Buffalo in the 80s: Get half-off on film developing at Fotomat

       By Steve Cichon
       steve@buffalostories.com
       @stevebuffalo

In 1980, there were 44 Fotomat locations in Buffalo. Not all had the iconic tiny stand-alone blue booth with a yellow roof, but many did.

By 1990, 23 Fotomat locations were still in operation in Buffalo, but changes in film developing technology were making the stand-alone booths — and the promise of next-day developing — obsolete.

In 1992, 13 former Fotomat kiosks became Wiper Check booths, selling and installing Buffalo-made Trico wiper blades.

Buffalo’s Fotomat locations, from the 1979-80 Buffalo Telephone Directory

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Steve Cichon

Steve Cichon writes about Buffalo’s pop culture history. His stories of Buffalo's past have appeared more than 1600 times in The Buffalo News. He's a proud Buffalonian helping the world experience the city he loves. Since the earliest days of the internet, Cichon's been creating content celebrating the people, places, and ideas that make Buffalo unique and special. The 25-year veteran of Buffalo radio and television has written five books and curates The Buffalo Stories Archives-- hundreds of thousands of books, images, and audio/visual media which tell the stories of who we are in Western New York.