To be surprised that in a recession...

[Joolyjoolyjoo]

The businesses that seem to be thriving in my town centre are nail bars, beauticians and travel agencies 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 ) 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?

This next round of QE is a crock too - if they gave tax incentives (cuts) to businesses and tax payers it would stimulate the economy beyond belief.

Maybe nails are the new shoes?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoe_Event_Horizon#Shoe_Event_Horizon

I'm having the same problems myself.

you've got a national-sandwich-chain boasting about how incredible it is that they can do a sandwich and a drink for £3!!
why would you pay £3 on something that you can make for 90p?

two people do that and it's the price of a book, which will last longer and has more value to it (as well as being fun, and educational for the children)

Come to Derby. Within walking distance there are: 7 hairdressers (there's got to be about 20 in the city centre which is tiny), 5 cash til pay day/pawn brokers (there's 7 or 8 in total), there's also 5/6 pound shops, 2 bright house type rip off places and a lot of charity shops

Someone I know who is a hairdresser says her and her colleagues use the comforting phrase "hair always grows" - they know their services will always be needed.

My town (a rather poor socially disadvantaged area) with lots of shops closing down and very high unemployment rates has had a surge of fish pedicure places open in the last few months, I noticed the other day one has already shut down. I went for a treat the other day, a half hour fish spa and a half hour manicure, it cost me a tenner on Groupon. I do the same for hair cuts and other treats.

I've sold gold and dvds in the past, sometimes for food or gas meter money, other times just to have a clearout or for a bit of extra spending money for our annual caravan holiday. Not everyone is selling their gold to get their nails done.

What is Bright House?

Fellatio Pay weekly for a sofa which will end up costing you three times as much as it costs if you had paid for it all in one go. Their target market is those who are unable to get credit.

Brighthouse are conning bastards who IMO are not better than loan sharks p. A bit like shopacheck and the provie who will be doing there rounds next month on my council estate offering vouchers at extotinate rates for anyone who cant afford christmas

And for anyone who wants to do diy dye jobs. Buy a tube of wella professional and emulsion of ebay for £8.90. I get 3 applications. If i went to the hairdressers she would charge me £40 for the same dye. There is no way im paying somone money to dye my hair

Joolyjoolyjoo - this is a really interesting topic.

I have a lot of dealing with various vets etc, partly due to my line of work and partly because I am heavily involved in rescue. Interestingly enough, a number of them (small animal) have said that the things people have stopped doing is stuff like routine health care - vaccinations, spay/neuter, worming, de-fleaing etc and it seems that instead of treatment, people are opting for PTS because they don't want to pay vets bills. (These are all "normal" vet practices)

My own vet (a feline only specialist primary care/referal clinic in Cardiff) OTOH, has noticed that his clients haven't changed because (as he put it) they are not looking for a "budget" vet - they are from all demographics and their cats "come first" - which is why they use him and they are not so bothered about cost (+ he's amazingly good). (Your little old lady with £50 notes senario).

My equine vet has noticed something similar - she's recently had a spate of people trying to treat their horses themselves instead of paying a call out fee, with the subsequent inevitable consequences. Interestingly, she's also commented that she thinks that due to the change in benefits over the next year or so, a lot of horses will come on to the market/start to suffer neglect/have reduced vet treatment through the Welsh Valleys because at the moment, a LOT of the horse owners up there use their benefits to pay for their horses.

(disclaimer to MN jury: I'm not saying that information re benefits/horses applies to all people, I'm repeating an opinion of a professional who deals with the horses in question, and it is just that, her opinion - but one that I feel ties in with information I have).

Interestingly, ALL the vets have commented that it's never the people that you think that find money for vet treatment. A good friend of mine (vet) once had to restrain herself from hitting someone when they bought in a dog with ringworm. That was all that was wrong with it. Owner refused to pay the vet costs to treat and demanded PTS because it was cheaper. Her reason - "I'm not paying the cost of a flight to Magaluf to treat a dog". (dog was signed over, went into rescue).

Going back vaguely on topic (sorry for the hijack and divergence) - my cousin is on her arse finacially. She has credit card debts out of her ears, behind on her mortgage, creditors and bailifs knocking, you name it. But she can still apparently afford to get her hair and nails done once a week because "it makes her feel better". silly cow

to people that need appliances: freecycle. i have re-homed fairly major appliances still in working order through this.
sofas etc also come up.

really, op, people that have kept their jobs and seen their mortgage interest decreased ...may actually have plenty of spare cash (aside from increase in fuel cost). people at my work seem to spend a fortune on hair (call centre, hair and nails are big - strange, typing is so hard with long nails) although shoes seem less popular (recruitment ban means same people but older, and perhaps growing out of stupidly tall heels!) ..business sectors we are seeing a boom in - accesories (people are buying new tat to accesorise old clothing) - baby / kids stuff (cos pocket money has actually risen!)

with the instability people are more unwilling to commit to a car or house....or indeed a pet ...but £20 for a set of nails is no commitment.

i was just thinking that despite having an official 'no buying tat i don't need' ban in this house for many years...there is still an awful lot of tat around...that we don't need.

though yes, i expect you will find people who are all too happy to splurge on themselves and still deny their pet a £30 vet trip.

Has anyone tried this this? Its about 20 quid and is meant to help you do some simple DIY haircuts at home - can do straight lines and layers though I wonder how well that liquid level will work in practice! Might save you a few pounds rather than going to a hairdresser's.

I think the problem you have understanding this is as well as you consider having your nails done, hair done etc to be rare lux treats, (which a lot of people don't) also the assumption that the 'treat' treatments they make a fuss about are the ones that keep beauticians afloat - teenagers might go off to train to be beauticians thinking they'll be doing nails and facials all day long, what really pays the bills for a beautician is waxing.

When I calculate my monthly outgoings, I include the £35 for a wax. I consider this to be a 'bill' and don't think of it as a 'treat' that's optional, I can easily see when you have your nails done, after a few months it becomes something you include when setting your monthly outgoings as a normal cost without thinking about if you actually could do it yourself for less/do without. If I was struggling I might reconsider if waxing is a bill or a treat, but until then I won't make the decision on a month by month basis about how I'm going to remove the fluff from my muff, I'll just book a repeat appointment.

An animal getting sick, while being something you should plan for, isn't a monthly expense. A lot of people are, quite frankly stupid and don't plan for the future like this, but then I'm always surprised by the number of people who don't have any sort of savings for their old age or life insurance, a lot of people don't think beyond the 2-3 months.

Woolies went bust because everything they sold could be bought cheaper for the same or better quality elsewhere. They couldn't compete once the supermarkets branched out from food. Most little independent shops are the same, it's the posh ones that seem to do well, because they aren't competing in the same space as supermarkets.

Woolies didn't go bust because it wasn't profitable it was something to do with the amount loans the parent company had secured against it - or something like that.

Had Woolies not had a parent company it would still be going

it also had problems getting its business customers to pay it....(it supplied tescos, sainsburys etc with dvd/cds ...) for stuff supplied.

Finding all the replies very interesting! It seems that the main thing I hadn't grasped was that people do see getting their nails/ tan etc as a "normal" outgoing, or as something that is necessary. As an old gimmer, this had passed me by completely I'd rather spend 30 mins in the dentists chair getting a scale and polish than have my feet eaten by fish, but it must just be me, as these dead-skin-chomping fish are everywhere! (well, contained in tanks, obviously!)

Point taken too about young people with a job having more disposable income- no kids/ mortgage, suppose they can easily afford it (although when I was in that boat all my free cash went on booze night out!)

I just miss the diversity my town centre used to have. We small businesses do support each other, and I love that. The local cafe is fab with us, and we discount them too. I shop at my local butchers every week, and they display my leaflets and I know so many people in the community now, it feels really good, and I'm loving it! I just feel sad that so many other businesses have gone but I guess things will eventually swing round again as fashions come and go (Who knows, maybe one day the fashion will be for pale skin and short nails and I will be a trend-setter, walking boots and all !)

Fascinating post QUietTiger!

it's another world...

but at the ringworm doggy.