Video & Tanning

Video store operators understand the importance of selling time. Many video stores have added tanning not only as an added profit center, but also to capture new customers for their video rentals or sales. And with today’s demanding consumer wanting a one-stop shop for all their needs, this is a perfect fit for tanning.

In the beginning, video store owners were open to the idea of adding tanning to their stores. Larger chains, such as Blockbuster and Hollywood Video, were squeezing many mom-and-pop video stores out. With tanning beds needing little space, they were a natural weapon in the war against the large chains.

One salon owner in Arkansas first was drawn to the idea of tanning many years ago. He owned a chain of video stores and was interested in adding tanning. His decision to have free-standing stores was determined by customer demographics. For instance, in Jonesboro—a college area—there are 10,000 potential customers for tanning but not as many for video. However, in the smaller town of Newport, Ark., it was not feasible to have just a tanning salon or just a video store. Therefore, the salon owner created an eight-bed salon with 1,000 square feet of video.

"We knew from the beginning that the video and tanning combination would work in certain areas," he says. "Now we are trying to venture out, see if the combination is right for all of our stores."

Tanning and video work well together because they complement each other. Video stores are busy on the weekends—they get their rush on Friday and Saturdays, but tanning salons are busy during the week, with almost all of their customers making regular appointments Monday through Thursday.

The two industries even have complimentary busy seasons, with tanning having a rush of customers from January to June and video stores doing more business in the summer and fall.

Why is tanning growing so fast? Many indoor tanning veterans attribute the growth of the tanning industry to an increased professionalism of tanning salon owners. Therefore, video store owners now are investigating tanning salons and finding the equipment is getting better and the salon owners more professional, thus, making it easier for them to enter the market because they see it as a viable industry.