Max Spielmann

When I noticed that this shop was empty a couple of weeks ago, I was quite sad. Then I thought about the last time I’d actually been into a photo shop, and I wasn’t really surprised.
However, this week I noticed that the shop had been re-​decorated and had re-​opened. It had always looked old fashioned and had advertised a 20 minute photo service, which in this day and age isn’t really an attraction. Gone are the days when you couldn’t wait 3 weeks for your holiday snaps to come back in the post so took them into a shop. Now we need a 20 second service or we’ll just go online and order our prints for 2p each.
Max Spielmann have finally caught up with the times and installed 2 brand new photo machines where you can put in your memory card and print your photos immediately. There is another screen where you can see what the staff are doing to your pics if you want to order coasters with your best friends’ faces on, or a canvas of that arty photo you took in Thailand, for example.
However, the main service that this little branch now seems to offer is the baby /​child photo service. The window is now used to display massive posters with cute baby photos on, and you can see into the shop where there is a sheepskin blanket for your little ones to pose on. The best thing is that this service is free, although I suppose if you’d gone to that much effort then you’d feel obliged to purchase the snaps — a set starts at £5.99. I guess this may work in Chorlton where there are lots of young families, but with an abundance of arty types with posh SLRs, maybe they’d rather do it themselves? Only time will tell.