FEBRUARY 2016 ;e Costco Connection 83
By Tim Talevich
MANY BUSINESSES AND organizations
are finding Costco Photo Centers a convenient and money-saving resource to help
them with essential projects.
The Photo Centers, located in most warehouses and on Costco.com, can serve as project centers for everything from marketing
materials to company announcements. An
added convenience is that the Photo Centers
can send these projects directly to clients, saving on labor and mailing costs.
Dick Tobiason of Bend, Oregon, is the
volunteer leader of the local chapter of the
Honor Flight Network (
honorflight.org).
The nonprofit organization leads trips to
Washington, D.C., for World War II veterans so they can visit the war memorial, meet
with elected representatives and see other
sights. During the course of the tour, volunteers take photos to document the trip of a
lifetime for the aging vets, who are in their
late 80s and 90s, says Tobiason.
After logging in to the online Costco
Photo Center, volunteers use an easy-to-fol-
low program to create photo books, which
are then printed and given to the vets.
“The photo albums are one of the most
important parts of the trip,” Tobiason says.
“They summarize the experience for these
vets, with both notes and photos.”
The group has created about a thousand
photo books over the years, taking 505 war
vets to the nation’s capital.
Sadly, a trip planned for
May will probably be the
last one. Most of the World
War II vets have passed
away, Tobiason reports.
Photographer Gamal
Sabla of New Orleans is
another Costco Photo
Center power user. He specializes in shooting landscape and architectural
scenes in the New Orleans area, and uses the
online Photo Center to create canvas prints of
his photos. Sabla sells his work at local galleries, markets and fairs.
“The quality of the prints is really good,
and the price is great,” says Sabla, who sells
about 200 prints a year. He sends his orders
online to the Photo Center, and the finished
product is shipped directly to his customers.
“That’s a great benefit,” he says. “It’s cheaper to
ship directly from Costco, and much less
time-consuming for me.”
EthnoPraxis, a customer service con-
sulting company in Renton, Washington,
uses a local Costco Photo Center for essen-
tial business projects. Joan Melgaard, the
Costco Photo Centers
make big jobs easy
For your
busıness
Connecting
Costco Photo Centers are located in most
warehouses and online at Costco.com. The
centers offer photo printing as well as a variety of services using photos, such as personalized cards, calendars, canvas prints, posters, photo books, mugs and more. For a complete list of services, go to Costco.com and
select “Photo,” or check your local Costco.
company’s founder, says the Photo Center
prints posters, handouts and other materials
that are given to clients.
“It’s very important for us to connect to
our clients through our materials,” she says.
“These must be professional and compelling.”
The Costco Photo Center works with
Melgaard closely on these business projects. “If
they have a question about something, they
will call me,” she says. “Their attention to detail
and to quality is very high. The responsiveness
of the Photo Center is very important.” C
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Dick Tobiason, left, and Bob Maxwell look
over a photo book created and printed
through Costco’s Photo Center. Maxwell,
95, a World War II vet, is the oldest living
recipient of the Medal of Honor.
inside costco
