Discounts
Well, here it is straight. Sorry, for simplicity, fairness and the lowest price for all – there are no discounts. What you see is what you get. To keep prices low many jobs are processed together, as that way everyone benefits from economies of scale. The slide production process is a batch process – it isn’t like running off a photocopy for instance – and it would be impossibly expensive to run, say, a single job of a couple of slides.
But I am a charity / senior citizen / student / college / artist / camera club member / museum / theatre / independent film company – can I have a discount?
These categories describe a good proportion of the customer base. If 80% of customers all are given a discount then the remaining 20% would have to pay perhaps four times as much. This is hardly fair. The simplest solution is to ensure ALL customers receive the lowest price possible, secure in the knowledge that no one is being charged over the odds or that others secure an advantage.
I need a carousel of 80 slides but don't have the money - can I have a discount?
One day I’ll pluck up courage to walk into a luxury car showroom and explain I want an Aston Martin but can’t afford it! Seriously, the viability of a student project should be factored by the funds available for the project. Unmounted slides are by far the cheapest option and just requires you purchase some slide mounts and spend a little time assembling – in return for a large cost saving.
I have one image to be made into 80 identical slides - can I have a discount?
Tricky one to get your head around, but 80 slides take 80 times as long to make and costs 80 times more in film stock. The fact that slides are identical rather than different actually makes no difference to machine time or material cost. All other economies of scale have already been factored in by ganging many customer’s jobs together and processing in large batches.
I have a bulk job of 20 slides - can I have a discount?
20 slides might seem a lot but this isn’t a ‘bulk’ job – we make many thousands of slides a year. Each batch of slides we make is 180 slides and we might run three batches a day.