Brilliant marketing strategy of the week: A hair salon giving a discount on services to investors that bring in their pitiful 401(k) statements.

From the release:
New customers who visit the Jon Charles Salon in Uptown in south Minneapolis will get to trim the percentage lost in a retirement fund for haircutting or coloring services from Jon and his new Creative Director Craig Weitz. All you need to do is bring proof of the 401K percentage loss and show it to the Salon’s cashier: It will be deducted from your bill, right there, no questions asked.

The discount is only up to 50 percent off, so if you failed to diversify out of Lehman Bros. stock or your 401(k) was invested with Bernard Madoff, you can’t get a free cut.

This personal finance dork also wonders if the deal will be honored for those of us with rollover IRAs or self employed folks with one of the many other flavors of retirement plans.

John Ewoldt, my Dollar Duo co-host, points out that if one really wants a deal, they should go one-door down to Fantastic Sams. But as a gal who loves a nice salon experience, with the magazines and free beverages and scalp massage, I have to disagree with him there.

I’d also suggest that many other establishments take a cue from this salon. I could definitely use a 401(k) loss-sized discount on groceries, cable, you name it!

This entry was posted on Monday, February 16th, 2009 at 5:55 pm and is filed under deal of the week. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.