Assume = ass + u + me (but mostly me)

This post could have had one of many titles, take your pick:
There it goes (my money!)
Prime example of Kari being retarded in Austria
Prime example of why bigger, cheaper America is better
Why is everything so damned expensive?
Down with Niedermeyer!

So, I dropped off a roll of 36 exposure film to be developed. I took it to Niedermeyer, which I now know was a grave mistake. Niedermeyer is a pretty classy electronics store that also does film development; when I studied in Vienna I developed my film exclusively at Niedermeyer (it was around the corner on Josefstädterstraße) and I was always very pleased with the quality of the pictures. I don’t recall it being that much more expensive than other places, although it was probably sligthly more so. Anyway, so this time, I decided to take the film to Niedermeyer again.

I went to pick it up this afternoon after finding out I had been paid. I gave the lady my little slip and she gave me the pictures to look through in order to be sure they looked good, in case there were any that I wanted to have reworked. I flipped through them in 10 seconds because I think it is weird to pour over photos like I normally do while being waited on, and I said they were fine. I picked up another roll of film because I was out and handed the whole lot to the lady. We got over to the checkout and the total was, seriously, are you ready for this shit?

€27,46!

I must have been standing there dumbstruck for several seconds. But then I had to pay attention again because the sales lady was telling me that the roll of film I’d purchased was “all inclusive”, meaning that I paid for the film and its future development all at once, which I guess is sort of good. That cost €6.99. The roll of 36 exposure Kodak I’d dropped off to be developed into 4x6 prints ended up costing me €20.47. I paid for the photos while shaking my head in indiginant rage and then asked if there was a price list I could see. The lady didn’t have one, but what was it that I wanted to know? I said I wanted to know why developing this ONE roll of film cost me €20, which, for the benefit my American readership, is slightly more than $25. She then proceeded to tell me that the flat processing fee is €4.00 (as compared to €1.50 elsewhere) and that each print cost 43 cents (as compared to €0.13 elsewhere)! Let’s see, 36 prints times €0.43 = bankruptcy!

I walked home shaking my head and muttering obscenities. I found it a little hard to enjoy the photos because they were so damned expensive, but I have to *very very* grudgingly admit that the quality is excellent and the colors are very brilliant, even for matte photos, which I ordered for whatever silly reason.

What I don’t get, and what you, dear reader, may also not understand, is why the Kodak roll cost so much to develop and the roll of Niedermeyer brand film I’d just bought cost €6.99 including development (into 3.5 x 5 and if I want 4x6es then I’ll have to pay an additional €1.50 or something ridiculously small like that)??? I didn’t ask that question, but I am tempted to go back tomorrow and ask it. I mean, seriously, is it because it wasn’t Niedermeyer film? They use the same C41 processing over here for film, so it isn’t like they had to cook up a special vat of magical developing liquid or whatever the hell that stuff is in order to develop my film.

I think I’ll have to go on swearing under my breath about this trip to Idiotville for a while.