Ritz Rolls Out Prepaid Card

By Greg Scoblete -- TWICE, 1/26/2004

BELTSVILLE, MD. — In an effort to encourage digital camera owners to make prints from their digital images, specialty camera retailer Ritz Camera Centers has rolled out a pre-paid "DigiPrint" card to all of its 1,200-plus locations nationwide.

The DigiPrint card, which was launched just before the holidays, is the first such prepaid promotion for Ritz, said Richard Tranchida, executive VP. The program will run indefinitely.

"We're trying to make it as simple and as economical as possible for consumers," he said. "People aren't printing a lot of their digital images and we have to educate them that if they don't print, they're not going to have an archive of these images" when the computer hard drive crashes, Tranchida said.

The lackluster printing habits are more pronounced among new digital camera purchasers who look upon the product as a means of escaping the photo-processing fees associated with traditional film cameras, Tranchida said.

The DigiPrint cards are available in 20, 50, or 100 prints totals for $7.19, $16.49, and $28.99, respectively. The 100 print card gives consumers the best value at 29 cents per print and has been the best seller thus far, Tranchida said.

Print quantities are deducted from the total quantity of the DigiPrint Card, and the cards can be used in any of the Ritz Camera Centers family of photo stores.