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Are we to see a sixth barber in town? The fifth opened in February.
If in the last week you’ve walked over Pont Howkin and up Clwyd Street towards the town, you will have noticed some changes to the empty CBD Centre (previously FUW), two doors down from Porth y Dŵr.
If another barber shop, there will inevitably be criticism that we have two many already. Can the town sustain six? Actually, can the town support the current five? Perhaps it can:
- Men are now spending more on hair than they have at any time before. Men’s hair expenditure is increasing at a higher rate than for women. Perhaps men are becoming as self-conscious as women. This requires more barbers to meet demand.
- Barbers and hairdressers are relatively low cost and easy to start up. There’s little or no stock. Most tend to support one or two jobs. They don’t need large premises: smaller ones are plentiful in towns the size of Rhuthun/Ruthin. Overheads are thus lower.
Barbers (and women’s hairdressers) lend themselves to town centre premises:
- As town centres no longer support grocery, convenience and even some comparison shopping (thanks to supermarkets and retail parks), the proportion of hair shops inevitably increases.
- Hair is something we cannot yet get done online. No one as yet has invented a machine to self-dress our hair at home (the hair equivalent of a smart-enabled bread maker).
Tags:
Shops