cover on a whole roll of film; that kind of disappointment stays with you for a long time. Also today we can take hundreds of pictures, so we take them of anything, but the film was expensive for me, and I remember that all you got were rolls of 12, 24 or if you were lucky the 36 pictures. Then if you took a picture all your friends wanted, you had to pay for duplicates using the negative. Oh, the days of testing your patients.

[@THF409]

My late wife worked at a Fotomat in Kansas City Kansas back in the 1970s.

[@nancyjaplon4909]

Good memories

[@carlahubbs3602]

I remember that place.

[@SeaJay_Oceans]

Love their little stores !

[@timlevis3630]

Before this, I watched the episode on the old A&P. supermarkets. As a young child, we would go shopping at the A&P then either drop off film or pick up pictures at the photo mat in the same parking lot in Trooper Pa.

[@lindatisue733]

Wonder what business will be relics in twenty years? In 2004, I took a photo of some telephone booths literally put out to pasture in a field.

[@JKlasen]

Love to see that photo! Are you posting or selling?

[@kimworkman2425]

I worked for a fotomat plant in the late 70's. They were in use into the 80's

[@dwightpowell6673]

I noticed they never hired any black employees.

[@kimworkman2425]

I can't speak for the booths because I worked in the developing plant in Hudson ohio. But in my plant they did hire black workers.

[@essessessesq]

@@kimworkman2425 the Hudson lab was superb! I know, because i was a Fotomac in Cleveland 1980 to 1987 as a 2d job, and you folks ALWAYS were so quick to respond to our CRE envelopes {Customer request envelopes]. It was amazing how you could very often make decent photos out of really bad negatives, which would be caused when the customer had used the wrong f-stops or film speed etc..,,,,,i was always impressed by what good work the Hudson lab did for us. thanks!

[@nancyjones9066]

Oh my gosh! I remember these. We would use Fotomat to get our pictures developed.

[@MisterMikeTexas]

Leo: So, do like photos, man? Hyde: Yeah, man! Sure! Leo: OK! You got the job, man!

[@stvlu733]

Wow man I was just thinking the same thing. I Miss That's 70's show.

[@robertphillips6296]

My mother worked at one of these for a few years. When the photographs were brought to the location prior to them being picked up by the customers, it was part of her job to review them for anything inappropriate. If she found anything that was not proper she was to destroy the photo but not the negative and the people picking them up were not charged for the missing prints. If it was of a criminal nature then she was to call the local police. She told me of some of the things strange and pornographic things that people would photograph. Also they would have to wait for thirty days for people to pickup their prints and negatives before they were thrown out. It got so bad at one point that they started to charge a fee ahead of time just to cover costs. They would sell film as well and some people would want to purchase the expired color film because of the unusual colors and distortions that would show up after it was developed.

[@samanthab1923]

There is still one in the parking lot of the old A&P Super Market parking lot in Marlboro NJ. Now a Food Emporium.

[@nickhill8612]

Wow I forgot about A&P , that should be the next video.

[@nance64]

In Nashville, we had Barbara Mandrel one hour photo.

[@marshaharris4268]

Thank you so much for this channel. Wish I could go back in time. You have a very calming voice and love the music in the background.

[@cartman4885]

Fotomat was great and back in the day I used them a lot but as a lot of great things new technology made the obsolete but I do remember the Fotomates were cute...........

[@kingclover1395]

I always used to wonder if Fotomats had a bathroom inside them. You wouldn't think so considering how small they are, but on the other hand, I don't think the owners would like it very much if the worker had to leave to go find a bathroom somewhere else, leaving the Fotomat unattended. I bet I'm the only person in the entire world who wondered about this.

[@eckankar7756]

I still have stacks of the envelopes with the photos and negatives in them. The photos are holding up well from the 1970s. It was amazing to get them back so quickly, just drive up to the window to drop off or pick up. I always wondered if they had a toilet there for the customer rep to use.

[@makeminefreedom]

Fotomats were the next best thing to instant photos. My mom always took her film to the drug store because it was cheaper than the Fotomats. Waiting for the photos also made it more exciting when we did finally get to see them.

[@MsPrecious61]

My first job. My dad worked for Fox Photo and I got a job at the kiosk

[@bryanj7063]

Every time I see a Dutch bros coffee drive thru I think of photomat

[@gerribarnett919]

Being a Fotomate was my first job at 16! I loved it! 1976

[@ericlindenmuth7517]

As a photographer this one really hits home!! Love those old boxes of kodak film, boy do I ever miss that stuff. I have got my old film camera's collecting dust now...

[@knife-wieldingspidergod5059]

You can still buy films, processing, and scanning package online.

[@P.F.3.]

I'm miss that! People had patience then for almost everything. Today everything is instant gratification!! I'm glad I grew up in the 60s and 70s.

[@williampalenik7306]

I remember these small Foto shops then one hour developing came about and then digital pics came and is still here today

[@jeffsilverman6104]

"I can see it all now, it's gonna be just like last summer when you fell in love with the girl at the Fotomat. You bought forty dollars worth of f***ing film and you don't even own a camera. You never even talked to her."

[@Madness832]

But then you went out and bought a camera so you could sit across the lot & take "candids" of her!

[@nunyabizznizz7326]

classic.....fast times

[@jeffsilverman6104]

@@nunyabizznizz7326 Exactly. I was waiting for somebody to get it.

[@jrussellcase]

Love me some Fast Times....that was one of many classic lines from that movie. 😂😂😂😂

[@wmw3629]

Just hilarious. I used to do just that.

[@deborahchesser7375]

I didn’t know about the movie rental there, so cool. My buddy worked there, he said you wouldn’t believe the pics people had processed, I guess they thought it was magic lol.

[@bruceward6795]

Totally agree, now everyone is unhappy and on medication. I grew up in the 60s and ever memory was a happy one.

[@makmelaf]

I was a Fotomac. Fun times sitting there looking through everyone's photos!

[@elwin38]

My oldest brother used to get family photos developed at these Fotomats.

[@73twall]

Fotomat was the only developer my mom would use. It became the only place that carried film cartridges and flash cubes for her 126 Instamatic. Great memories.

[@UteTrac]

Thanks for the memories !

[@kevinbarletta7749]

I love my AE 1 Canon 35 mm! Still this day I have it on the shelf ready to go🤔😁

[@nikkibest5010]

The drive through Fotomat in my town is now a drive through coffee place.

[@samanthab1923]

That's cool

[@jkanclark]

Surprising that the structure is still there even.

[@georgewilson1184]

We used the one in Maywood Illinois on fifth Avenue Out front of Whiteway grocery store

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

I miss these places. Some of them in my town ended up as FedEx depots or other non-photo shops.

[@nonenone4219]

I remember taking lunch to my mother who worked at one of the photo kiosk we had in our neighborhood in 1979. Ahh, those were the days..

[@williemo44]

As a kid I used to wonder how they developed film in those little shacks 😂

[@etiennebreaux8623]

I loved dropping off film there. I lived in the deep south, poor workers didn't have A/C till the last year. I don't remember movie rentals.

[@nickhill8612]

I didn't know they didn't have acs. How did they rent movies in that small place?

[@etiennebreaux8623]

@@nickhill8612 this kiosks in fancy towns had a/c and movies....ours did not. we didn't get electricity till 2 months ago. 🤣

[@lawrencegatt4515]

Great video well done mate from Oz.

[@robertmoir5695]

I remember those days too and I miss them

[@thomashazard525]

We had one of these in my hometown of Cortland, NY. I believe my parents used them for processing our photos a few times. I think it was closed down sometime in the mid 80s.

[@dorothyedwards7225]

This brings back memories!!☺☺

[@RichardinNC1]

My mother, and then I normally used local drug stores or camera shops for film developing. I did use a 1 hour drivethru place once when out of town shooting my sister's wedding. I did test shots during the rehearsal and got them developed that evening to adjust settings for the wedding.

[@kathysharpe7339]

Love it

[@EnriqueLopez-hb5jn]

I remember Fotomat, when they had the kiosks, the service was kind of fast for being a kiosk,the quality superb

[@johnhorter1859]

My family used Fotomat where the film was done by skilled people who did it right, but while I grew up the booth closed. 1-hour processing was done in stores by some robotic machines so the photos were crap, so I used mail-in which took about 1 to 2 weeks but with better results, and worth the extra wait.

[@kimworkman2425]

I worked at the plant and we generally processed film asns we got it every day. It was a great company to work for

[@essessessesq]

@@kimworkman2425 the work done at Fotomat's labs was top notch, they always got the most that could be got out of the film.negatives. and their copy negatives were superbly done, too!

[@michaelwascom62]

Back in early 1970's, a friend of mine and his wife obtained a FotoMat franchise. Before long they had the franchise for every FotoMat store within a 65 mile radius. They did QUITE well financially! When FotoMat faded, they bought a Subway regional franchise and did even better! They had an eye for thriving businesses.

[@marchwind1000]

Just watch this video and bring back such memories as I used to work in the photomat kiosk in the Youngstown Ohio area not only did I work in the kiosk I was also a delivery driver who delivered the film to all the kiosks in Western Pennsylvania Eastern Ohio

[@dahc5906]

wow i was 7 years old i saw beautiful lady at 1 these damn memory's. heart has been broken

[@gregsells8549]

Some Fotomat kiosks were walk-ups in downtown areas, like at 0:50. One such kiosk in Austin became an ATM after Fotomat closed.

[@JL-sm6cg]

Glad to know I wasn't the only person who witnessed a non-kiosk Fotomat. There was one in a small part of a strip mall in Riverview, MI.

[@thebewitchinghour831]

Funny seeing Woolworths in the background. Simpler times forever gone.

[@videox222ify]

our grocery store parking lot had 1

[@gli7utubeo]

Great. Thanks. I forgot how they were everywhere like mushrooms. I wonder how many of those booths got hit by cars in parking lots.

[@diatribe5]

I had no idea that they did video rentals, nor was I aware that vcrs were around as early as 1979. These places were everywhere when I was a kid. I thought that they, and everything else, would still be around for my adulthood, but nope, it was something that I took for granted. My parents never used them, so I never even got close to one of them.

[@winterphoenix09]

I worked nine years in the main Fotomat lab in the eighties, covered the northeast. We would do 40,000 rolls of film a night on occasion. I remember doing photo inspections, where in four hours you would see a hundred photos shot at Disney, taken from the exact same spot. And for every 10,000 ‘ same old same old’ pic of birthdays or weddings, you would see something that would blow your mind.