Art Of Shaving store.

Wife and I were walking through Tacoma Mall tonight and she says, there's the Art Of Shaving store. I say yup, and we keep walking.

Way to go! Keep walking!

I pass by an AoS kiosk at my our local mall. I will walk though and look at their hardware, and be in and out in under a minute. I know what they have, and I know what their prices are like, and I know that there's nothing there that I want.

I never engage the clerks in conversation, just acknowledge their cheery "M'elpyu?" greeting. When I overhear them talking to other customers, its all I can do to bite my tongue and keep silent since everything I hear them say about wet-shaving is full of errors and misconceptions.

On this forum there are numerous posting asking why there is a lack of retail stores dealing with our passion of traditional wet shaving.

The kind of attitude expressed here is a clear answer to that question.

Here we have a company willing to take the risk of operating a shaving store catering to a niche market, and my personal opinion is that they should receive as much support as we are able to give them, which may encourage others to open shaving stores. As imperfect as they may be, they still deserve our support.

I don't give a rats whether the store is corporate owed or privately owned, whether an employee is completely knowledgeable and enthusiastic or not, and whether the store meets our standards of excellence. If we fail to support them, we are only hurting ourselves by discouraging others from opening stores.

No IMHO or any other soothing platitudes. If we don't support them, they will go away and we will have none. If we support them, others may come into the market.

That's a good point, it's hard for speciality retailers when we the consumer can get a given product 25%~50% cheaper on line from another enthusiast or online vender with far fewer overheads. Here in Australia we have a single brick and mortar chain store, they carry a few prorasso products, some Edwin jagger and that's about it and where possible I will support them dispite their general ridiculousness in regards to advice and $5 tucks of Astra blades that I dont like

AOS was terrific when it opened. It introduced me to the world of wet shaving. Even if they had kept their independent spirit and knowledgeable staff, they have added essentially nothing to their product line in 10 years, so I would probably stopped shopping there years ago anyway.

Good response.

tonich said:

Way to go! Keep walking!

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The AoS store is patially responsable for my finally taking the leap into DE. I had a very nice conversation with a clerk there about his DE shaving experiences and he did point me in the right direction that the 4 blade paddle I was using won't yield a good shave for me because of how thick/coarse my facial hair is.

His encouragement from the discussion made me dig deeper and eventually found B&B. I am thankful for the discussion I had at AoS and I did try a couple samples of his product but I was not drawn to purchase thier line. I am happy to see people in there enguaged in conversation but am very happy to have connected with the B&B community, though it has only been a short time, and look forward to trying more products recomended here by some of the online stores that keep being referred to.

Looking forward to my next shave with my first purchase of TOBS sandlewood. The Proraso recomended has treated me very well. THanks All!

DonMac said:

On this forum there are numerous posting asking why there is a lack of retail stores dealing with our passion of traditional wet shaving.

The kind of attitude expressed here is a clear answer to that question.

Here we have a company willing to take the risk of operating a shaving store catering to a niche market, and my personal opinion is that they should receive as much support as we are able to give them, which may encourage others to open shaving stores. As imperfect as they may be, they still deserve our support.

I don't give a rats whether the store is corporate owed or privately owned, whether an employee is completely knowledgeable and enthusiastic or not, and whether the store meets our standards of excellence. If we fail to support them, we are only hurting ourselves by discouraging others from opening stores.

No IMHO or any other soothing platitudes. If we don't support them, they will go away and we will have none. If we support them, others may come into the market.

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So why do we need to feel we owe it to them to support them when what they are doing is just pure business? Its not like some enthusiasts started the business just to give wetshavers better values and options. They are there to make money, and consumers want savings.

If thats the case, online stores and b&b vendors are doing exactly the same thing, maybe better because their price is not as outrageous.

If those b&m stores disappear because they didnt get enough support, so be it.

Are you gonna lament when best buy disappears because more abd more people opt buying electronics on amazon, newegg and the like? It is already happening.

DonMac said:

On this forum there are numerous posting asking why there is a lack of retail stores dealing with our passion of traditional wet shaving.

The kind of attitude expressed here is a clear answer to that question.

Here we have a company willing to take the risk of operating a shaving store catering to a niche market, and my personal opinion is that they should receive as much support as we are able to give them, which may encourage others to open shaving stores. As imperfect as they may be, they still deserve our support.

I don't give a rats whether the store is corporate owed or privately owned, whether an employee is completely knowledgeable and enthusiastic or not, and whether the store meets our standards of excellence. If we fail to support them, we are only hurting ourselves by discouraging others from opening stores.

No IMHO or any other soothing platitudes. If we don't support them, they will go away and we will have none. If we support them, others may come into the market.

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But I work for a living. I'm not wealthy and have a family to support. I can't AFFORD to support AOS.

Never been to AOS, (there are 2 here) never will, but they do support us and get the conversation going, met a guy at my barbershop who got into wet shaving after stopping in there

I purchase my AoS cream in the store. I use the 20% off coupons I receive from their mailing list. The gal there always remembers my face and knows I am there only to get my cream and move along. I go about twice a year.

I have mixed opinions of AoS, and they are completely dependent on each store. As an example, there is a fantastic store here in Denver (Park Meadows) that has a very knowledgeable staff and even a female straight razor enthusiast. I find that I pop in there from time to time to discuss the various straights I have and have even purchased two TI rams horn razors from her. Overpriced....perhaps. The razors are exquisite however and they are both part of my short list of daily-drivers I use on the regular. I pop in, have a quick conversation, grab some sandalwood cream, and on about my day I go. A great resource.
On the other hand....Boca Town Center in FL has the biggest bunch of pushy, meat-headed used car salesman working for them anyone could dream up. A totally different experience. I lasted about 25 seconds in that place before I walked out never to return.

So in short, AoS can often be defined in its various markets by who staffs it....and this can determine how more enthusiastic shavers view them.

I love walking by the one at the mall in my area. The employees look so board. Walking near the entrance is similar to approaching a pet store window with puppies on display. They about trip over themselves, tails wagging, to see who can get to you first. Sometimes I go in just engaged them in conversation and to look at the brushes.

Linedog59 said:

Wife and I were walking through Tacoma Mall tonight and she says, there's the Art Of Shaving store. I say yup, and we keep walking.

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Have you ever smelled their sandalwood? I have their cream, two balms, and three of the discontinued soap pucks. You may be doing yourself a disservice. The cream is on par, both price and performance, with Truefitt and Hill.

While the employees I've talked to know less than I do, I like to try and engage them anyway. The push push push for whatever is more expensive does get annoying, just like at a lot of stores.

Gig103 said:

Have you ever smelled their sandalwood? I have their cream, two balms, and three of the discontinued soap pucks. You may be doing yourself a disservice. The cream is on par, both price and performance, with Truefitt and Hill.

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I'm not a fan of Sandalwood, but I do admit that their products are excellent and performance is right up there with the 3Ts.

I like the fact that they're an American company, and a fairly new one at that. I just wish they had stuck to their mom-n-pop origins as independent artisans. But if they had not merged with P&G, they wouldn't be able to have the volume and availability that we see today.

While the employees I've talked to know less than I do, I like to try and engage them anyway. The push push push for whatever is more expensive does get annoying, just like at a lot of stores.

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I'm not sure what their business model is like, whether the salespeople are paid on commission or a straight hourly rate. But whether they work on commission or not, every retail store is judged by corporate based on its numbers, and the way to improve those numbers is to push the most expensive products.

But pushing expensive products isn't always the way to generate the most profit. Its usually the smaller items that have the best Gross Margin, and that's where the money is made. AoS must be doing it right, though. If they weren't making a profit, P&G would never have wanted to acquire them. And if they didn't continue to rake in the money, they wouldn't last as long as they have.

IMHO, we owe AoS nothing. It is a business that wants to earn our money. So they need to do that. There is no obligation there for us spend our hard earned money there just because they opened up a b&m store. If ANY B&B vendor or soap artisan opened up a brick and mortar store next door to Art of Shave, which one would you spend your money in? And why? Because the B&B vendors "get it". They know what we want, they market the products at fair prices, and are knowledgeable to our needs. They use the same products they sell. They are not the bearded salesmen in AoS I read about here. Can you really trust a bearded guy who wants to sell you some shaving products he wants you to buy? Or the company who hires this guy?
We are all free to spend our money where we want and buy what we like. But this is my take on AoS.

I went to the other shaving store here in town this afternoon. River's Edge Cutlery. Unlike AoS, they have a variety of brands. I bought two different kinds of Arko aftershave lotion, a bottle of Pinaud Musk and a bottle of The Veg for about $18. I couldn't do that at AoS, for a variety of reasons.

I guess I'm just bitter as here in Aus I don't have the option to walk into any B&M stores

ah, another never-ending bash-AOS thread.

AOS started so many of us on the wet shaving journey and their products remain of excellent quality.
I enjoy several of their items, yet they still represent a minor share of my cabinet.
its just sad to see such arrogance in a community of knowledgable folks.