Question: If you managed a CVS store, wouldn't you want to have someone who knew something about photography working behind your photo counter? And if you were the manager, wouldn't you want to know something about the competition in your neighborhood, especially if you were trying to attract customers to your store?
Apparently, the answers to both these questions is Not Particularly.
Let me paint you a picture: I brought about 20 4 X 6 photos of family members to CVS to have copies made. I returned a few hours later to retrieve them and that's when the fun began. And by "fun" I, of course, mean "nerve-shaking frustration".
I was told by the young man who worked at the photo department that he couldn't make copies of some of the pictures. My first thought was that something had happened to the photos. But no! The truth was far stranger.
He then told me that some of the photos were copyrighted and could not be reprinted. Hello??? These were photos of my family, taken by me or members of my family. What was he talking about?
The worker flipped over the photos and showed me that some of them said:
Protected by 3M Scotchguard
(and a date from 1995)
"Um, excuse me. That's not a copyright. That's a notice from the store where the photos were printed."
He protested, "No, it says that these photos are protected."
Okay, so maybe a teenager making minimum wage (or close to it), who may never have seen a real roll of film or negative in his life, doesn't know the difference between protecting an image and protecting a piece of paper with a pretty picture of a little girl and her mother on it.
After a back and forth, he finally went to ask his manager (which I would've insisted on sooner or later anyway). After a moment, the manager SHOOK HIS HEAD IN AGREEMENT!!
The manager told me that the pictures were protected and there was nothing that he could do. He even admitted that he had know idea what "Genovese" nor "Scotchguard" were, but he knew that 3M was "protecting" that picture. By the way, the store does sell 3M Scotch Tape and other items.
I told him that "Genovese" was the former name of his competition. It was the drugstore two blocks away that was bought out by Rite-Aid, and, eventually, when I was exhausted and after he started taking an attitude with me, the customer, that's exactly where I wound up to make the copies. They cost a little more, but they made them without a problem.
I believe the copies are even protected by Scotchguard.
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