Are hairdressers breeding in Wrexham

[Council Watcher]

Is it just me or do we have an epidemic of hairdresser sprouting up all over Wrexham over the past two months- this seems too be the largest growth with many opening new businesses.
Opposite the Set the Bar
King Street
Chester Street
Argyle Street
Lord Street
Brooke Street
Vicarage Hill
Duke Street

It’s good to see empty shops being opened but service type business like these tend to be a destination rather than catering for general shoppers and not boosting the town footfall by many – counting in 10’s and not even 100’s

[JP]

As a kid Wrexham was known for shoe shops and building societies; recently it appears to be Vape shops, Pawn shops and charity shops.

At least hairdressers are paying rates, unlike the charity shops.

Am I the only cynic who notes that most of the Barbers/hairdressers are cash only businesses?

[jimbow]

I do not know how they all survive. Rumour has it that one has had to get a job on the Executive Board to supplement the income.

[Matt]

My guess is that due to the fact that commercial units in town selling products are struggling to remain open with stark competition from the usual online, supermarket and dedicated shopping destinations that services which can’t be procured elsewhere (and need people to be physically there) are popping up in the spaces instead.

Naturally haircutting (salons/barbers) is probably the easiest to set-up – the majority of people have hair (sorry bald people) and the majority of people need to pay someone to have their haircut. With a 60,000 strong head-count (pun intended) there’s a big market there for the taking and like Council Watcher pointed out, each hairdresser only needs scores of customers in numbers of 10s (all paying), rather than the hundreds per day (not all paying – some browsers) that retail units need to sustain a profit. This means a relatively easy ability to remain solvent and pay the main hairdresser and staff, with a small level of ongoing product costs (built into the price of a haircut) and a relatively low set-up cost – a (chair, a mirror and some scissors and a sink – I know it’s more than that, but not much – as mobile barbers are very easy to set-up).

Obviously there will be a critical point when there are too many of this type of shop, but at the moment it seems this is not the case. I know most blokes of certain generations will just go to their favourite barber they went to as a kid and never deviate from the same low-cost haircut – helps keep the likes of Henry’s staying in trade after all these years. However, there is a more open and competitive market for ladies who want to get the latest style in and may be drawn in by special offers on highlights etc… there’s a lot to compete on. Likewise, a lot of these young lads want to pay daft sums of money for the “Meet me at McDonald’s haircut” hence the rise of higher-end barbers, hairdressers for lads etc…

Something must be going right for them as you take somewhere like Cefn Mawr high street – most other shops struggle to stay open there, but there’s about 5 different places you can get your haircut when I last walked through there.

Surprised there aren’t more other types of personal beauty service providers not springing up too – nail bars, professional make-up, treatments etc… Just no fish foot nonsense please!

[Author]

Posts