Holidays Are an Extended Process at Photo Lab

The holidays are winding down for most of us. Not for Alice Salas, though.

The season was just starting to roll Tuesday when she switched on her cutting console near downtown Los Angeles and a Christmas tree popped out.

Salas is a drugstore photofinisher. And for the next few weeks, she’ll help produce up to 1 million holiday pictures a day for snapshooters throughout Southern California.

“I never get tired of seeing these scenes,” the East Los Angeles woman said as the series of tree pictures gave way to shots of poinsettia plants in a living room.

“I like to see how other people celebrate--there’s not a sad look on anybody’s face. It’s so interesting to see what people are eating for their holiday meal and when people are having family reunions. Pictures tell quite a story.”

The day was developing into a busy one at the Thrifty Drug Stores processing plant on North Avenue 23 next to the Golden State Freeway.

Twenty-four thousand rolls of film--twice the normal amount--were being run through automatic processors and printers.

Large reels of glossy paper, each containing 2,500 finished snapshots, were being fed through 20 cutting consoles. There, pictures were sliced apart, inspected and packaged in envelopes by white-gloved workers.

A jolly Santa posing with two teen-aged girls passed through Sally Murrieta’s console. A series of elegant Christmas wreaths zipped in front of Joann Orge. A happy Hanukkah dinner scene flashed past Lilia Sevin. A boy and his dad were assembling a gift electric train in front of Frances Galindo.

Irma Lopez sat beneath a festive garland of tinsel as she inspected pictures of a little boy and girl. The beaming kids were displaying roller skates and a doll for the camera.

Holiday decorations were everywhere in the sprawling photo lab. A 20-foot-wide snowy village scene stood next to film loading machines. A closet-sized Santa house sat alongside a computerized processor in the print room. A dozen employees’ red stockings hung on the wall in the print sorting area.

The decorations went up after Thanksgiving. Explained Sal Azzinaro, Thrifty’s director of photofinishing operations: “People like to get into the holiday spirit early here.”

And stay in the spirit late.

“This is my favorite time of the year,” Alice Salas said.