Negative publicity, recession and less volume. (The elephant in the room)

[Lobo 77]

Originally Posted by Matthew24

Lobo77,
Is this the first major franchise to enter your market?

Who can argue that the roll up hasn't worked? Most markets are now owned by one franchise or another. The low hanging fruit is now gone or will be very soon.
They are now going head to head against like (more or less) models.

I don't follow your point. To answer your question first though, no, we've had a large franchisor in our market for at least 5 years. Just because the franchises are duking it out following the same model doesn't mean the model is profitable. This business isn't rocket science and there isn't some magic formula to profitability that only the franchisors know. I have yet to see a franchise provide real net (of fees and royalties) value to a franchisee. Is it in training? I doubt it when some of the poorest customer service and operating fundamentals is taking place in the franchised stores. Is it in equipment buying? I can make just as good of buys as they can, in fact from what the vendors I've checked with are telling me, most of the franchisees are getting ripped off big time by their franchisor. Is it in lotion buying? I get the same deals they do and I buy and stock what I want to instead of what they shove down my throat. Is it in site selection? I haven't seen a franchisor be willing to tell a franchisee to wait a year or more to get the right site at the right deal, yet that's often what it takes to get the best site. So what are the franchisors delivering in exchange for their fees and royalties at the end of the day?

I'm familiar from my travels and other business activities with a lot of markets that franchises now 'dominate' and I have yet to see their franchisees doing any real damage to the independents that the independents or market conditions didn't do to themselves.

So to get back to the original topic of this thread and the reason I'm posting in it, this industry can't continue to devalue the equipment that is supposed to be our money-makers. Selling monthly unlimited HP even at $70 a month means you're getting about $14 - $15 per session at best and at the same time you're selling much less lotion because the customer is going through it more slowly. Franchisors, their franchisees, and serious independents need to stop the approach that goes after volume by sacrificing gross profit and recognize that there is a minimum level of cost that must be covered on each session.

And included in that cost is a little factor called return on investment.

[vip1632]

I loved this industry but unfortuantley i had to close my salon 6 months ago due to illness. but i am so glad to be out there is too much negativity against tanning right now and i don't see it ending anytime soon. I wish all tanning salon owners out there much success and happiness. I'm just glad all the stress from it is gone. good luck!!

[Good_Guy]

Originally Posted by vip1632

I loved this industry but unfortuantley i had to close my salon 6 months ago due to illness. but i am so glad to be out there is too much negativity against tanning right now and i don't see it ending anytime soon. I wish all tanning salon owners out there much success and happiness. I'm just glad all the stress from it is gone. good luck!!

Thanks for this feedback. I hope we get more real world stories. We had a location close down near us in the past month or so.

[Good_Guy]

We really are just trying to realist instead of just negative. Are others seeing this major negative publicity attack?

Negative article about SPRAY TANNING:
http://www.styleswept.ca/2012/06/new...y-tanning.html

It appears to me that if you own a tanning salon your in a public relations war if you know it or not.

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[peach]

Steve,
You sound like you are in favor of the ole circular firing squad. There will always be a salon where answers to questions are not good.

[Hank van]

no matter what are tanning population is shrinking every year.

[kookyguy]

Not around here.