35mm Film was blank?

No harm in trying. Just be sure to tell them that the film is E-6 slide film and not regular colour film

 

Next time you are there ... ask them if they know what E-6 is.

 

You will notice that Blacksheep and I are coming to the same conclusions, and providing the same answers ... our past experience running Photo labs ... and the fact she is sitting so close.

 

Never ever use in-store processing from a non-pro lab. CVS in fine, but put your film in the little envelope and have them send it to a pro-lab on their dime. If you can develop your own B+W, you should. It's fun, cheap, and offers far more control.

 

Thanks for your help

 

When i first got there I asked for an envelope but they just called someone from the back of the store and she took it. I guess i've learned my lesson.

 

I dunno, that might be a bit of an overgeneralization. Some of the little labs may be quite good, it's just a matter of finding them.

 

Reala is not slide film

 

No it's not.
I was answering the OPs question about slide film, though.

 

Personally I think you should do your own black and white. The chemicals required are almost cheaper than a roll of film, it's lots of fun, you don't need anything fancy (I do mine in my laundry, not a darkroom) and you don't need to worry about someone at a lab earning minimum wages who's barely intelligent enough to know which way to insert the film into the magical development box.

I've even seen some quite supposedly competent labs do horrendous screw-ups. One lab exposed a full frame plate from a colleague through the wrong chemicals. Their response was "woopse, no charge". No consolation to someone who just lost a photo that took him about an hour to setup.