Local Beauty Shop to Stop Cutting Hair
Business will offer "Juicy Gossip" instead
by Rob Shaul

\As of Monday, patrons could no longer get a haircut or a perm at the Curly Cue Beauty Shop on Maybell Street in Pinedale. From now on, only manicures and "juicy gossip" will be offered says shop owner, Trish McNaughton.

"We began to notice that our patrons kept coming back for haircuts before they really needed one," explains Ms. McNaughton. "We suspected that they were really coming back for the juicy gossip that we spread around the shop. This lead us to conduct a formal survey of our customers and found that 85% really patronized us for the gossip, and not the beauty care."

Using the survey results, Ms. McNaughton decided to shift the focus of her business to what her customers really wanted - juicy gossip. She decided to drop offering hair care altogether and instead charge a $5.00 'cover charge' for customers who enter the shop to spread and hear the latest town gossip. Manicures will still be offered, simply because the long face time with the manicurists and intimate hand to hand contact makes all stories more believable, explains Ms. McNaughton. The cover charge is waived for customers getting a manicure.

The Curly Cue's patrons like the idea. "I've always come here primarily for the gossip," says Audry Applegate of Daniel, who added that she usually visits another shop when she really needs a haircut. "Everybody knows the gossip at the Curly Cue is the best in town," Ms. Applegate says excitedly.

"That's just sick," said one male town resident of the Curly Cue's shift in focus. This person, who wanted to remain anonymous, said he always got his latest gossip at the coffee shop. "Coffee shop gossip is much more believable and much less sordid because everyone else can hear what you're saying," he argued.