Tanzenite

This article was in a business magazine called Craines, it focuses on local businesses in the Chicago Area...

By Kevin McKeough

It's not easy being pale
Turning brown (skin) into green (cash)



William Flexas doesn't like his natural skin color. "I'm olive color, kind of greenish," says Mr. Flexas, 40, an operations manager at a Joliet commercial laundry service.
So three or four times a week the native Cuban spends 10 minutes under the lamps at an L.A. Tan salon in Lincoln Park. "I'm able to control my skin tone," says Mr. Flexas. "I get a glow. I get a shine. It makes me look healthier."
Customers like Mr. Flexas have contributed to the rapid growth of Lincolnwood-based L.A. Tan Enterprises Inc.
Since it was established in 2001, the company has grown from three suburban Chicago salons to 122 in six states, making L.A. Tan the third-largest indoor tanning chain in the country, says CEO Nick Patel. Last year, L.A. Tan had $42 million in annual revenues.
DARKER WINTERS
Chicago rivals Dallas as one of the most competitive tanning markets in the industry, with local demand driven in large part by, not surprisingly, our cold and dark winters.
The largest number of tanning salons per capita are in the Midwest and Southeast, according to Looking Fit, a trade magazine for the tanning industry.
Ohio is No. 1 with 2,635 tanning facilities, followed by California, Michigan, Illinois and North Carolina, according to the International Smart Tan Network, an educational institute for the tanning industry.
Because customers want to go into the summer already tan for the beach and the barbecue, spring is the busy season for the tanning business. "They are getting ready to look good when the summer hits, to look good on vacation," says Urmish Patel, L.A. Tan's director of operations.




There also are devoted tanners like Mr. Flexas who visit the salons year-round. They include Jenny Heuser, 37, an assistant manager of a construction company who on her lunch break tans three times a week at an L.A. Tan salon in Edgewater. "I went today and I hadn't been there in five days," she says. "It was almost like a crackhead who needed a fix."
COSTS: FINANCIAL AND OTHERWISE
Mr. Flexas and Ms. Heuser each pay $19.99 a month for a package that provides unlimited tanning at the lowest levels of light (a Level 1 tanning bed has 32 120-watt bulbs), and a 50% discount on tanning at higher rates, which can reach $2 a minute (for tanning on a bed with 50 160-watt bulbs).
"It's really cheap," Mr. Flexas says. "It comes out to less than a dollar a day. How much do women spend on makeup?"
Urmish Patel credits L.A. Tan's rates for the company's growth. "Traditionally, tanning was considered upscale for a richer community, whereas our pricing plans made it affordable for anybody," he says.
Mr. Flexas says he regularly gets compliments on his tan. Ms. Heuser says she's also been told she looks good, but her best friend sometimes warns her that she's overdoing it.
Both Mr. Flexas and Ms. Heuser say they prefer salons to sunbathing because they can get a tan with less time and effort. "You lay there for 10 minutes versus four hours in the boiling sun," Ms. Heuser says.
Neither worries about skin cancer, though medical studies have found that indoor tanning increases the risk.
Mr. Flexas takes assurance from the fact that his grandfather, a fisherman who worked outdoors all his life, died of natural causes at age 90. "I'm not afraid of it at all," he says.
©2006 by Crain Communications Inc.

devastoj

GOOD READ THANKS

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TanWorldOrder

Now THIS is a good read.

Tanzenite

Finally an article that is not all negative..

I KNOW IT ALL

I KNOW

billable

"I went today and I hadn't been there in five days," she says. "It was almost like a crackhead who needed a fix."


Get ready for the tanaholic remarks...

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as of July 8 2007 at 4:23pm

SandyXyra

My grandfather baked in the sun all his life. A very tan man he was, not naturally might I add. He did get skin cancer at the age of 60 but it was caught early yet still TANNED after that and lived to 80 and actually died of natural causes. I also have to add my cousin was so scared of the sun and basiclly lived her life inside. Got hit by a car at the age of 30 and died. Life is all about living, don't be scared of everything!!

DB Hottie

BIG THUMBS UP FOR THE INDUSTRY.