Getting photos taken is easy. Finding out how much they cost....not so much.
We tried to get price quotes. Everyone was mum. Only offering percent off coupons or small package deals. Kelli and I were most interested in a CD of the photos.
We realized we would have to just go and see.
Natali and I stayed home all day to prepare for the photos. I made sure she was well rested and was sleeping until right before we left.
I made a reservation at a Kiddie Kandid location in Hurst inside of a Babies R Us. We arrived early and were the only ones there (this was a Monday....on Sunday it was NUTS in there!). The employee was nice enough. She tried making Natali smile. Natali was like, "Who is this woman father? She is not on my intelligence level....and I'm not yet 4 months!"
Trying to help out, I used a receiving blanket to make Natali smile. She likes blankets close to her face....odd I know.
A few nice photos were taken. Now for the sales pitch.
Kelli quickly stated we were most interested in a photo CD. The photographer assistant stated the CD alone was...drum roll please.....$250!!!!! For 10 photos that were taken!!!!!
However if we bought photos if would be cheaper. The cheapest photo and CD package was $180. I had a 20% off coupon so out the door our cost was $160. For that we got 8 8X11 sheets with various sizes of photos, a 10 x 13 photo and the CD. I wondered if we would have balked more if we could have had a better price. Eh.
A little research showed Kiddie Kandids was purchased by Sears a few years ago. When we stopped by Sears a few days ago we got the same run around on getting prices. Whatever.
I am now working with the photos and will use Snapfish to get our Christmas cards.
Will we use Kiddie Kandids again? Probably not. Next year I will try to find a "real" photographer. The prices aren't much higher and we can get photos outside of a studio.
Update: The $250 CD includes RIGHTS to the photos to print out at your local CVS/Walmart. The cheaper CD that we bought does not.
Sears is awful! I didn't know they bought out Kiddie Kandids. I used Kiddie Kandids once when Marin was 9 months old. I spent around $100 and got a bundle of pics and christmas cards too. That a shame that Sears screwed them up. Next time Marin has photos done I will use a professional.
ReplyDeleteHello. So, I came to this page by trying to figure out how I can view some pictures taken of my daughter a few years back by Kiddie Kandids. Well most the time I actually use the Walmart portrait studio cause they are much cheaper. I just used them a few days ago for my sons birthday and the website I had to visit to view the pictures is www.myonlineportraits.com well the reason why I was searching online to find a way to see these pictures taken a few years ago is because going to kiddie kandids website does not give me the option to view pictures directly from there, it has you click a link which takes you............ guess where? www.myonlineportraits.com ... the walmart lady informed me the other day they were bought out a few years ago.... so seems to me that Walmart and both Kiddie Kandids are the very same company. which when you go to that website, it clearly states their name is picture me portrait studios. well looking at their packages, they are almost identical..
ReplyDeleteI have used kiddie kandid for years, probably from the start of them opening. Since Sears has bought them, I havent been back there. The prices are out of control, and you use to get your pics the same day, as well as xmas cards. The only thing you had to wait on was for any pics larger then 8 x 10. I just placed a call to kiddie kandid to now see how much they were going to be. After almost a 10 min hold, i realized why did i even bother. Ill be spending over 200 dollars after tax is added on. For these kind of prices you can actually higher a professional to come to your home. They are out there, some charge you 35 and hour and what ever else you want. But they do give you the entire cd. So if there was 90 pics taken your getting all 90 of them.
ReplyDeleteI agree, the overall quality of their work is not so great and the waiting time for picture arrival is terrible. Plus their prices are too high!
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