Everette’s Story
From Adversity to Innovation
Everette Blaisdell had a sinking feeling,
literally. It was the month of April, 1997, and he had just seen
the downtown area of Grand Forks, ND, inundated with floodwaters
and fire. This flood eventually caused the evacuation of over
90 percent of the city of 51,000 residents. He knew his one-man
barber shop was affected and city officials were saying it could
be months before downtown businesses could reopen in their former
locations. As it turned out, Everette was never able to return
to his shop located in the City Center Mall. He knew he had to
look elsewhere to reestablish his business.
Everette, along with hundreds of displaced
business owners, was now faced with
the task of finding a temporary location in an area where usable retail space
was at a premium. Eventually, a local used car dealer offered him space in his
dealership building – the only catch was the “space” was the
little used women’s bathroom.
Having no other viable options, Everette accepted the offer and was soon plying
his trade out of a small, confined space. His regular customers slowly returned
and he soon came to realize the small space had no affect on his ability to cut
hair and provide a quality level of service. The only drawback on his new location
was the difficulty his regular and new customers had in finding him.
He began to wonder how he could transform a small space into an attractive kiosk
for placement in a high traffic location and soon came up with the Barber Stop
kiosk concept. After writing a business plan and securing financing, he arranged
for a local manufacturer to create the kiosk. A local retailer agreed to lease
space to him and in July of 2005 he was up and running in his “Blaisdell’s
Barber Stop” kiosk. His August sales have more than doubled last year’s
numbers and the retail host, Home of Economy, is extremely pleased with the increased
store traffic and availability of a new service for its customers.
The Future of Barbering is Here Today.
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