The TanWall Blog

Putting “tanning salon” into the search bar of Google’s news section can sometimes yield some very interesting results. Well, putting anything into that search bar can yield pretty interesting results if you poke around long enough.

Over the past few months we’ve mentioned a few bizarre stories having to do with tanning salons that we thought our readers might be interested in. This is another one of those times.

People sometimes do strange things, which is especially the case in this article, which details the exploits of a young man (likely on some sort of powerful drug) who breaks into a tanning salon in West Virginia, trashes the place, and then smashes his way through a building next door where he ends up strangely trapped in an elevator shaft in his underwear. How this happened, we aren’t sure, and the article doesn’t say much concerning the event.

The whole episode cost the poor salon owners around $100,000 in damages. Luckily unstable people like this end up engaging in behavior that eventually ensures that they are caught by authorities and put to justice. Well, behavior like stripping down to their underwear and then jumping into elevator shafts anyway. It is our hope that the salon owners are able to recover from this unforeseen state of affairs and return to business as usual.

Stories like these really make you sit and scratch your head. The world can be a very strange place!

In December 2009 Sunset Tanz LLC President and Owner, James Harton set a new goal for his company: Branding and Expanding.

Harton was looking to move his business from a local multi city venue to a multi state venue. Although the right timing for moving into a multi state venue was still unknown, Harton knew that branding would be a key to success. With branding comes recognition, and with recognition comes high expectations from clients. One hurtle that Harton faced was build out. Although metal studs and sheet rock can recreate a location, time and time again, it was costly and time consuming. Harton recalled a modular wall set up at the Smart Tan Expo in Downtown Nashville back in October ’09 and decided to call up the little gal that he met there by the name of Kristina Admire. Admire and Harton conversed and quickly came to a conclusion: whether Sunset Tanz was to be 9 locations or 90 locations, Modular Walls would help with the brand recognition and professionalism of each and every store!

Harton and Admire quickly went to work on the details and standards of Sunset’s build out. Time was running short as January had come and gone in the blink of an eye and they had to work fast. At this point Harton knew that with deadlines, hefty regulations, and the feet dragging of city inspectors there was no way this salon location could be up and running by March using a conventional style build out. It was now that Harton knew the choice he had made was the correct one! After endless conversations with Admire, Harton was confident that the build out would take no more than 5 to 7 days tops. And that was going to be with only 2 men working full time and a 3rd man working part time. Admire and her trusty architect (who’s real name has been omitted due to the fact that he’s a spy for the CIA… [LOL, just kidding]), worked daily on the setup created as a rough drawing by Harton. Admire and Mr. Architect worked tirelessly until the job was done.  

February and March both came and went like a whirlwind with only minor issues arising; but they were quickly taken care of. Soon, the 9th Sunset Tanz location went from a dream to a reality…this dream was not only Harton’s, but also a dream that tanners in Athens, AL had been hoping would some day come true: the first professional tanning salon chain to come to Athens, AL! A sign of growth in tough economic times, not just for Sunset Tanz, but also for the city of Athens!

Now present day, Harton and the Sunset Tanz Crew continue to serve the people of Athens. The location that they had all waited for wouldn’t have been possible without Kristina Admire and the gang at Tan Wall. You might ask yourself, “What do modular walls have to do with the success of a tanning salon chain?” The answer: they have everything to do with success.

Here are reasons why you should use Tan Walls, just to name a few:

1. Tan Walls allow for better use of space (why waste space that you’re paying rent for?).
2. Tan Walls are quick and easy to construct (time is of the essence, time is money and time will pass you by!).
3. Tan Walls are less expensive (not to mention, they will save your crew from a vast majority of the inspection process in many areas of the country).
4. Tan Walls are re-usable (many times tanning salon chains will expand or relocate stores; why waste material and money?).
5. Tan Wall creates modular walled salon build outs at an affordable price (dare to compare, you’ll be back).

In short, if you need walls for your salon, whether it be 1 location or 100, use Tan Walls!

The 1^st ever Smart Tan Show Downtown Nashville 2009 proved to be an exceptionally successful show for TanWall. TanWall was featured in multiple areas at the show. When walking through the entrance of the trade show you could spot 4 rooms that TanWall designed for PC Marketing. These rooms were showing off that “Black is Back”…..Black Licorice that is. Black Licorice is the name for TanWall’s black salon walls that are one of the newest color additions to the TanWall collection. PC Marketing’s rooms were framed out by TanWalls silver framing and upgraded painted metallic silver doors.

Moving to either side of the show floor to the back left or to the back right you could set your eyes on two separate areas where TanWall designed rooms for ETS. ETS chose to go with TanWalls sleek Rosewood TanWalls that are 1 of 3 colors choices from TanWalls Wood Grain Collection. ETS choose to frame out their walls with TanWalls silver framing and had their doors upgraded to a painted black.

Moving to the center of the show floor you couldn’t help but notice TanWalls huge overhead balloon and signage that stated “Your Image Starts Here” and “Get A Room”. Veteran salon owners will tell you that TanWall is the leader for Modular Walls in the Tanning Industry and Newbie’s to the Industry will know soon enough. TanWall is more than a place that salon owners can get their build out needs met for their salon. TanWall helps create your salon brand image. “Salon owners who own from one salon to multiple salons see how important creating a unique brand for their salons is and how ultimately that is the key to their success. TanWall is the perfect solution for building your image.  We can make our TanWalls, retail displays and desks meet any look you are trying to achieve” said National TanWall Design Manager Kristina Admire.

TanWall displayed a large island booth which consisted of new ideas for color schemes for salons for the upcoming 2010 season. One booth was a bright contemporary inspired white color with a red door paired with an accent of a graffiti style modern sconce lights in red. The other booth was an ultra modern room with upgraded silver laminate with bright blue powedercoated framing and a silver laminate door. The accent of this room was “bling” “bling” scone lighting that brought together an ultra futuristic look.  Also unveiled for the first time was TanWalls new retail display line and newest modern desk called the Château.  Both the retail line and the reception desk got rave reviews from salon owners along with TanWalls new 2010 colors.

With the largest color selection in the industry, this is just further proof that your Image Starts with TanWall. For further information contact Kristina Admire at kadmire@tanwall (dot) com or call toll-free at 866-Tan-Wall or (866) 826-9255. You may also visit our website TanWall.com.

Working the Smart Tan Trade show 2009 in Nashville, Tennessee was a great experience in learning.  Talking to Tanning salon owners from across the globe, there are many similarities but just as many differences. Demographics, styles, color ideas, marketing approaches, future business plans and many other topics.

This led me to write some of those differences and provide a different perspective in many of these areas.  Over the coming year, I will be blogging about those different types of perspectives from around the country.

With our knowledge and experience I believe we can provide a perspective on different areas that business owners need to pay attention to. Being in a successful business for more than 20 years I believe that we understand just a bit more than most.  Helping over 15,000 companies in our industry achieve their objectives over the years, I think we bring to the table a time of knowledge that we would love to share.

The entire world is made up of marketing messages all around us.  Some of which we buy into some we don’t.  Some of them we buy into so much that we think that it is reality.  Although no data or facts to back up the claims people believe them.  It’s been said that each person faces upwards of 30,000 marketing messages per day.  From television commercials to signs on the side of the road, everyone is trying to get their message across. With new social media, the messages are only increasing.

On the positive side, people can learn what ever they want whenever they want.  In our digital age we can be informed with a little extra effort become experts in just about anything.  I might want to caution you though, a lot of people claim expertise when in fact they don’t know much.  Just enough to spin their perspective and change you’re thinking of something.

There are many myths in the marketplace.  One of them which I always find fascinating and the tanning industry is airflow.  Movement of air can be extremely complex but in most cases it is just a matter of common sense.  I heard several times at the show that they would like an air gap underneath the wall to help the heat removal from a salon room and be more energy efficient.  Of course there are several people in the industry pushing that this is as real issue.

Common sense tells us how could that be?  Hot air or the molecules move up.  That does not mean that the air has any velocity and moving up caused by heat.  Without fans or other equipment to push the air out of the top of the room no pressure or back draft will be caused under the wall.  Obviously the reason for this is that some people in the Tanning industry make a product that stands off the ground.

I have heard more horror stories than success stories with having a gap underneath the wall.  There are currently more than 30,000 lawsuits per year in the United States attributed to privacy issues in retail locations.  This day and age with cell phone cameras and other spyware technology, a salon owner is putting themselves at risk by not providing the maximum amount of privacy to the consumer. As a matter a fact, I have not seen one energy study, heard one salon owner say after putting a gap under the wall they saved money on their electricity bill… If that is the case, why do people believe it? Marketing…

Many people have heard of the case of Erin Andrews, sports announcer who was photographed at her hotel room naked and posted on the Internet.  Most of the stories do not make front page news but they do end up in the courtroom causing thousands of lost dollars to salon owners trying to defend themselves from these cases. Yet, some companies are still insisting that energy efficiency in their salon is happening in the gap under the wall.

Let’s go ahead and say for argument sake, you were saving money or your power bill.  How much do you think that would be?  Doesn’t your air-conditioning systems still have to remove the same amount heat? I could get into a lot of technical beta to prove to you that it really doesn’t matter but it really comes down to common sense.  Even if you were to save $20 a month would the risk be worth it? I’ll let you be the judge.  Last time I checked attorneys were very expensive.