I decided to try out the Sam's Club Digital Photo Center machine.

Off I went to the local Sam's Club in Vista with a tiff file on a CD. The self-service machine ate up the CD but the message back said it did not find any image on the CD.

After retrieving the CD, I asked the one-hour photo center attendant about the problem. She indicated that the machines would only read .jpeg files and not big high-resolution files. I expressed my dissatisfaction as the whole point was to get a higher quality print than I could print on my inkjet at home. Using the tiff format, there would be no compression and loss of quality. Although I could have done a jpeg compression and ended up with a smaller file, the quality would presumably be noticeably inferior.

This experience was a failure but maybe I will try again with a jpeg.

You can get the job done right in the comfort of your home and, one hour later, pick up the print(s) at the local store.

Sam's Club provides software you can install on your own computer. Install it, create an album, select the image you want printed and order it to be picked up at your local Sam's Club. This method works with large high resolution tiff files as well as jpegs.

Here's where to download the software:
Sam's Club Digital Photo Center

Although the Sam's Club system appears to be quick slick, I am not close to a Sam's Club and thought I'd seen where I could do the same thing through Walmart. This may also appeal to those who are not members of Sam's Club.

Indeed, the same sort of service is available through Walmart. And it seems to offer the advantage of being all done online with no software to download and install.

You can start at this link;
Walmart Photo Center

Later I saw where you can also upload the files directly to Sam's Club and you don't have to download and install software on your computer. It may provide greater editing capability but here's the link for the Sam's Club direct upload.
Sam's Club Photo Center - Direct Upload>