The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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August 21, 2008

Barnett Photo set to close

Business among oldest in Mankato

By Brian Ojanpa

MANKATO — Longtime customer Sandra Mutch walked into Barnett Photo and made her feelings known.

“We’re so sorry to see you go. Where are we going to now? We’re not into self-service. We like things done right,” she said.

Then she gave a life-goes-on shrug.

“But we’ll figure it out. I mean, it’s not a kidney transplant.”

Barnett, one of Mankato’s oldest businesses, is calling it quits after more than 65 years.

“It’s been a good run,” general manager Brian Barnett said of the business started, and still owned by, parents Bob and Lois.

The era of digital photo technology has had a decidedly challenging impact on small photo shops, but Barnett said a career change for his former Mankato schoolteacher wife, Karen, drove the decision to close.

The couple has moved to Cottage Grove. Barnett said he tried unsuccessfully to find potential buyers for the store, and with his parents now in their 80s, the decision to close by the end of August became apparent.

In addition to the Mankato floods of 1965 and a store fire in 1996, Barnett Photo has had to roll with industry evolution punches as well.

“We’ve had to reinvent ourselves four times,” Barnett said, ticking off changes in the industry that have included transitions to color photo processing and custom wedding photography, the switch to one-hour photo processing and the advent of digital services.

Barnett said he’s not looking to retire — “not with two kids in college” — and plans to seek Twin Cities-area employment in the photo industry.

Meantime, Barnett family members have been saying their thank-yous and goodbyes to customers this week.

Bob Barnett said he’s been hearing comments such as this: “You photographed my grandmother’s wedding.”

But the time has come to leave, he said.

“We appreciate the opportunity we have been given to help everyone capture life’s great moments.”

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