I'm sure some of these big copy service chains fit a niche and I'll bet there are plenty of people who would rather do things themselves and pay a machine with their credit card, but I have missed the customer service aspect of it when I have work done there. Maybe I'm just getting old, but I prefer to speak face to face with a person when I have questions about a project.
In contrast, last month I went to Alphagraphics a couple times to have some color copies and enlargements made of some images and I was very happy with their work. They are a smaller operation but the customer service was very good and the prices were much less than what I have previously paid at other stores. I will gladly go out of my way to do business with them in the future.
You can see their website at Alphagraphics.com