Let’s revisit shopping at Sally Beauty Supply.  Much has changed since The Good and Not-So-Good at Sally Beauty appeared on The Money Skinny™.  Employees continue to problem solve and recommend haircare and beauty solutions.  Today’s focus is on the current shopping experience at Sally Beauty.  Other retailers in this series are Walmart, Walmart Online and JCPenney.  Recall The Money Skinny™ mission is to save you time and money.  We’ll review what is working well and improvement areas.  You can decide if Sally Beauty is where you want to spend your hard-earned money.

Sally Beauty Employees are Top Notch

Employees are typically licensed cosmetologists.  When a dye job goes sideways, Sally employees will talk you off the ledge.  Tapping employee knowledge with an in-store consult keeps customers coming back.  Tired of paying more than a hundo for salon hair color?  Sally Beauty employees will give a You Can Do This pep talk.  It really is like the Home Depot of haircare.

Great Product Selection at Good Prices

Specialty beauty items give customers another reason to shop at Sally Beauty.  Selection is wide across the beauty spectrum and deep within product lines.  Want purple highlights?  Perhaps a quality flat iron?  They sell every conceivable haircare product.  Combining good prices with knowledgeable employees saves money by avoiding costly mistakes.  Ion Color Brilliance Cream Hair Color, Ion Color Brilliance Liquid Hair Color and Ion Developer are permanent hair coloring products stronger than drugstore versions.  Know nothing about developer?  An employee can help.

Contemplating  Project Use It Up Tips ?  Sally Beauty sells Beauty Secrets Nail Polish Thinner to revive older polish.

Open to the Public

Once upon a time, Sally Beauty was a beauty supply store for licensed cosmetologists only.  Now these stores are open to the public.  No license needed.  When asked if you have a Sally card at checkout, it’s for the club card.  Not to check credentials.  In summary, everybody is welcome.  Questions are encouraged.

Sally Beauty Club Card

The Sally Beauty Card has morphed into a grocery store shopper card.  Free enrollment with spending accumulating to rewards discounts.  For me, it’s easier to skip the card.  One less business where I might fall into the Spend-to-Save Trap.

Sally Beauty Online

SallyBeauty.com is a good option in lieu of shopping at a physical store.  Shipping is free for orders over $35.  Sale prices apply to both the website and stores.  Additionally, the website sometimes offers extra online discounts.

Sally Beauty Sells Bags

Sally Beauty charges customers fifteen cents per bag for in-store purchases.  This paper bag is like a gift bag with the Sally Beauty logo.  The bag fee is waived for online orders with in-store pick-up.

Sally Beauty Pricing Problem

Sally Beauty continues to have a pricing problem.  Sale data is not automatically incorporated into their Point Of Sale system.  Employees manually enter merchandise sale codes.  The code the employee inputs triggers the sale price.

A $10 product is on sale buy-one-get-one free.  Two ten-dollar products are scanned.  The customer is charged $20 plus tax.  Pfffft…wrong.  First of all, the employee has to know that the item is on sale.  Furthermore, he/she also has to know the specific code to trigger the correct lower price.  Not good.  Hard-code sale info into the POS system to automatically give sale prices.  We know the sale codes are already in the POS system.  The missing link is to automatically update the price when the item is purchased.  It’s a management issue.  No fault of the employee.  Please invest in your infrastructure, Sally.

Reverse Ripoff

My daughter bought a half dozen items at Sally Beauty.  She wasn’t given the advertised sale price on three products.  It’s the opposite of shoplifting.  As a result, she went back to the store for a $12 refund.  Twelve bucks?  C’mon now.  A refund is a hassle.  Nobody wants that.  Employees and customers don’t want their time wasted.  Prices need to be as advertised.  Needs improvement, Sally.

• Limit purchases to a few items at a time.  Pricing errors are easier to detect.
• Estimate your transaction total.  Correct the overcharge during the transaction.

 

• Sally Beauty has a knowledgeable staff, great product selection and good prices.
• Skip the club card unless you are a high-volume beauty product user.
• Protect yourself from the overcharge.