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Picsolve. £9?!?!

Smithy

Smithy

Strata Poster
I'm sure this isn't anything new as I swear that the Merlin parks have been running with Picsolve for a while now, but had it at Paultons yesterday and I just need to vent. So there may be little discussion value here whatsoever, or there may be. We'll see when we get to the end of this diatribe.

****ING £9. £9! For an on ride photo. NINE. ENGLISH. POUNDS.

Where the **** did that come from?! Like, I remember them being £5, and then £6, did they just jump up overnight or something? And I know that they know that people think it's a massive ****ing con because none of the ORP booths actually advertised the price at all. Hence my disgust at finding out, we'd gone up to grab a picture from Cobra, couldn't see any pricing whatsoever for photo but did see an empty cardboard photo frame stood up next to a glass one, priced at £3.99. Figured, fair enough, decent price for an ORP, I'll grab it.

BUT NO.

£9 is for the picture. If you want this specific cardboard frame, it's £3.99.

I didn't stick around to find out if the £9 includes a ****ty cardboard frame of it that's extra too, but since when the **** can they justify charging £9 for a single image? I don't give a flying **** if they give you the digital code, you could be getting David ****ing Hockney to sit there and paint it for me and I'd still think that's an extorionate price for a single picture.

Europa was charging I believe 4 or 6 euros, PA is similar, so how can Picsolve get away with charging as much as they do? And even then, you can sort of expect it (whilst still being disgusted) from the Merlin parks, but Paultons? Is that where the UK industry is right now? £9 for a ****ing picture and countless HB Leisure stalls hawking for even more of your money?
 
Be glad you don't live in America, onride pictures here are like $20 (at least at the parks I've been to) which is like £16

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Excellent, excellent rant, and wholly justified too. 9 quid for an on-ride picture is a piss-take.
Surely, I mean, surely to God, the money they make by charging silly money for each photo is dwarfed by the amount of money they could make if they charged a reasonable amount and sold a lot more of them?
As a business owner, what would you rather do? Make £6 profit per photo and sell 10, or make £1 profit per photo and sell 1000?*

*All figures quoted are made up on the spot and are absolutely no guarantee of any actual business acumen.
 
I agree with your logic Smithy. Reduce the prices and sell more is surely a better alternative than to overcharge and subsequently undersell. I think the best example of this I've seen is with Loro Parque in Tenerife, they have these yellow baseball caps that they sell for something stupid like 2 euros and you see them absolutely everywhere. You see them all over Tenerife and I see a fair few in Spain and back home here, works very well for advertising as well I imagine.
cinchado-rock-and-teide-volcano-at-the-back-tenerife-island-canary-anr92y.jpg
 
^Dude, I had one of those caps from Loro Parque! It was from about 10 years ago, but I definitely had one until the dog chewed it.
Need to go back one day. They have a cred now.
 
Oh God those caps were ****ing everywhere, I remember seeing them all over Tenerife.

It's precisely that though, like I'm not privvy to their costs but I just don't see how there can be such a large gap between what other companies in Europe charge and what Picsolve do. And they clearly know that it's an issue because they don't advertise the cost of photos. At all. There were a few posters for £4 photos for £25! around, which is also a farce because a few years back I got 4 for £20, but yeah, **** knows how we've got to where we are.
 
Yeah, when ORPS went above £6, something flicked in my barin to say they're a waste of money unless it's something ****ing special. £9 for a photo is a joke. I mean, what is the point of an ORP? For the memories? For the proof of riding? Pass. I'd rather take a nice photo and get it developed at Boots for about 50p if I was that way inclined. Besides, I tend to go with goons who snap away so chances are somebody will "pap" me on ride. Agree entirely with others that a lower cost would sell more. because I don't think they're desirable enough at £9 a pop.
 
Cedar Fair has creeped their Funpix pricing up over the years too, really pushing folks towards a one day or season long subscription model: https://www.cedarpoint.com/tickets-passes/funpix

Fun fact, the most expensive pass you can get at Cedar Fair with all add-ons (meals, drinks, dinosaur attraction, photos) is $435.50.
 
Price elasticity of supply and demand is a complicated business...these companies aren't run by buffoons...as we like to think they are.
They have worked out the bottom line, if they reduce prices, they also increase costs, if you did reduce the price to a quid to sell a few thousand photos, you would also have to increase staff to cope, as well as extra printers and so on.
I'd say Picsolve have realised that the nagging power of kids, and the spirit of "have a good day and stuff the costs", means that lower volume sales of a more expensive product is the way to go sadly. It also generates more "day pass" photo systems as they suddenly seem much better value for money, like the 3 donuts for two quid, 6 for three quid "bargain" prices, they still win 'cos the donuts cost about ten pence each to make.
The simple answer is to not buy any, it isn't compulsory (yet!).
 
Ian said:
Yeah, when ORPS went above £6, something flicked in my barin
Click to expand...

Was it the ability to spell simple words?

Those prices are f**king disgusting. ORPs in the UK have always been overpriced, but they're taking the piss now, not that it really affects me since I rarely buy them.

I'll get the odd one in China since they're really cheap - usually around £2 - but knowing that they just end up shoved in a drawer for a bit before getting thrown out, I won't pay any more for them.

F**k Picsolve. Dirty, evil, robbing bastards.
 
$16 for a ORP at Dollywood, then any subsequent photos on any ride are $5, worth it if you plan on getting a few, but I was gobsmacked at the initial price, still paid it though /grumble.
I rarely buy ORPs nowadays, but I'll be getting a few more now the kids are getting older and want to ride more.
 
DelPiero said:
$16 for a ORP at Dollywood, then any subsequent photos on any ride are $5, worth it if you plan on getting a few, but I was gobsmacked at the initial price, still paid it though /grumble.
I rarely buy ORPs nowadays, but I'll be getting a few more now the kids are getting older and want to ride more.
Click to expand...

You've been to Dollywood???
Why didn't you say?
 
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