Polaroid hasn’t been generating a lot of profits lately. The company has tried numerous times to break into the digital age to no avail. But, even though people aren’t buying Polaroid cameras anymore or using Polaroid film, there may be a small space in the smartphone world after all.

Polaroid company execs just announced the upcoming arrival of Polaroid printing stores. In conjunction with the Fotobar service that Polaroid recently created, smartphone photo snappers can walk into a Polaroid store and print smartphone photos with ease.

Not familiar with Fotobar? Here’s what you might have missed.

Polaroid’s Fotobar Service

Typically, the way to sell a product is to recognize the need for that product. Polaroid understood some time ago that smartphone users needed a way to print out photos that would, otherwise, stay forever stuck in the cloud or on a phone. So, Polaroid decided to create Fotobar. Fotobar is an online service that allows smartphone users to upload photos to the site, and then print those photos in a number of different ways (calendars, large prints, small prints). Much like other photo sites, Fotobar comes with different packages, prices, and other ideals.

Anyone can use Fotobar, and uploading photos is really quite simple. So, why would Polaroid invest money in actual brick and mortar storefronts that largely produce the same photo printing result? Polaroid is banking on store employees to move this project along. The company has stated that store employees will provide needed assistance to customers, help create unique photo prints, and show people why a Polaroid picture is still a photo worth paying for and creating.

Fotobar Storefront Openings

Polaroid’s recent press release states that the first Fotobar store will open in Delray Beach, Florida. If that store works out, the company will proceed with stores in New York City, Boston, Las Vegas, and various other locations (nine stores total). The new Florida store will open its doors this coming October. Will Polaroid succeed with the new Fotobar stores? It’s tough to say; but it’s hard to imagine that people will take the time to visit a photo store when printing photos online is really quite simple.

Yet, this is an interesting endeavor all the same, and some older folks who use smartphones but have no idea how to print photos may enjoy the hands-on stores. After all, seeing a photo in person and gaining the advice of a photo expert might be the one thing that people who love to print photos aren’t getting from an online digital printing experience.

Hopefully, this venture will work out for Polaroid, a company that’s been around since 1937 and was the gold standard in cameras and photographs for many years. If you know someone who needs a way to print photos, doesn’t dig the online printing galleries offered, and lives in Delray Beach, you may want to direct that person to Polaroid’s new store when it opens. At the very least, you’ll be helping someone create printed memories that last a lifetime (even if the Polaroid stores don’t last that long!).