When Mike and Judi Weber decided to retire from the camera and photo store they opened 42 years ago in Worth, they knew right away who to contact to keep the increasingly rare art of film processing alive at Quality Plus, now in Palos Heights.
Zibi Podraza had worked for their business two decades ago and still enjoys working with film.
“When Mike told me he was selling the business, it was a chance to do something I love,” Podraza said. “It was the easiest way to go back into this business of film processing.”
Podraza was still in high school when he opened a one-hour photo store under the Kodak Express brand in the early 1990s in Poland. He came to the United States in 2001 and began working at Quality Plus shortly afterward. The store focused then on processing film for professional photographers, and Podraza learned more about the trade from Mike and his Quality Plus manager of more than 30 years, Bill Tubeszewski.
A few years later he opened his own business in Oak Lawn – Zibi Photo & Business Printing – but stayed on good terms with his former employers at Quality Plus.
He said his two businesses have “totally different profiles,” and there is another reason he was interested in buying the Palos Heights store: “For me, the most important thing was current employees will stay with me. A business is the people, not the machines,” he said. “It’s a strong brand. I’m happy to continue it.”
The Webers are making themselves available during the transition period, at least until they sell their home in preparation to move to Kentucky to be close to their daughter and her children.
“We’ve talked to him about making sure customer service is good,” Judi said, adding that Podraza doesn’t have retail offerings at his other business. “We don’t want to leave everyone on their own,” she said, alluding to their friendship over the years. “He introduced us to his friends as ‘the ones who taught me everything I know.’”
The couple opened Quality Plus in Worth 42 years ago when Mike was laid off from his job at the company that invented the EMI body and brain scanner. There were no jobs in his field — he had an architectural degree — so he started a photo lab geared toward professional photographers, especially wedding photographers.
“He had the photo bug,” Judi said. “He pulled me out of an office to run the place.”
Just as the business was preparing to open, Mike was hired at the Chicago Board Options Exchange. “I said, ‘Judi, you’ll have to learn how to manage,’” he said.
Judi did, including going to classes in Oak Brook offered by Kodak “to learn the lingo and the process of how you do things, developing film and printing pictures.”
At first, they had two partners who were eventually bought out, thanks to the business’ success. “Back in the day we ran the film for all the wedding photographers. At one point we ran two shifts. We were open from 9 a.m. to midnight,” Mike explained.
Judi said because they had small children at the time, she had to burn the candle at both ends. “I was doing the night shift from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. I’d get a couple of hours of sleep and then had to get up with the kids.They grew up here. They used to hug the customers. They were here all the time.”
Her children worked at the store when they were in high school, much of that time in Worth. “We were always moving to larger locations,” she said. “We came to Palos Heights in 2015. We always wanted to be here but could never afford it.”
The business also offered same-day printing for photographers at events. “We did maybe 300 in a year,” he said, and when digital cameras came out, “We had to spin on a dime to keep up with business,” he said.
Judi learned on the fly in 2002 how to incorporate computers and the internet. “I taught myself digital scrapbooking. …. This way I was able to work with digital photos, sharing memories, putting them in a calendar or book.”
Their business shifted further into digitization amid the pandemic, when “people had time to look at their VHS tapes,” she said, transferring images and memories to DVDs and now USB drives. They did their work in-house, so irreplaceable items such as photos, slides, videos and home movies would never leave the store.
“We survived 2020 by offering porch pickup,” Judie said.
Judi became a personal photo expert. “There was an organization that certified you,” she explained. “I became head archivist and taught everyone how to scan photos.”
And their work has become personal. “We’ve had people who open their photos at the counter and they cry. It means that much to them,” Mike said.
Now instead of tapes, there’s an increasing demand to work with material stored on people’s cell phones, presenting a new technological shift.
“One of the biggest challenges is people expect us to know phones. They’re all different!” Judi said. “The elder community has been forced to get into phone technology. … It’s flustering for older people.”
But demand for their original services remains. In fact, like vinyl LP records, analog photography might be making a comeback, and Quality Plus is poised to take advantage.
“It’s probably one of the only companies that process film,” Mike said. “It’s picked up in the last few years.”
Before he retired from his other job a year ago, Mike worked at the store nights and weekends. He said it’s going to be a big change.
About 20 or 25 people came to the store June 28, their last official day as owners. “We’ve had so many people stop by,” he said. “We know their stories and they know ours.”
“I think I’m going to miss customers the most,” Judi said, adding that she’s going to put photos and printed-out comments from customers into a book.
New owner Podraza plans to keep the name but already has a few plans in the works for Quality Plus.
“We might add some premium products like fancy wedding albums” and similar items, he said. He’s also working on boosting the store’s website to shorten upload times for customer photos.
His three daughters also are looking forward to continuing the Quality Plus tradition as a family business. “They’re very excited because they want to do things,” Podraza said. “My 8-year-old is taking passport photos. She is doing everything from taking the photo to processing it.”
The Webers hope their legacy continues. “We want people to continue to save their memories. That’s why we chose to sell it rather than close it,” Judi said.
“We’ve had good long-term employees and some long-term customers,” Mike said. “It’s been a fun ride, and in some cases I wish we didn’t quit.”
Melinda Moore is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
