So What, Who Cares (vol 3, issue 55) Why boredom and crowds are great for your nails
Hello!
I'm off to the trees again this weekend -- only instead of coastal redwoods, it's mountainside firs. I am very excited to have this comparative conifer opportunity. What's up with you? Dish with me via Twitter (@lschmeiser).
*
I have TSA PreCheck, but that means nothing if the fifty people in front of me at the airport security line also have TSA PreCheck. Thus I arrived at San Francisco International Airport three hours before an international flight out of a domestic terminal, waited behind a scant dozen people in the security line, and found myself with two hours to while away before boarding. On my fourth speed-walking circuit through the terminal, I noticed that the XpresSpa had several empty chairs, so I went in and had a very nice, unobtrusively efficient manicure-pedicure experience.
The only reason I couldn't relax completely was because I was suddenly dying to know everything about XpresSpa: How long have they been around? (Since 2004.) Had they managed to penetrate every major U.S. flight hub? (They're noticeably absent from the Pacific Northwest and the Cincinnati airport, which is a well-supported international airport, but otherwise yes.) Is the company privately held or can I look it up and see sales trends? (They were acquired last year by Form Holdings Company -- stock ticker symbol FH -- and projected $40 million in sales from 51 locations.) What must the training be like so the staff can deliver an experience perceived as "pampering" without customers feeling rushed or anxious about missing a flight? (This is a story still waiting for reportage.) What are the best-selling services? (The neck massages, followed by manicures and pedicures.) What was the deal with the nail polish? (The chain has a deal with Essie, a brand that's very carefully positioned itself as the polish of choice for the upwardly mobile and those who wish they were.)
Then I started thinking about the airport spa business as a whole. If we live in a world where airport mainstay Auntie Anne's Pretzels is always looking over its shoulder for Wetzel's Pretzels, then there has to be a rival spa chain. And sure enough, Be Relax is there, although its U.S. penetration comprises only seven airports, with just JFX and LAX in common with XpresSpa. Still, glamming it up before you head to the gate to seethe at the smug platinum-level fliers who board before you do is a thing now. The Wall Street Journal reported on the rise of airport beauty services, noting there's money to be made from fliers with downtime before their next flight:
The travel and retail industries are hoping to grab a piece of the $439 billion “Wellness Tourism” market, a travel category that includes beauty and which in 2013 grew at a faster rate than tourism overall, according to a study by the Global Wellness Institute, a Miami industry group.
What's let to the rise of getting pretty in airports? Credit the confluence of a few disparate factors: Luxury beauty spending has steadily ticked up over the past few years. The rise of "wellness" as a cultural conceit, encompassing everything from emotional self-care to diets to personal grooming products, has also primed some luxury consumers to embrace a new purchase if it promises to improve their well-being. And then there's the biggie: People are primed to spend in the first hour after they get through security, because they're in the headspace "Treat. Yo. Self."
So what? I know I bang on the "experience is the new retail!" and "experience is the new luxury!" drums in this space a lot. Most of the time, the stories in question focus on a retailers' conscious effort to create an experience that people will want to have -- see Nordstrom's new clothing-free stores or Apple retail head Angela Ahrendts telling a crowd that the tech company's retail outlets are now to be referred to as "town squares" where people can play music, meet friends and learn how to refine their photography.
Hanging around the airport because of the unpredictabilities of the security line or the delays in flights is pretty much the exact opposite of seeking out a luxury retail experience. But it's interesting how beauty services retail has crept into airports with the effective "We can make this experience less awful ... for a price" pitch, then flourished.
Who cares? People who are responsible for running the kinds of publicly-accessible places that fill up fast with stressed-out people.
Now that "Shop to offset the reality that you're trapped in a weird-smelling place with hundreds of irritated strangers, completely lacking any control over your own time and bereft of any certainty over where you'll be in the next 24 hours" is working in airports -- and boy, does it work -- what other areas might try using retail outlets as a way of diverting an otherwise bored and frustrated population? I welcome your suggestions via Twitter at @lschmeiser -- or your contention as to whether some places should remain free of newsstands, pretzel vendors and the odd speedy-manicure stand.
*
Your pop culture recommendation for the day: Earlier this week, a few pop-culture sites ran links to actor Rami Malek performing as Freddie Mercury at the 1985 Live Aid concert. This led me to seek out the actual footage of Queen's performance and then to this great BBC documentary recalling how the entire 16-hour concert marathon came together (part one and part two).
(Sidebar: Sweet fancy Moses, watching how easily Freddie Mercury commands the crowd only makes me appreciate how hard every other frontman in rock's job suddenly got.)
What seems even more stunning in hindsight is how thoroughly Live Aid permeated pop culture. In today's hyper-personalized media environment, would any event be capable of doing that? Or would any audience be able and willing to enjoy an event that included acts not specifically tailored to their tastes? I don't know.
*