Earlier this year, Kodak did something that’s making film stocks really, really difficult for authorized sellers. This is on top of all the problems that film photography has had for years. For many brands, it isn’t very profitable and they often struggle to try to keep it affordable for many of us. But this new problem is complicating the issue even more. I talked to a rep at one of the big, highly trusted stores about this and then asked to verify what’s going on. Here’s the issue, though: no one wants to go on record with what’s happening. The only way that consumers can really help the film photo shops is by buying even more film: which we all know is unsustainable. So what’s happening?
For years, Kodak was essentially two different companies. Eastman Kodak made film and did a whole bunch of other stuff. Kodak Alaris is who handled the film sales even though Eastman manufactured it. This has been the issue since 2012, when they filed for bankruptcy, which we’ve covered pretty extensively. It’s always been weird.
But now, Eastman Kodak is making and selling film in the form of the Kodacolor line, which sellers are now stocking.
The problem: Alaris sells it too. Both companies are selling the exact same product at the exact same price. So the film photography stores are stuck in the middle.
Folks from several companies told me about this, but didn’t want to go on record speaking about it.
So how is this a problem? Well, buying film and buying products from manufacturers is all about relationship building. The more a retailer buys, the better of a relationship they build with the manufacturer. I know from my days (and the reps whom I still speak to) working at B&H Photo. I specifically remember that when Leica released a pretty rare camera, they gave B&H Photo two of them to sell, while mostly only giving one to every other company. The reason is that B&H sells more than any other photo specialty retailer.
Let’s say Eastman Kodak runs out of film because a brand like Freestyle Photographic buys a ton of it, then when they want more, they’ll need to go to Alaris. However, they’re not likely to get a lot of film in because they haven’t been warming up to Alaris as much. This might eventually turn into a problem where both Kodak brands pick and choose favorites even more based on the relationship problem that I spoke of earlier. Essentially, the same product is split between two sellers instead of just one. This would be a different situation if both Alaris and Eastman made the film. But in this case, it’s all being manufactured by one brand, split to sell between two, and then those two are splitting between all the retailers.
What this could mean is that if it’s harder for a retailer to get the film, they might drive the price up because there isn’t a standard MAP price. Instead, it’s sold at MSRP, which is a suggested retail price. It’s something that we reported on back in 2022 and hasn’t been picked up by other photography journalism outlets.
Unfortunately, I feel like consumers won’t act until they’ve felt the problem personally. But when we get to that point, don’t say that I didn’t warn you.