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they are not in direct competition at an airport, Cruea does help people
get started. But others become irate. Take the woman with a clinic in
Montana who wanted Cruea to fax her the sign-up sheet/medical waiver.
Cruea had made up the template and paid attorneys to approve it. When
she called the massage therapist and told her the essential elements of
the form but would not fax it, the woman was indignant. Cruea asked her,
"Would you like to pay for it?" The woman said "No,"
with an attitude. Cruea responded, "Why are you getting snippy with
me? You want something you consider valuable but you don't want to pay
for it." Then the woman lectured her about karma. "This
business is my creation. I've aimed for a classy, professional,
high-quality look, and I want to keep people from ripping it off,"
she adds. That is why she federally registered or trademarked her bar
design, corporation name, "single shot" and "double
shot" terms, color scheme, and structure. According
to Cruea, Pittsburgh has a massage business inside a store, which opened
at about the same time as her Massage Bar but has changed ownership
several times. Denver has had an inline massage space since late 1997. A
handful of other airports have tried massage chairs, but they weren't
well received--they came and went. Nevertheless, the race is still on
for a piece of the action in what has become a hot market. Cruea
explains why. Airports
are undergoing facelifts or new construction. They are redoing floor
plans and retail concepts. Not that long ago, airports did not even have
shops but in recent years, managers have realized that they need to
treat passengers differently and create a kind of mall environment for
them, with both restaurants and stores that have name-brand recognition.
"Every business recognizes that space in an airport is premium real estate because you're exposed to a huge volume of foot traffic," Cruea explains. "Everyone wants to get in there." That's not so easy, she adds. When the airport authority sits down and has to decide which category to put in a particular space, it looks at stacks and stacks of proposals of concepts that could fit there. The selection and competitive bid process goes on for years. Her experience indicates that "A massage concession gets far down the list of priorities." |
