New York — Two major drug chains announced new services designed for consumers who print or upload their images from the comfort of their homes.
Walgreens courted home printers with a new inkjet cartridge refilling service while Longs Drug Stores announced a partnership with Hewlett-Packard’s online service Snapfish.
Walgreens will offer black and color inkjet cartridge refilling at 1,500 of its roughly 5,500 stores using TonerHead’s Ink-O-Dem refilling station. According to a Walgreens spokesperson, the refill takes 15 minutes and will cost approximately half of what a new cartridge would command. Prices will vary based on cartridge type.
The Ink-O-Dem station is operated by store personnel and supports most of the popular inkjet printers on the market except for Canon, the spokesperson said.
Longs Drugs’ online photo Web-site will now include a host of new photo-editing tools courtesy of its Snapfish tie-up. It will also allow the drug chain to offer over 90 different photo gifts and accessories, such as books, calendars, mugs, and t-shirts, through its online store.
Longs currently uses HP’s Photosmart Studio kiosks in 100 of its stores. The kiosks are capable of making photo gifts – such as books and wide format posters – in under an hour in-store.
