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Original poster

To be surprised that in a recession...

118 replies

Joolyjoolyjoo · 14/10/2011 23:04

The businesses that seem to be thriving in my town centre are nail bars, beauticians and travel agencies Confused Oh, and pawn shops/ buy your gold/ brighthouse.

The nail bars/ foot-eating-fish emporiums are always busy. But other businesses seem to be going under. I have been watching, as I've recently opened my own business (vets) in the town, and I am appreciative that times are tough. Don't get me wrong, we are slowly doing ok (lots of lovely clients and I think I am fairly priced). But it seems to me that when times are tough the first things to go would be the luxuries (to me, acrylic nails etc) but this doesn't seem to be the way it works. I am intrigued by this.

To me, priority is bills, then food, then essential household stuff (kids clothes/ shoes/ necessary repairs etc) I can understand why (sadly) some smaller speciality shops have gone, and even the demise of Woolies (which I loved Blush) but every time a long established business closes a beautician/ nail bar seems to open up and be busy.

It seems like the people in my town must be pawning their gear, selling their gold...then going to get their nails/ feet done before booking a holiday! Anyone else's town starting to look like this?

OP posts:
madmomma · 15/10/2011 00:38

Noooooooooooo!!!! His last tiny breath in your hands SadSadSad

sunshineandbooks · 15/10/2011 00:39

No, I agree, the fish thing is just weird

WinterIsComing · 15/10/2011 00:41

Gaaaaaaaah! I've made it worse. Sorry sorry sorry!

Brew Brew Brew all round; hot with plenty of sugar.

QuintessentialShadyHallows · 15/10/2011 00:42

You dont have to go longer than to peoples bathrooms to check the "Lipstick" phenomenon.

Those of my friends who are not very well off have their shelves full of reasonably priced beauty products, shower gels, make up, perfumes and bath salts in all shapes and sizes.

My well off friends have very little. A bottle of Molton Brown, some Estee Lauder or Lancome for their moisturizer, a few choice perfumes.

madmomma · 15/10/2011 00:43

Hahahaha! It's ok - I'm a hopeless case. Thanks for the Brew - feel a bit more rational now Wink

sunshineandbooks · 15/10/2011 00:44

Jooly - BTW, congratulations on setting up your own practice. I meant to put that in my first post. Smile

Fifis25StottieCakes · 15/10/2011 00:45

Our main street used to have and array of shops. All there is now is takeaways, offies, hairdressers and sunbed shops.

WinterIsComing · 15/10/2011 00:47

Grin Glad to hear it. All the best for the weeks / months to come!

NotanOtter · 15/10/2011 00:52

always the way jools - the four wheel drivers are usually slower to pay ;)

Original poster
Joolyjoolyjoo · 15/10/2011 00:53

Cheers, sunshine! I am really enjoying finally being my own boss, it's very rewarding! And the main thing is that I am local to my home/ kids school/ nursery which was one of the main things in setting up. I run (am always running late Blush) up the road to pick them up and they can come to the surgery and do their homework (and have a nosy at any patients I have in) It's fab.

winter- Sad re your hammy, but it's possible he wouldn't have survived the surgery. madmomma- please don't cry, these things happen. These wee guys aren't built to survive long!

Oh, and the Guines Pig's bladder stones weren't just in his bladder! A couple were in his ureters (the tubes from kidney to bladder), so required microsurgery I had never done before.

OP posts:
BustersOfDoom · 15/10/2011 00:59

I can't argue with you Jooly people who choose not to pay for their pet's healthcare are arseholes whether they shell out instead for nails, highlights or spoilers for their shite car.

Our moggies come first and always have. I wouldn't swap either for a manicure, they're far too important!

usualsuspect · 15/10/2011 00:59

The bloody poor people should just buy cheap bread and stuff

and wear bin bags

usualsuspect · 15/10/2011 00:59

and they should eat their pets

Original poster
Joolyjoolyjoo · 15/10/2011 01:09

Er, usualsuspect, I am not trying to dicatate how people should spend their money, just expressing surprise that acrylic nails should be so far up the priority list when times are hard.

but, if pushed, I'd say that maybe they should just not have pets, if they are not willing to spend any money on their wellbeing.

And this isn't where I wanted the discussion to go- spend it on pets or on nails. It was meant to be a general discussion about the state of high streets/ town centres, nothing really to do with vets/ animals.

OP posts:
Blueberties · 15/10/2011 01:28

I never have this stuff done. I'm with hoho and cate, I think they must be covers for summat. Hair cut once a year if that, I can do my own nails. Funds go for the future, on the children, on the house. Years and years of this. Sometimes I wonder what the point is, the savings are vanishing through inflation, prudence will see me paying my own old age bills, I'll still be paying tax for other people to have their nails done. Tedious.

Blueberties · 15/10/2011 01:30

Maybe that's why, there's no point in saving money. What for? Someone will have it instead of you. It won't make you better off in old age. You'll just be done because you saved, instead of the person who spent it all on their nails and iphones, and it'll all be had off you for the next generation of nails and iphone spenders.

animula · 15/10/2011 01:32

Poor people should have cats - they're pretty self-sufficient. at a pinch cats will go and get fed by other people. Or perhaps adopt an urban fox? That could work out as a viable cheap pet option.

And I'm just putting a kite up here - but how about a Big Society-style thing, where better off families can invite poorer families over to pet their pets? Say, for 15 minutes or so (supervised), once a week?

On the issue of nail bars etc, I think sunshineandbooks, Trills and others have it.

Blueberties · 15/10/2011 01:39

I used to spend more money on junk when I was really poor because there wasn't any possibility that I would ever be out of a hole. Save 20 a month you've only got 240 at year end and that doesn't seem much. But when you can see money grow, or the mortgage go down, the benefit is apparent.

Blueberties · 15/10/2011 01:40

I suppose at the end of it I'll have my house. Who cares about nails then.

MartyrStewart · 15/10/2011 01:52

I spend a chunk of my income on tip top pet insurance, but sometimes miss meals. It's all about priorities I guess

(BTW OP, I like you instinctively, because my lovely cousin is a vet called Julie Smile )

AlpinePony · 15/10/2011 05:03

Priorities and sign 'o' the times I think.

I was back in the UK in June I was "surprised" to see no less than FOUR hair & beauty salons (fake tan/nails/hair/lives) in my mum's local town (pop. sheep/cows/sheepdogs & 6 farmers). A town where they don't sell new clothes but just a few charity shops - where Tesco is a new and exciting employer - the vet gets paid late and even a couple of pubs have closed down.

We (as a nation of women) never used to go in for all these treatments, when I was a teen it was very "fancy" to go to a salon. Normal people bought a 99p sachet of crap from superdrug. Wink

SolarPrestigeAGammon · 15/10/2011 05:20

Over the past 10 years people have started to believe they are entitled to the pampering that goes on in nail bars etc. There are also the youth who have realised that they will never be able to afford to buy their own home so actually don't see the point of saving.

Sometimes I feel like I am the only 40+ year old who has never had a manicure, fake tan or beauty treatment (and I can afford them)

margerykemp · 15/10/2011 05:20

You spend the value of a new car at xmas! Omg, that to me is decadent.

FellatioNelson · 15/10/2011 05:55

I think that often the kind of people who are perma-tanned and fake nailed don't even see them as optional luxuries any more - to them they are essentials and they would feel bereft at not having them. It's exactly the same as people who smoke when they can barely afford to put food in the cupboards. To them, the cigarettes are no less important than food, or probably more so. It makes no sense to the rest of us, but there you go.

The fish pedicure bars are a fad. They will all be gone within two years.

pinkytheshrinky · 15/10/2011 06:52

Talking of priorities, I had a conversation in the playground with a Mummy who was refusing to send her son on a school trip because of the price (£150 - we have had over 6 months to pay it) - She had a full set of fabulous nails, her toenails were minx (film stuff they put on she was telling me and very expensive) she has a iphone and was talking about how the kids fight over the ipad........... I did not say anything but what a ridiculous position to take. She was moaning about how the school should not do expensive trips, as she is working she cannot ask for the school to pay for it (they have provision for help to families on benefits) and was really moaning away about it, consequently her son is not going on the trip at all and will be in school whilst his entire class is away!

I also know people, the fancy nail types, that have not taken their dogs for treatment or inoculations that they should be having - although one of those people paid £1600 for her mini dog.

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