8 July 2008:  Here’s a link to an article on pricing from the Professional Child Photography blog that you may find interesting.  http://www.professionalchildphotographer.com/information/

Why do Custom Portraits cost so much? With rock bottom low prices available for almost anything these days at stores like Wal-mart many people ask why custom portraits by independent professional photographers and studios cost what they do.  Shawn Ricter of Caught on Film Photography in San Diego, California has posted his explanation for this on his site. You can read his article by clicking the link on his site. In the prize winning book, The Wal-mart Effect published in 2005, the author Charles Fishman, explains that Wal-mart only earns $3 on $97.00 on most of its retail sales requiring mega volume in sales to realize its profits. It also demands its vendors provide their products at rock bottom prices, often compromising the company’s ability to survive and eventually they are unable to clear a profit while selling to Wal-mart. Not many folks of any line of business could survive in that businss model regardless of the line merchandise or service offered. This kind of profit margin requires a tremendous volume of sales to make even $300. Imagine making only  $0.30 on a $9.97 packages of photographs and the shoot or $3.00 on any $100.00 purchase.   An independent artist simply cannot offer you something custom on those kind of profit margins.  Another link to reasons professional photography costs can be read here: 10-Reasons-Professional-Photographers-Charge-What-They-Do.

Why does Wal-mart have a new photography service? The previous studio operated by PCA went “under.” You can read about it here. PCA operated 500 low priced portrait studios in the Wal-mart stores. In filing for bankruptcy the company acknowledged that due to low prices they were operating on the credit that was extended to them by their suppliers and that their income from sales was not enough to pay their creditors. Here is the link to the story. Your independent professional photographers are not offering products below cost at the expense of their creditors.