Green Circle eco fee?!?

[Ms. Sparkles]

I recently tried a new salon & the hair cut and general experience were fine. However when I got home & looked at the emailed receipt I saw a charge titled “Green Circle eco fee,” so I looked it up & see that it’s a recycling service offered to salons that recommends offsetting the cost of their services by charging customers directly.

I’m still sorting through how I feel about the fee itself – by not absorbing the costs & raising service prices accordingly my stylist’s rate was lower & therefore my tip was lower… so it sort of saved me money because I didn’t tip on this fee. That is more transparent… but I don’t love having an itemization of your business costs, that’s your business.

However the thing that will probably make me look elsewhere for service is that NO WHERE on their website or in the lengthy cancellation policy I had to acknowledge (that I actually read) do they tell you about this fee. The first time I became aware of this was when I looked at my receipt; so any goodwill for transparency for separating out this cost is diminished.

I have reached out to the salon asking them about this & am waiting to hear back.

Thoughts on the fee itself (it was $4)?
Thoughts on itemizing such fees as opposed to burying them in the service prices?
Thoughts on not explaining the fee upfront or discussing it on their webpage?

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[anonyme]

Other salons do something similar, and I don’t like it either. Gary & Manuel adds $5 for employee health insurance. My impression was that they were making a political statement, which is always risky. I don’t see the point of making the announcement unless you are offering a voluntary payment option. Otherwise, it’s part of the cost of doing business and therefore only their business – not the clients, especially if they’re not itemizing the entire cost of the service. It seems as if these salons are virtue signaling at the expense of the clients. If you want to use your employee’s health care or your recycling practices as marketing tools, fine, but don’t then turn to the client and say “and now YOU have to pay for it”. IMO, this has the opposite effect of what was intended.

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[aa]

It is interesting, why they chose to list that one cost out of all their expenses. Why did they decide you needed to know about that one? Why not list a charge for a % of their garbage pickup? Or electric bill? In my opinion, the Eco cost is just another business expense that should be included in the cost of their service. By listing only that one it feels like they have an agenda, making some sort of point by wanting their customers to know.

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