How in God's name do €4.99 barbers make money?!?

actuallylike

Hi, noticed a barber in town advertising €4.99 haircuts, went in and sure enough, the Polish lad there did it in 15 minutes for €4.99. My question is if the average cost to rent a location in this area is €500 a week (I asked around), how does this fella make any money?!? Around 17 haircuts a day to just break even, by my 6 day logic. Any thoughts about if he's the smartest business man ever or will he be closed in a week?

This post has been deleted.

delllat

actuallylike wrote: »

Hi, noticed a barber in town advertising €4.99 haircuts, went in and sure enough, the Polish lad there did it in 15 minutes for €4.99. My question is if the average cost to rent a location in this area is €500 a week (I asked around), how does this fella make any money?!? Around 17 haircuts a day to just break even, by my 6 day logic. Any thoughts about if he's the smartest business man ever or will he be closed in a week?

if hes recently negeotiated his lease it could be lower than 500 a week

some of the faster sheep shearers can have you bald in 5-10 minutes

thats 30- 60 quid an hour if you can get enough heads hence the 4.99 to generate the heads

RoadKillTs

Sound like he is a cut above the rest

Well fair play to him . I'd say he does more than 17 a day. Whats that other chain in town that do them real cheap aswell?


Edit: http://www.justcuts.ie/ €7

stepbar

At a fiver a head, you'd be lucky not to get your ears cut off. Even if he did 17 heads every day, 7 days a week @ a fiver, it's a fairly poor return (c 600eur) and lets be honest probably uneconomical in the long term.

The only other way I could see him making money would be if he was selling other complementary products etc.

Fighting Irish

It only takes 5-10 minutes for me to get a hair cut

niceirishfella

Still, 4.99 or no 4.99, I'm a fan of paying a decent price for a nice cut....like you wear your hair every day FFS. I'd only go into a place charging €12+....call me a snob if you like.
All that business will get are soverign wearing Creamers.

patftrears

could be a couple of reasons

1. It's a short time promotion to get customers who hopefully will return.
I cut my own hair now but I always went to the same barber for years.

2. Cashflow, he might need money to pay bills right now, not worried about making a profit (lots of people doing this at the moment)

3. Low cost is a proven sales strategy, he will have to keep his operating costs low, get a large number of customers and get the haircuts done quickly.

You get a €5 haircut, your more focused on price than quality so a quick 10 minute job will do.
You get a €20 haircut, you want it done exactly how you like it, washed before hand, probably take twice as long.

Atlas_IRL

20 euro hair cut takes 1 hr in the Grafton barbers.
How many 5 euro hair cuts can he do in that time considering he's going to have a much bigger customer base with the price.

waves

niceirishfella wrote: »

I'd only go into a place charging €12+....call me a snob if you like.
All that business will get are soverign wearing Creamers.

I pay about €45 for mine so no, I won't call you a snob....

People who aren't overly fussy about their hair will go to him which probably means that there'll be a lot of people getting their heads shaved which takes very little time to do compared to a proper cut.

I'm also assuming that you won't get your hair washed for that price....

Maybe he charges more during busy hours.

actuallylike

Scien wrote: »

You should post that in Bargain Alerts by the way. €4.99 haircuts. Sweet.

Even better deal on Tuesday, Knights on Grafton Street were giving away free haircuts!!! Looks like the bubble's burst on barbers.

Cringer

And sure a euro or two in tips is always welcomed I'm sure

His model is spreading anyway.

byrne0f56789

I'm sure he worked it out. I suppose the logic would go like this. 15 mins per cut. That's 4 per hour. If he works 10 hours a day that makes 40 haircuts a day. If he works a 7 day week. That's 280 hair cuts a week. At full capacity he makes €1,397.20 per week. Take away the €500 rent and he has €897.20 to pay himself and other expenses.

I know he must operate at full capacity.

Welcome to the recession folks.

BarryM3

Not completely clear if there is only one staff member. If there was say 3 guys operating at full capacity then he would be taking in €4200 per week, still only has the €500 rent...so €3700, pay two staff members a total of about €800...he's left with €2900 to pay himself and his other (non rent) expenses!