Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Full Exposure Will Close, Corp Says

Andreas Jeninga/The Hoya Manager Dan Koik (SFS ’04) has worked to tackle the problems facing Full Exposure but the rise of digital photography has contributed to the store’s insolvency.

Full Exposure, Students of Georgetown Inc.’s photo developing store, will close this spring due to financial losses and declining revenues in the photo developing industry as a whole, Corp President Kelsey Shannon (COL ’04) said.

The store, which opened in Oct. 2000, has continued to lose money, despite serious cutbacks and shift changes.

In 2001-02, Full Exposure had a net loss of $46,222.37 – the largest deficit created by the Corp’s eight services, according to the Corp’s 2003 Annual Report.

Photo developing in general is a losing industry, even for national drugstore and supermarket chains, Shannon said.

“Stores like CVS and Safeway use photo developing to attract people in to buy other things,” he said. “That’s how they make money.”

Full Exposure, however, lacks that capacity.

Rising popularity of digital cameras – which do not require traditional film processing – has also contributed to industry losses.

“If demand hadn’t been dropping at the same time, we should have been doing much better,” Full Exposure director arion Read (COL ’05) said.

The store, which offers one-hour photo developing, enlargements and passport photos, is running 200 times better than when it opened 3 years ago, Shannon said.

Employee Logan Kendall (SFS ’06) called Full Exposure the Corp’s most efficient service. Since workers must be trained on equipment use and processing, they work hard, he said.

“The closing is not due to any lack of effort, but circumstances that we have no control over,” he said. “It’s sad, but it happens.”

Even so, the majority of Full Exposure’s services will be integrated into other stores, Shannon said. Vital Vittles and Hoya Snaxa could carry film drop boxes and Full Exposure’s most popular service – passport photos – could be offered in ovie Mayhem. One-hour photo developing will be the only service completely lost.

The decision to close this spring comes after half a year of discussion between Full Exposure employees, the Corp’s Board of Directors and upper management.

“Because the Full Exposure staff is mainly composed of seniors it made the most sense to close this year,” Read said. Thirteen of Full Exposure’s 19-person staff will graduate in May.

The Corp’s lease is also up for renewal in June, after which point the university will decide what to do with the space.

Shannon, however, meets next week with university administrators to discuss potential uses of the space.

“If there are services that the community could benefit from, we will consider a new service,” he said, adding that he hopes to find another service that would be as popular among students as Full Exposure.

“It’s sad because there are a lot of seniors who have put a lot of time and a lot of themselves into this store,” Shannon said.

Employee Jillian Kannengieser (NHS ’04), who has worked at Full Exposure since her freshman year, spent an entire weekend last fall working on the store’s pale blue mural. She stenciled in “Full Exposure” and the black reel of film that wraps around the store’s walls.

“It was sad at first, but I understand the reasons why,” she said.

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