Target Portrait Studios to close...

Consumerist reports that Target has announced to employees that all Target Portrait Studios will close at the end of this month.

There aren’t many of the studios left across the whole Target chain; after a handful of studios closed in July, only 138 remained, and two more have closed since then. Compare that to more than 1,800 Target stores across the country.

The studios are operated by LifeTouch, a company out of Minnesota that has its own portrait studios as well as a business taking pictures for church directories, yearbooks, school pictures, and sports teams.

Target began offering the service in 1996 as department store photo studios faded. But Americans’ photo habits have changed, and that change apparently doesn’t include as many professional portraits as it used to. Other Target stores that have closed their studios have re-purposed the space in ways that are more useful to customers and to the store, like an expanded customer service area for online order pickups, or a licensed Starbucks store.