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th ei fp .c a Th e IF P -H al to n H ill s | T hu rs da y, M ar ch 12 ,2 02 0 | 12 The foundation for a beautiful room. LAMINATE • HARDWOOD • VINYL CORK • CERAMIC • LVT • CARPET LAMINATE • HARDWOOD • VINYL CORK • CERAMIC • LCORK • CERAMIC • LVT • CARPETVT • CARPET LAMINATE • HARDWOOD • VINYLWOOD • VINYL Locally owned & operated by neighbours you've known & trusted for over 45 years! carpetone.com 26 Guelph St, Georgetown • 905-877-9896 Although some of the Georgetown Market Place's original tenants have adapted to a consum- er shift toward digital mar- kets, Georgetown Photo re- mains in the mall. "People gravitate to on- line, but you can't get it fast, and you're at the mer- cy of shipping," Steve Gre- zoux, part-owner of Georgetown Photo, said. "And if there's a problem with the order, how quickly can it be rectified?" While Grezoux has opt- ed to maintain a physical location, much of the store's business has moved online. "Even if we were strictly online, we'd have an indus- trial unit and we'd still need to staff it," He said. At the Market Place re- tail space, customers will find fewer cameras than in past years, and more of what Grezoux calls the soft goods, like albums and frames. "We opened in 1982 when the Georgetown Market Place was a strip plaza," Grezoux said. At the time, the store primarily helped consum- ers process 35 mm film but it has adapted through the years to accommodate shifting consumer needs. When in-store process- ing entered the market, Grezoux said there were at least five independent pho- to-processing stores in Georgetown. "It cost us $140,000 with no guarantee it was going to be buoyant," he said. "Fortunately, it was." But on-site photofinish- ing for independent busi- nesses had its share of com- petition, namely grocery stores. "They didn't even care if it made money," Grezoux said, noting the average grocery store visit at the time was about 30 minutes. "It would keep the consum- er in the store for one- hour." Keeping customers in- store, for twice as long as average to wait for photo- processing, meant in- creased profit, but heavy competition for photo stores. "The saving grace was that the volume of photos being developed was still high," he said. Despite decades of adapting, Grezoux said the store was ultimately profit- able. "Through the '90s we made more money than we could spend," Grezoux said. "We thought it would never end." But, in the event that it did, the owners paid off their homes, cars, and debts. When the era of digi- tal photography all but eliminated the demand for photo processing, instant or otherwise, Grezoux said, the owners took mas- sive pay cuts. "You can only suck so much out of a business," he said. Though independently owned and operated, Georgetown Photo is a part of collective buying group, Foto Source Canada, that, at one time, had about 300 stores across the country. "Not a week goes by that we don't get a notification about a store closing," Gre- zoux said. "And there aren't that many opening up." While staying in the mall provides a physical lo- cation for customers to pick up printed photos and products, Grezoux said the business is about evenly split between online and in-store traffic, a figure well above the average digi- tal hold of 10 or 15 per cent according to Grezoux. "Who knows what the consumer will do," he said. "But if they're not doing enough volume to keep us alive, they're not going to miss us." NEARLY 40 YEARS LATER, GEORGETOWN PHOTO STILL AT MALL BRYAN MYERS bmyers@metroland.com Steve Grezoux, one of the owners of Georgetown Photo at the Georgetown Marketplace. The photo store is one of the first tenants in the mall and has adapted through the years to compete with online retailers. Bryan Myers/Torstar BUSINESS