Nail Salon in GA charges "overweight" surcharge for pedicure

I live in GA and saw this. The great thing about a competitive market....people don't have to go there! Once word of this spreads enough, no one is going to go here and they will eventually go out of business. Gotta love the free market!!

I read that this morning too.. I suppose I could understand their reasoning for it but you could use a more respectable way of saying it that just sitting there and telling her she was overweight straight to her face. Thats disrepectful and just plain mean. I'd rather just hear them say its extra for chair repair, still ridcoulous but more respectful.

Wow. That's awful.

I live in GA and saw this. The great thing about a competitive market....people don't have to go there! Once word of this spreads enough, no one is going to go here and they will eventually go out of business. Gotta love the free market!!

best thing about this is that its one of the first things that are on MSN.com so it will get around fast.

I agree with nica...I can understand the reasoning but the situation was handled poorly. Is it just me or has our world become more rude and disrespectful?

"Wow" is really all I can say.

That nail salon owner better be glad it wasn't me- I would have raised hell.

Well the only way they can do something like that is to figure broken chairs into the market equation... and raise prices across the board...... Yep edging on discrimination. She could sue for discrimination mental trauma pain and suffering humiliation..... and the list goes on.......

This is exactly what I was thinking.
However, I don't think she should sue nor do I think she has the right to. Being overweight is not protected by law. It's not a disability recognized by the ADA. If she had a disability and that was discriminated against, then yes, but it doesn't seem as though she does.
She should just go elsewhere.

While I do understand the logic (I hesitate to use that word) behind the surcharge, the salon should have probably invested in some chairs with a higher weight capacity. Seriously, $2400 for a chair that only holds 200 pounds? What a rip off. 200 pounds is hardly an accommodating limit. American women are often 6 feet tall or taller. I'm sure there are plenty of very fit and very healthy 200 pound 6' tall women in this country (and the rest of the world).
I wonder what the standard operating procedure is for determining if a customer is "overweight."

I'm overweight. But I do weigh less than 200 pounds. Would I have to pay the surcharge? Georgia's not too far away, maybe I should go find out.

What small minded people....I hope the business ends soon. We might be a little larger than others, but we have feelings and deserve to be beautiful too!

Charge the person who breaks it $2,500 ... I've always understood "you break it, you buy it". She didn't break it so...

That is indeed outragious. You can understand the logic. But surely the chairs breaking is an overhead cost and should be accounted for across the board and intergrated into all prices...but also, if the chairs have a weight limited, then why let overweight people use them at all? Shouldn't they explain that the chairs aren't suitable, and then it is up to the individual customer to choose to use them or not? If they choose to use the chairs anyway then charge them..

this is what i was thinking as well. A responsible business owner would budget for for regular chair maintenence and have a different solution for their overweight customers. lets face it, there are more and more Americans that weigh more than 200 pounds. perhaps the salon owner should be looking into a more accomodating chair as well.

I don't know what to think of this............Airlines do this all the time also.

I understand where they are coming from. I just researched this on another website and the highest weight capacity I saw is 250 pounds.



Also, I see in the future that there is a push for people to lose weight. Let's face it. For one reason or another............America is getting fatter and fatter.

I refuse to be among those statistics any more.

Hrm, double post, sorry.

The big assumption problem I have after reading the article is that they are assuming all chair replacements are being caused by overweight women getting their nails done. What about general/regular wear and tear from just people in general? Are they charging more for people who bring their kids in (since sometimes kids will bounce around in the chairs)?

If they want to raise their fees, just flat out raise their fees to cover their overhead costs. And are they weighing each woman who comes in to determine who is over 200lbs and who isnt? Looks can be decieving.

But the bottom line is the store has the right to do what they want (in my opinion). BUT as consumers I have the right to not patronize the store.