18/8 Eighteen Eight Fine Men’s Salons Franchise Warning

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• Are these the same people or competitors of the Hair Saloon out of St. Louis.

• Different people. Seems like Hair Saloon is more legitimate.

• What I find most striking is that the closed locations are almost universally well reviewed on Yelp, so it seems the individual operators are competent business owners. Why would such a high percentage of salons close in such a short amount of time. Over 50 percent failure rate within 4 years is incredibly high for this type of business.

• GRIFT def. 1. (noun) an act of obtaining money from someone by fraud 2. (verb, transitive) to swindle someone out of money

  May I suggest that "Grift's Shave Bar" would be a better name, perhaps with the slogan "Get Fleeced in Style"?

  So while 18/8 and its franchise owners are left struggling for survival with little support from the franchisor, CEO Scott Griffiths has spun up a new competing brand in which to invest his energy, resources and publicity efforts.

  Griff's Shave Bar can best be described as 'vaporware', with no operating locations and no basis for predictable unit economics.

  - Here is an article from November 2017 that claims that there is an corporate owned location in Irvine - https://www.ocregister.com/2017/11/01/duo-behind-188-mens-salon-launches-griffs-ace-barbers-shave-bar/ . There is no operating barbershop at the address in the article. The address provided is actually for the 18/8 corporate office/training center.

  - Here is a more recent article announcing 'plans' to open 10 locations in Atlanta in the next 3 years, but really appears to just be fishing for investors - https://whatnowatlanta.com/griffs-shave-bar-10-atlanta-barbershops/

  - Here is another article announcing that a poor naive fellow has finally agreed to open the first Griff's in the Dallas area, which also happens to have the highest concentration of current and former 18/8 locations - https://apacnewswire.com/2018/04/03/griffs-ace-grooming-and-shave-bar-to-open-flagship-location-in-dallas-fort-worth/

  Why is W. Scott Grifter launching another brand instead of addressing and fixing the problems with 18/8 and helping those who believed in the dream and invested in it? Is he abandoning 18/8 in order to collect fees without the likely outcome being quite so clear?

• I was one of the unfortunate early investors in 18/8 with a multi unit development agreement. I recall a meeting with Brigitte Love and Scott Griffiths where they told me about the idea of mobile units, telling me that instead of developing another 18/8 location, I could build one of these new Griff's trailers. This was in 2016. I was already bleeding money on my first salon with no chance of recovery in sight, and they were trying to talk me into something brand new that they haven't even tried themselves yet. Heck, they could not even replicate profitability reliably on a model they have been working on for over a decade. Needless to say, I was not interested, but told them I may be if they could implement the concept themselves and actually be successful at it. It's 2018 (two years later) and nobody has even opened a single Griff's location or mobile unit - including Ultimate Franchises themselves. The pictures of the mobile trailers on the Griff's website are badly stitched together photoshop! I can't comprehend why anyone would want to invest in this.

• I was between jobs and 18|8's agent convinced me this concept was a cash cow, so I invested. How wrong I was to listen. $700k later, I have no hope of recouping any of my investment and I am left with a worthless asset. Too bad, because I love my team and I enjoy interacting with clients. I continue to be under the brand, so I can attest to everything the writer of this article has stated. The FDD was so misleading, it hid the fact that 18|8 is essentially owned by Mana Concepts. They did this because Mana has been sued multiple times in the past (losing $219k in one case) and inclusion of this important fact would have meant Griffiths and Co. wouldn't be able to grift anyone as easily.

  Investing with these criminals is by far the dumbest thing I have ever done. Stay away!!!

• It is true what was stated in the article and comments left.

  The investment was totally misrepresented. This franchise model takes too much of your time for little to no return. It will prevent you from doing other things that can actually give you income. No one in their right mind would invest in 18|8 from the franchiser. It costs much more to build out and operate than the franchiser stated. If the true numbers were given no one would have invested in this franchise.

  With so many failures and re-branded salons, the results speak for themselves. After all how could all those people whose franchises failed be stupid; especially since the vast majority of them had great online reviews. The failure rate is just too high. Even the franchisees that are at break-even in monthly operating expenses (no one has recouped all the money they invested) or higher don't make anything like what was promised in the FDD.

  The lies told by the franchiser have to be criminal in nature. FTC and state level district attorney's need to get involved and prosecute these people. I am speaking out because I don't want anyone else to suffer like 18|8 franchisees have. Investing in 18|8 is like taking a match and burning $500K and higher. Don't do it.

  If you want to blow that kind of money go to Vegas; at least there you will have some fun and not be a drain on your time.

• This article could not be any more truthful!

  These thieves at 18|8 Corporate must be stopped!

  We cannot allow anyone else to invest in this disgusting, false, misrepresented lie of a "guarantee" to supplement future income!

  We are all business people that invested in 18|8, how can the majority of these salons close or rebrand? There is something very very wrong with the franchise owners!

  The California Attorney General, FTC, FBI must investigate these thieves!

  DO not invest with Ultimate Franchises, 18|8 Eighteen Eight, Griff's Shave Bar or ANYTHING to do with Scott Griffiths, Ron Love, Brigitte Love Thewes, Loretta Griffiths and anyone else.

  Due Diligence is what this article is about.

• Eighteen Eight Fitchburg WI has also closed since this article was published
  https://eighteeneight.com/fitchburg-wi/

  Again, local reviews could not have been any better.
  https://www.yelp.com/biz/18-8-fine-mens-salons-fitchburg-fitchburgh

  The outward portrayal of success with complete disregard to individuals and families losing their life savings to this franchise is nauseating.

• Is Ron Love even still involved with Ultimate Franchises or Griff's Ace Barbers & Shave Bar? I heard that he and Scott Griffiths had a falling out over all the legal actions against 18/8 and Mana Concepts. Griffiths did drive something that was potentially great into the ground at Ron's expense.