Just a Salon?

Mandy Lam

While some shops focus on how they can make more money from the consumers and can be more popular in Macao, some of the shops emphasize on what they can fulfill the expectation and the level of satisfaction of the consumers. Hong Seng barber shop, which is one of the old-styled salons in Macao, near Rua do Pe. Joao Climaco, Macao, is the old-styled salons among the older generation; not just focus on making money, but focus on the friendliness between the shop and the consumers. “Our salon is not simply a salon, but also a chat and rest place for the neighbors and the customers’, said Lam, the wife of Mok Kuan, who is the owner of Hong Seng Barber Shop.

Hong Seng Barber Shop has been established since 1974 in the same place for 38 years. ‘I haven’t made any changes for the exterior part of the shop since it opened, I believe that people come to my shop not because of the outlook, but the craft of cutting hair by my staff and the friendliness of my shop’, said Lam.

‘Hong Seng has been established for many years here,’ said Mr. Leung, a teacher from a secondary school, and a regular customer of Hong Seng, who has been cutting hair there since he was 14. ‘The shop does not have a big change, just as same as the past. Although it is an unequipped salon, I like the style and people here; they can make me happy and drive my pressure away.’

‘For me, Hong Seng is not just a place for me to have hair cut, but also a place for me to relax,’ said Leung. ‘I will go there and talk with the hairdressers and the staffs after school when I am free; there are many neighbors near Hong Seng like to stay there to have chats too,’ he added.

Mrs. Kuong, who is a housewife, lives near Rua do Pe. Joao Climaco, said that she will go to Hong Seng to have a sit and talk with the staffs inside after she brought the food from the market.

According to the information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC), a public administrative institution responsible for guiding, coordinating, integrating, executing and supervising all Macao statistical activities; indicated that the gross domestic product (GDP) for the fourth quarter of 2011 has been increased by 17.5%. As the standard of living in Macao is getting higher and higher in Macao, people tend to purchase services in the international and fashioned salons, rather than in an old and unequipped shop.

‘Although my shop still exists, we only have two hairdressers, and there are only a few people to make the hair cut per day and it is useless for us to buy new kind of equipment for making hair. There are only some neighbors and loyal customers will come to our shop’, said Lam with the face with no selectiveness.

‘The running and maintenance of an old-styled salon and fashioned salon is different.’

Macao is suffering from inflation and expensive rents, the price of goods and services upsurge together with the market. However, the price of cutting hair of Hong Seng Barber Shop still remains a cheap price.

‘The price to cut hair here is cheap, it’s just cost MOP 40 for the hair cut,’ said Lam. ‘I have already adjusted the price by adding MOP 1 per year, the cost of cutting hair when the shop first established was only a few cents’, she added.

‘My husband has already purchased this shop many years ago, so we don’t have to pay the expensive rent. Although life is not easy for my husband and me; we both think that running a business should have conscience. Also, we are not only emphasize on money that we can earn, but also the relationship between our shop and the regular customers; thus, we just add MOP 1 per year, it is already enough for us and the salary to the staff,’ said Lam.

Jimmy Leong, the owner of CLASS I, a new developed and fashioned salon in Macao, said that it is hard for him to maintain the running of the shop if he costs MOP 40 per hair cut. ‘The running and maintenance of an old-styled salon and fashioned salon is different, I think that our aims are different too,’ Leong said.

‘We aim to earn more money and recruit more customers as we are newly developed and we have to pay a high salary to the hairdresser and the expensive rent; however, for the old-style ones, I think that they do not have to pay the rent and they already have regular customers, so that they can run and maintain their shops at a lower cost.’

‘Customers and we are not just customers and staffs, but old friends.’

Salon usually provides hair wash, hair cut, hair treatment, dying and curling. However, in Hong Seng Barber Shop, it also provides shaving services. ‘It just cost MOP 30 to shave, or sometimes we shave for free of charge when the male customers have their hair cuts,’ said Mr. Chan, one of the staffs in Hong Seng, has been working there for over 20 years. ‘Customers and we are not just customers and staffs, but old friends. Mr. Leung is our regular customers, sometimes we will go to Casade Cha Long Wa which is located near our shop, to yum cha after cutting his hair.’ ‘Simple customers will not yum cha with a hairdresser, only old friends will. I think that Hong Seng has helped me to build up a good relationship with the customers’, Chan added.

As there are many new developed salons, the market has a great desire for experience hairdresser and with a pretty good paid. However, Mr. Chan does not jump to another salon and has been staying at Hong Seng for 21 years.

‘Mr. and Mrs. Mok are good boss, they are very kind to the staffs,’ said Mr. Chan, the hairdresser in Hong Seng Barber Shop. ‘Although the salary is not high, I feel the friendliness from Mr. and Mrs. Mok, and the customers, I am happy when I work,’ said Chan.

“I hope that Hong Seng will not be disappeared because Mrs. Mok told me that she is thinking to close the business due to the sickness of Mr. Mok,’ said Leung. ‘I have many memories here and not many shops like Hong Seng in Macao now,’ he added.