Haircut Places, Beauty Salons, Massage Parlors Disappearing

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Re: Haircut Places, Beauty Salons, Massage Parlors Disappearing

Post by SamSpade »

The pandemic, location, maybe some other factors caused this franchise salon to fold in Portland, Ore. but they are still around to be partnered with - perhaps more locations will appear.
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I will admit it seemed like an "OK" concept (a la Sport Clips), but the pricing was at or higher than the nail salon where I already feel relaxed and certainly do enjoy the high end massage chair that was mentioned in the last post. Pedicures are in a separate area in the rear of the salon so a lot of the noise of people coming/going is muted.
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Re: Haircut Places, Beauty Salons, Massage Parlors Disappearing

Post by Super S »

I will say that I started growing my hair a bit during the pandemic because nobody was open for a while that could cut it. I have found that I prefer it this way, and now just go every few months for a trim.

One thing about Great Clips in particular bugs me though. They use your phone number to keep notes about your haircuts, which I don't have a problem with. But I have tried visiting other Great clips locations to discover that the phone numbers aren't shared with other locations (I share my phone number only not my address or anything else). One time while traveling, I stopped in one location and just wanted a trim, and explained that I did not want to give out all my info, and they refused service if I did not give them ALL of my information including my drivers license (which I am not sure is legal). I went to another location in the same town where they checked me in as a "guest". I have to wonder if some locations are doing this as a form of "contact tracing". And as for checking in online, I am not uploading an app etc. for that.
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Re: Haircut Places, Beauty Salons, Massage Parlors Disappearing

Post by buckguy »

I've noticed that a few of the chain locations have closed but the traditional barber shops have stuck around---both the truly traditional old school places and the high end places, which were taking off before COVID. One difference is the pricing which, has steadily increased well beyond the rate of inflation at the old school places (less so at the high end spots)--both here and where I sometimes go when I have to be in Ohio. My guess is that the chains (which pay horribly) aren't able to keep people, while the traditional shops have been making up whatever trade they've lost with higher prices, gradually seeing how far they can go. It's common for barbers and stylists to rent chairs, so I assume their overhead may be part of the increases. The traditional shops seem to have the same level of staffing as before but probably fewer customers.

One thing to consider is that a lot of barber shops and even some beauty salons have long had other ways of generating cash--as places with a lot of foot traffic they've often been involved with gambling. There may have been more of this in the past when there were fewer ways/places to gamble, but I've seen it happening more than one place in the past few years. Chains probably can't do this, but for traditional, old school places it was probably a revenue stream they missed when they closed and they may have had difficulty getting it back.
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Re: Haircut Places, Beauty Salons, Massage Parlors Disappearing

Post by Brian Lutz »

Can't say I've ever seen gambling in a barber shop before. How would that work, something like the barber running an under-the-table sports book?
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Re: Haircut Places, Beauty Salons, Massage Parlors Disappearing

Post by Alpha8472 »

There are barbershops where the same people sit there all day and if you ask the right person they will lead you to the back. Be careful because they are carrying guns under the barber aprons.

A Boba tea shop was openly selling stolen merchandise in San Francisco. I am surprised it operated so long without getting busted. The service was terrible and the wait times were long. They purposely tried to make customers not want to buy drinks there. Their side business was making tons of money.

There was a meth lab in a shop next to the 7-Eleven down the street from my house. I always wondered how those little shops paid their rent if the doors were locked most of the time and the windows were all covered up.
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Re: Haircut Places, Beauty Salons, Massage Parlors Disappearing

Post by Brian Lutz »

A couple of years ago there was a Little Caesar's shop in Snohomish which closed suddenly, and I later found out that the owner was busted for using it as a front for drug dealing. Eventually it got turned into a Domino's.
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Re: Haircut Places, Beauty Salons, Massage Parlors Disappearing

Post by norcalriteaidclerk »

My current closest haircut place is an indie barber shop in a center shared with a save Mart (Crestview Village).At this point 14 months ago before moving I lived closest to a Supercuts(Madison/Dewey Safeway center)and an independent barber shop that had a prolonged temporary closure (at least a year) due to an owner illness(not COVID related).Even now the chain locations have been subject to intermittent temporary closure.While conducting birthday rewards errands in Arden arcade (including depositing class action settlement checks at my local credit union branch)a few weeks ago,my intended first action was to get a sorely needed haircut,but the Country Club Supercuts didn't have a check-in option on the app(disabled for that location)which wasn't exactly a sign of reassurance;so it ended up trying a Great Clips for the first time(the Arden square location,in a mid 1950's center that historically was home to Sacramento's first Thrifty Cut-Rate Drug Store,is a short bus ride away from Country Club). They didn't do too badly,but then again I was a first time customer.

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For your life,Thrifty and Payless have got it.
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Re: Haircut Places, Beauty Salons, Massage Parlors Disappearing

Post by storewanderer »

norcalriteaidclerk wrote: August 13th, 2022, 12:21 pm My current closest haircut place is an indie barber shop in a center shared with a save Mart (Crestview Village).At this point 14 months ago before moving I lived closest to a Supercuts(Madison/Dewey Safeway center)and an independent barber shop that had a prolonged temporary closure (at least a year) due to an owner illness(not COVID related).Even now the chain locations have been subject to intermittent temporary closure.While conducting birthday rewards errands in Arden arcade (including depositing class action settlement checks at my local credit union branch)a few weeks ago,my intended first action was to get a sorely needed haircut,but the Country Club Supercuts didn't have a check-in option on the app(disabled for that location)which wasn't exactly a sign of reassurance;so it ended up trying a Great Clips for the first time(the Arden square location,in a mid 1950's center that historically was home to Sacramento's first Thrifty Cut-Rate Drug Store,is a short bus ride away from Country Club). They didn't do too badly,but then again I was a first time customer.

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It is luck of the draw with the walk in chains. Sometimes you will get someone great, other times, not so much. I also think it varies on how busy they are, if they have a backlog, or are about to go off shift, they may rush, etc.
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