My Recent Art of Shave Experience

[Komboloi]

I went into an Art of Shave store recently, and it was my first. I travel quite a bit, but I haven't had occasion to stop into an AOS store until this recent trip. Here are my impressions:

1. It was empty when other nearby stores were full. That felt weird.

2. There was a very nice young woman who greeted us (the sole customers) when we came in, and she pointed out the layout of the store -- Fusion stuff over there, double edge razors over there, creams and soap over there. I appreciated that. It felt like she had a basic understanding of her shop then wanted to get out of the way. Nice.

3. The prices. Not close to competitive for the things I knew like razors. Maybe the AOS proprietary stuff is good, but I didn't get past the prices on stuff I knew about. I just figured anything I wasn't familiar with would be overpriced too, so I stopped looking.

4. I asked the sales person if she knew anything about Gillette coming out with a new double edge razor that would take those old school double edge razors. She said some are double edge and some have 5 edges, and it's really your choice.

 

[NurseDave]

Makes sense, why only have 2 edges when you can have 5?

 

[AveDeus]

She's for real, the 5 edges head design are already in final development stage, they just need to make the handle to fit, according to The Onion, expected release on April 1st 2018

 

[Pat Puma]

She's for real, the 5 edges head design are already in final development stage, they just need to make the handle to fit, according to The Onion, expected release on April 1st 2018

View attachment 804912

Nice Onion reference.

 

[Pat Puma]

There is an AOS in the mall down the street from me and I was unimpressed when I went in. The employees were nice, but the guy looked like he hadn't shaved in years and while I assumed that the girl shaved somewhere on her body, she didn't look like she had facial hair to worry about. They had a few common safety razors: a couple of Merkurs, and a Jagger. They also had some cartridge razors on decent looking handles. 99% of the store was dedicated to soaps, aftershaves, pre-shaves, etc. in various sized kits (3 piece, 5 piece, starter). You could get soaps and aftershave in single containers, but no brushes were available unless you bought a kit. I have never used any AOS products, but from what I have read, their soaps are very good. I too was the only person in the store who wasn't an employee.

 

[BambulanceMan]

I went into an Art of Shave store recently, and it was my first. I travel quite a bit, but I haven't had occasion to stop into an AOS store until this recent trip. Here are my impressions:

1. It was empty when other nearby stores were full. That felt weird.

2. There was a very nice young woman who greeted us (the sole customers) when we came in, and she pointed out the layout of the store -- Fusion stuff over there, double edge razors over there, creams and soap over there. I appreciated that. It felt like she had a basic understanding of her shop then wanted to get out of the way. Nice.

3. The prices. Not close to competitive for the things I knew like razors. Maybe the AOS proprietary stuff is good, but I didn't get past the prices on stuff I knew about. I just figured anything I wasn't familiar with would be overpriced too, so I stopped looking.

4. I asked the sales person if she knew anything about Gillette coming out with a new double edge razor that would take those old school double edge razors. She said some are double edge and some have 5 edges, and it's really your choice.

Omg...

Your friendly neighborhood BambulanceMan

 

[Andy77]

They're always empty and I (or you) have the most wet shaving knowledge in the store.

Always.

 

[Komboloi]

I'm not making any judgments about the products sold there, but I really wonder about the thinking at Procter & Gamble regarding the concept. It's hard to see what the corporate strategy is, because it doesn't seem like a money-making brick and mortar operation, AOS products don't seem to be getting big advertising dollars from P&G, and the store didn't even seem to be trying to position the Gillette brand. It's as though they want to capture the upscale shaving market without understanding what that means.

 

[G.W.]

They're always empty and I (or you) have the most wet shaving knowledge in the store.

Always.

+1

One of my daughters worked right across from one. Whenever I would go to pick her up from work, I'd wander around and almost always make a pitstop in AOS to sniff the software. There were never other customers, yet many times there would be two employees. The model seems to be that they either have an attractive young lady working, or a young man that is foppishly dressed. I've been to many of them over the years, and I don't recall much variation on this theme. They tend to be quite nice, attentive, and generally pleasant to chat with, but if I'm being honest, there's no way I can take "advice" on shaving seriously from a teenager.

I've sampled a thing or two of their creams and soaps, and I won't disparage the quality at all. Also their scents are pretty good, IMO. Where it falls apart for me is the pricing. I don't find the value in their lineup. And I think the pricing on their hardware is just downright robbery. That's just me, though. Plenty of folks swear by them, and I'm happy that they found something that works for them.

 

[Andy77]

It's hard to see what the corporate strategy is...It's as though they want to capture the upscale shaving market without understanding what that means.

That IS the corporate strategy.

 

[emwolf]

I LIKE the AOS products, but they are way overpriced. We have a department store that has an AOS counter in the men's dept. I've noticed inventory is steadily dwindling.

 

[jdp93]

I pop into my local AOS store from time to time to see if anything is new. I also think their stuff is WAY overpriced, but I think the creams are great performers. I usually only buy things from AOS if there is a sale going on, and even then I feel like I am overpaying.

 

[ackvil]

I guess it depends on where you live. We have two AoS stores in my area: one in Scottsdale and one in the town I live in: Chandler. On the weekends both stores are fairly busy. Whenever there is a sale announcement via email the stores are very busy.

Plus, the folks in both stores know their products. A few weeks ago I was browsing in the Chandler store while my wife was elsewhere in the mall. A man was asking about DE shaving and the female sales clerk did an excellent job of explaining the process and what he would need. Much to my shock, she even recommended he get a sampler pack of blades online!

As for the suppose Gillette DE razor, it was the manager of the Chandler store who told me a long time ago that he knew of no plans for such a razor and that he would be shocked if one would be introduced. In fact, he checked with his district manager to verify that statement.

I haven't bought anything from AoS in years. However, I have a nice supply of their tallow soaps which IMHO are excellent.

 

[Catalinbread]

I've only used the AoS old tallow formula and more recently a tub of the cream. Both are fantastic performers, scents are great (sandalwood and lavender respectively) and can be found online for pretty reasonable competitive prices.

Never been in or even near one of the brick and mortar stores.

 

[auk1124]

I really like their shaving cream.

Never been to one of their stores though. I can't imagine any business depending on mall traffic as its main revenue stream to be a long term prospect in this day and age. Other than maybe Bath and Body Works, every store in the small mall in my town appears to be on life support.

 

[NeX Renegade]

I wonder if the employees get a discount

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

 

[Komboloi]

This is a follow up to my original post.

I went into another Art of Shaving store -- different city (downtown Portland, OR). The only person working there on a week day morning was the store manager, a very nice woman who knew the products extremely well, asked all the right questions, gave me excellent help, and didn't try to sell me anything I didn't want. Really good retail experience. My GF wants to wean herself off disposables but isn't ready to go DE or SE yet, so I bought her a Fusion with a pretty aftermarket handle to go with the RazoRock brush and TOBS Rose shaving cream I bought her a while back. Baby steps.

While I was there, I saw the famous Gillette poster that shows a tattoo'ed arm holding what appears to be a Fat Handle Tech. It's the poster that was making the rounds on Facebook. The possibility of a "New Tech" from Gillette was discussed in another thread, entitled, "I Think Gillette is On To Us" or something like that. But since this manager seemed pretty knowledgeable and has been working for AoS for 6 years, I probed her about whether Gillette is planning to come out with a DE razor as rumored.

"Absolutely," she said.

She then explained in great detail the following: A year ago May (that would be May of 2016), she attended a corporate training conference for Art of Shaving employees. There was a big fanfare presentation on the New Gillette Tech. The presenter from Gillette had photos of the prototype and said they expected to roll the razor out in the fall of 2016. It looked just like the Gillette Fat Handle Tech and would be chrome plated (she didn't remember what, if anything, was said about the underlying metal). There would be two offerings: One would feature numbered limited edition razors in a fancy leather case. The other would be ordinary razors. She didn't remember the pricing details. But, she said, they had manufacturing tolerance difficulties when they tried to go into production, so the project has been delayed over and over. But according to her, Gillette is telling its AoS managers that the razor still coming. I'll believe it when I see it. But this woman seemed to know what she was talking about and described Gillette's presentation in detail. She also said that the razor would not be produced in large enough volumes to cannibalize cartridge sales and would not be mass-marketed. Rather, it would be presented as a niche product in AoS stores in the same way that Merkur, Muhle, Edwin Jagger (etc.) DE razors are already sold at AoS.