Kiddy Kandis out of business

[Natural Imagez]

all Kiddie Kandid stores are officially closed as of this morning. hopefully others in the forum here will be able to pick up some additional business. feel sorry for the employees who seemed to have got totally suprised this morning.

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=9305149

sorry Kiddy Kandids.

[RWatkins]

This is what you get with the vulgarization of high quality photography gear and the societal shift to the web for sharing images...I guess. Heck, it could have been from mismanagement.

[Stealthy Ninja]

What I got from that is that the traditional studio photo business is dying. Since Kiddie Kandids was around since 1974, I'd say they didn't adapt.

Hope that lady finds some work. I don't like it if kids suffer..........

[Crimzon]

The thing that always angers me is that it states the employees wont be getting their paychecks. I bet that upper management got theirs. Also the customers who already paid for their appointments wont be getting their pics either. I get that they're going out of business, but why do they have to screw everyone over? The person/persons responsible for the sudden abrupt closure, without warning and proper payments, should be jailed.

[Natural Imagez]

i agree. people should be getting paid for the time they worked before the closure. they reported on the news last night that b/c of the chapter 7 filing that all assets liquidated then paid to creditors first. the only way for the employees to get back pay would be to file with the labor commission and get on the list of creditors, but even then they are likely to get nothing. then the people over the holidays that did photos of there kids if they haven't got their photos probably won't get them either

[tkbslc]

The thing that always angers me is that it states the employees wont be getting their paychecks. I bet that upper management got theirs. Also the customers who already paid for their appointments wont be getting their pics either. I get that they're going out of business, but why do they have to screw everyone over? The person/persons responsible for the sudden abrupt closure, without warning and proper payments, should be jailed.

From reading this artice:

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705357714/Kiddie-Kandids-shutting-doors.html

it sounds like they were running the business entirely on credit. Banks finally said no, and so with credit maxed out, there was no more money left to charge another 2 weeks of salary and medical insurance. Seems like a horrible way to run a company. With 184 stores, you'd think they could have caught it earlier and consolidated down to half as many somewhat profitable ones instead of just throwing in the towel over a weekend.

I think some of this is a casualty of the current industry trends (I used to go there, but now take my own, for example) but a lot of it is heavy leveraging debt into a down economy.

to the OP: saying "hopefully we all can pick up more business now" seems pretty insensitive to the current situation, don't you think?

[bjyoder]

From reading this artice:

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705357714/Kiddie-Kandids-shutting-doors.html

it sounds like they were running the business entirely on credit. Banks finally said no, and so with credit maxed out, there was no more money left to charge another 2 weeks of salary and medical insurance. Seems like a horrible way to run a company. With 184 stores, you'd think they could have caught it earlier and consolidated down to half as many somewhat profitable ones instead of just throwing in the towel over a weekend.

I think some of this is a casualty of the current industry trends (I used to go there, but now take my own, for example) but a lot of it is heavy leveraging debt into a down economy.

to the OP: saying "hopefully we all can pick up more business now" seems pretty insensitive to the current situation, don't you think?

Maybe, but in business you need to jump onto the opportunities you have. It has to absolutely suck for anyone working there. That's not to say, however, that a child photographer shouldn't take a look and try to capitalize on a competitor leaving.

[KenjiS]

Maybe, but in business you need to jump onto the opportunities you have. It has to absolutely suck for anyone working there. That's not to say, however, that a child photographer shouldn't take a look and try to capitalize on a competitor leaving.

Or that one of the employees couldnt take what they learned there and strike out on their own

I agree, sounds like they were terribly mismanaged and then run into the ground...

I feel bad for the employees, this economy is rough on everyone

[FZ1dave]

The a$$hats in upper management knew it was coming. You don't just up and shut down an operation like that overnight. Another example of the American worker getting screwed.

I wonder what this means for the websites customers could set up. Do they disappear too along with all the content?

[kiddsoles]

does that mean we can pick up on some backgrounds for cheap? :)

[10megapixel]

Where was their bailout? :rolleyes:

[professorman]

That is really sad. It sucks to have worked and not be able to get paid for your time.

[stagi]

Pretty smart for the studio who is offering a free session for people impacted by this

[Sam]

The thing that always angers me is that it states the employees wont be getting their paychecks. I bet that upper management got theirs. Also the customers who already paid for their appointments wont be getting their pics either. I get that they're going out of business, but why do they have to screw everyone over? The person/persons responsible for the sudden abrupt closure, without warning and proper payments, should be jailed.

From reading this artice:

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705357714/Kiddie-Kandids-shutting-doors.html

it sounds like they were running the business entirely on credit. Banks finally said no, and so with credit maxed out, there was no more money left to charge another 2 weeks of salary and medical insurance. Seems like a horrible way to run a company. With 184 stores, you'd think they could have caught it earlier and consolidated down to half as many somewhat profitable ones instead of just throwing in the towel over a weekend.

I think some of this is a casualty of the current industry trends (I used to go there, but now take my own, for example) but a lot of it is heavy leveraging debt into a down economy.

to the OP: saying "hopefully we all can pick up more business now" seems pretty insensitive to the current situation, don't you think?

I doubt any employee was paid if they were working off of their line of credit to pay their payroll out.

This isn't a new story, the banks were all too happy to hand money out to any idiot willing to take on the loan. When people stopped spending money a lot of businesses no longer made their bank covenants and the banks revoked the line of credit. Just because a business is large or has high volume doesn't mean they were managing it right.

There is more to business than location and marketing. If you don't know what to do with the money when it comes in and your lenders don't police up on you your business fails.

[OdiN1701]

What I got from that is that the traditional studio photo business is dying. Since Kiddie Kandids was around since 1974, I'd say they didn't adapt.

I would agree with this.

[35mmNewbie]

Not to dig this up, but they filed for bankruptcy got 50million and sold it to the company that owns sears photostudio and all the other ones.