The end of an era, after close to a century of service, Evansville's Schmitt Photo is saying good-bye. The business officially closes at 6pm, the family owned company says the ever changing ways of technology, disappearance of film and lower customer demand prompted the closing. But this farewell is far from easy. The photo business has transformed from age old projectors to digital. Schmitt Photo says it's seen the decline of its business for the last five years. "Do you remember the ancient thing called film, I have..now my kids don't really know what it is and I say you guys are Schmitts, you don't know what a negative looks like, but they really don't because things have changed so much," Heather Lejman tells us, her dad Steve Polley owns Schmitt. Long-time customer Mike Hinton makes his last visit picking up some items that may now seem outdated, saying, "See this kind of shows the difference, we had old videotapes that we wanted them to put on discs for us so they would be better stored." Heather Lejman and Steve Polley are part of five generations of Schmitts. "Obviously the people who have worked here, have worked here for years so I'll miss seeing them everyday," Lejman says. Her dad adds, "It's been tough, but I've kind of gotten over it and I knew that today would be difficult." Polley says the personal relationships you find here are rare, "I don't think anybody can invest what we've invested in our customers and they've invested in us." Lejman explains, "I've literally watched people's children grow from birth, go through college, to see them get married, it's all through pictures but it's so neat." Bare shelves and walls resembles the emptiness customers and employees are feeling now. "The community will not be the same and I'm not saying that out of ego or anything else, its just that I know what we do, ours is such an emotional business, its unique, it really is" Polley says. As the scrapbooks close for good, you can sense pride, sadness and satisfaction from a family that's given all it can. Hinton adds, "I think we can just all be thankful that we had just a great establishment here for all these years." Polley says there are still alot of customer photos and items that haven't been picked up, we've got his contact information, email him at stevepolley@reagan.com to arrange pick-up of your belongings.
