[sabjut]

I'm not sure if that has ever been a thing in the US but here in Germany you can drop off 35mm film at most drug stores for less than 5€. They even give you a 9×13cm printout.

This has been a thing for a long time, I remember going with my mom to the drugstore after a holiday to develop a bunch of them. I bet they've thought of axing this for cost saving in the past but are now more than happy that they didn't do so with the resurgence of film photography over the past years.

[brk]

In the past you could get film processed at most drug stores and many larger supermarket style stores like Walmart, Meijer, etc. Many times you could get the entire process done in one hour or less.

Now I cannot recall the last time I saw an in-store film processing setup. From a quick google search, there are a couple of specialty shops, but the pharmacies mention 7-10 day turn arounds, so they're sending it offsite somewhere.

[mathewsanders]

I remember those machines being above the size of 4 office photocopy/print machines- it’s pretty amazing thinking of all the mechanical internals that must be in those things.

I’ve sometimes wondered what became of them all, were they able to recycle some of the materials, or are they in a bunch of landfills?

[giantg2]

Walmart still has film developing options. Typically they take the film, ship it to a lab, then ship it back for pickup.

It's reasonably priced, but seems to be low quality these days (or I just got 1-2 bad batches).

[qbasic_forever]

It was like that about 10-15 years ago in the US. But in the last decade as analog film died all of the drug stores got rid of their photo developing equipment--it took up a lot of room, required chemicals and training to use, etc.

[xeromal]

Same in the US. They still process photos but they mail them now. The turn-around is usually a week or two.