Generosity still in style among local shops

Published 10:15 pm Sunday, August 23, 2009

Shirley Poulin went door to door along Everett Mall Way earlier this summer, a stack of letters in hand.

“With our changing economy, we all need a little motivation,” the letter read. It went on to ask for help, for a contribution to a contest Poulin thought might rejuvenate her nearby hair salon’s customer base.

Poulin thought if her customers could be motivated to refer a new client, maybe business would pick up. Maybe a giveaway contest would help — maybe if her customers would bring a friend if they could win $300 in prizes.

Just a month and a half later, she plans to offer more than $4,400 in prizes, mostly donated by her neighbors along Everett Mall Way.

“I think a lot of it was just being generous and wanting us to stay in business,” said Poulin, a small, soft-spoken woman with long brown hair. “They don’t want us going away.”

Her neighbors have responded in a big way; so far, most of her customers haven’t.

Business remains slow, with even loyal customers coming less frequently. The salon has one unrented stylist’s chair, which means a monthly hit for Poulin.

But she says she has faith that business will rebound, that her neighbors’ generosity will save the day. She’s still collecting merchandise, and plans to keep going until the January drawing.

‘What happened?’

Poulin has owned Rock &Roll Hair Salon in South Everett for 13 years.

She worked at another salon in the same strip-mall space before that, but returned from a trip to Las Vegas to find the owners had cleared out without telling her, leaving nothing but a stack of magazines in the front window.

She contacted the building’s owner about renting the space. Just a few years later, her daughter, Marilyn Paulson, quit her job as a dog groomer to help run the business.

“We were really busy at the time,” Poulin said.

They’ve never seen hard times like these before.

“I was looking at a book from last year,” Poulin said last week, standing by the front desk in her empty salon. “I was thinking, ‘Gosh, what happened?’ ”

The salon is decked from its checkerboard-tile floor to its ceiling with 1950s memorabilia. Pictures of Elvis Presley cover one wall; a few dozen images of Marilyn Monroe pout down from another. There’s wall space for 1959 Cadillacs and a spot for James Dean.

A Wurlitzer jukebox stands against one wall, but not all the lights are working. They’ve been meaning to fix that, Poulin said. But not even the slowing economy has allowed time for that.

Enter to win

The rules of the contest are simple. When existing customers refer a friend, they get a $10 credit with the salon and have their names entered in the drawing. The new customer gets $5 off the cost of their appointment.

Poulin’s original concept was to offer a $300 prize package for the winner, along with runner-up packages. But at least one donation has already topped that $300 amount: John Scanlon Carpet donated a carpet installation worth $400.

More than 30 companies have contributed so far, including Alfy’s Pizza, Maly’s Beauty Supply, Tefft Cellars winery and Regal Cinemas — all of which donated goods or services worth $50 or more.

This January, Poulin will hold the drawing.

In the meanwhile, she and her daughter haven’t lost their sense of humor. When a regular customer recently came in for a haircut after a six-month wait, Paulson joked to her mother: “I shouldn’t have cut his hair so short.”