As the general manager of the store explained the nuances of film development to a client, several staff members rearranged the remaining supplies, while others approached the customers walking in the door. There were few signs that the store is going out of business.
The store was founded by Phil and Paul Carter in 1937, according to Dena Romero, the current owner.
"Paul was the photographer of the two, but he died young," she said. "Then, my father got involved in the business."
Romero's father was a Jewish refugee from Europe and a trained photographer who previously lived in New York.
"My father moved to the White River Junction in March 1939," the younger Romero said. "He placed a little advertisement [seeking employment] in a photography magazine. Philip read it, responded, and that's how the story began."
The story that began almost 70 years ago and will end Nov. 1, 2007, the official closing date of the shop.
Financial troubles and competition are not to blame, Romero said.
"There's always competition -- it's the world of competition," she said. "But my reasons aren't connected to it. I just really want to retire."
Romero and her husband bought the business from her mother in the mid-1990s. Romero admits, however, that she has never been a photographer.
"I was a social worker and had a wonderful job," she said. "My husband was taking care of the store, yet he got sick and died in April 2006."
Romero never fell in love with the business.
"I retired [from social work] in June 2005 and fell into this, but it just isn't my thing," she said. "Believe me, if someone called along and said, 'I'll pay you money for the business,' I'd be very happy to talk to that person, but that person doesn't exist."
Despite the circumstances, Romero is pleased with how the closure is going.
"It's amazing -- just look around," Romero said. "We have had the signs since last Thursday, and look -- almost everything's gone already."
Dartmouth students frequent the shop regularly, finding particular interest in buying the on-sale wall posters to decorate their residence hall rooms.
"I bought posters for five dollars there -- so much cheaper than at the College's poster sale," Christina Alexander '11 said.
The store has also had an impact on the Dartmouth community in other ways. Its staff easily recollects the times when studio art senior lecturer Virginia Beahan's photography class developed their films there.
"The students liked it, they dropped off their films and got them back in half of an hour," one staff member said. "We gave them a good price too -- a 50 percent discount."
Although Brian Miller, a studio art professor, confirmed that there were some students who developed their films at the store, he explained that all the supplies are ordered from bigger shops, usually from the New York area, so students' access to such supplies should not be greatly affected.
William Davidson, Romero's landlord since 1993, said that he is currently negotiating with other businesses to rent the storefront, although he refused to comment on who the future tenant might be.
A group of students chatting outside the store already had some ideas for him.
"Maybe an underage strip club," Philip Yun '11 suggested.
Other students threw McDonald's or Wal-Mart into the pile, but it was Molly Schloss '11 who had the final word.
"I feel it all is too anti-Hanover," she said. "Local stores can be just as good."
