18/8 Eighteen Eight Fine Men’s Salons overstates the success of its franchises and understates its franchise failures, according to a franchise owner who provided this anonymous complaint. We invite others to validate or dispute this claim – and share their opinions of the Eighteen Eight Fine Men’s Salon franchise, the Griff’s Shave Bar franchise, and franchisor Ultimate Franchises Inc.
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Eighteen Eight Fine Men’s Salons – How Many Open / Closed / Rebranded? is an anonymously submitted guest post penned by a current or former 18/8 franchise owner.
The writer believes all information and numbers to be accurate, but invites readers to verify independently and draw their own conclusions.
Here’s the Guest Post:
Submitted by An 18/8 Franchise Owner.
In a recent Forbes interview (dated 6/13/18), franchise CEO (Chief Exaggerating Officer), Scott Griffiths severely overstates franchise success, open location count, and units in development of the 18/8 Fine Men’s Salon franchise chain.
Scott Griffiths is also the principal of Ultimate Franchises Inc. and the sub-brand Griff’s Shave Bar.
The premise of the article is how the financial crisis helped 18|8 Fine Men’s Salons grow faster through franchising than it would have organically.
While franchising has helped the 18|8 brand grow in store count in recent years, the rapid closing of locations throughout the country has led to many franchisees losing their life savings.
Griffiths states in the article, “Since franchising, 18|8 Fine Men’s Salons has grown to nearly 100 locations, with more than 150 in development.”
Eighteen Eight’s own website only lists 61 operating locations. Where are the other 39?
In a recent internal call with franchisees, Griffiths claims 75 open locations.
Did he mean “nearly” 75?
Where is the truth?
1. Irvine, CA (https://www.yelp.com/biz/18-8-fine-mens-salon-irvine-2)
2. Westlake Village, CA (https://www.yelp.com/biz/eighteen-eight-fine-mens-salon-westlake-village)
3. San Rafael, CA (https://www.yelp.com/biz/18-8-fine-mens-salon-san-rafael)
4. Walnut Creek, CA (https://www.yelp.com/biz/18-8-fine-mens-salons-walnut-creek-walnut-creek-2)
5. Culver City, CA (https://www.yelp.com/biz/18-8-fine-mens-salons-culver-city-culver-city-5)
6. La Jolla, CA (https://www.yelp.com/biz/18-8-fine-mens-salons-la-jolla-la-jolla-2)
7. Little Italy (San Diego), CA (https://www.yelp.com/biz/18-8-fine-mens-salons-broadstone-little-italy-san-diego)
8. Washington, DC (https://www.yelp.com/biz/18-8-fine-mens-salons-washington)
9. Coral Gables, FL (https://www.yelp.com/biz/18-8-fine-mens-salon-coral-gables)
10. Bethesda, MD (https://www.yelp.com/biz/18-8-fine-mens-salons-bethesda-bethesda)
11. Maple Lawn, MD (https://www.yelp.com/biz/18-8-fine-mens-salons-maple-lawn-fulton-2)
12. North Baltimore, MD (https://www.yelp.com/biz/18-8-fine-mens-salons-greenspring-baltimore-2)
13. St. Louis Park, MN (https://www.yelp.com/biz/18-8-fine-mens-salons-st-louis-park-st-louis-park-2)
14. Bedminster, NJ (https://www.yelp.com/biz/18-8-fine-mens-salons-bedminster)
15. Westwood, NJ (https://www.yelp.com/biz/18-8-fine-mens-salons-westwood)
16. Florham Park, NJ (https://www.yelp.com/biz/18-8-fine-mens-salons-florham-park-florham-park)
17. Edgewater, NJ (https://www.yelp.com/biz/18-8-fine-mens-salons-city-place-edgewater-edgewater)
18. Livingston, NJ (https://www.yelp.com/biz/18-8-fine-mens-salons-livingston-livingston)
19. Woodbury, NJ (https://www.yelp.com/biz/18-8-fine-mens-salons-woodbury-woodbury)
20. Beachwood, OH (https://www.yelp.com/biz/18-8-fine-mens-salons-beachwood-beachwood-2)
21. Avon Commons, OH (https://www.yelp.com/biz/18-8-fine-mens-salons-avon-commons-avon)
22. Lake Oswego, OR (https://www.yelp.com/biz/18-8-fine-mens-salons-lake-oswego-lake-oswego-4)
23. McKinney, TX (https://www.yelp.com/biz/18-8-fine-mens-salons-mckinney-mckinney)
24. Fort Worth, TX (https://www.yelp.com/biz/18-8-fine-mens-salons-fort-worth-fort-worth)
1. Ocotillo, AZ
2. Waterfront, AZ
3. Newport Beach, CA
4. West Hollywood, CA
5. Dublin, CA
6. Brea, CA
7. Huntington Beach, CA
8. Campbell, CA
9. Roseville, CA
10. Mountain View, CA
11. Laguna Niguel, CA
12. Closter, NJ
13. Jersey City, NJ
14. Mamaroneck, NJ
15. Cool Springs, TN
16. Plano, TX
17. Flower Mound, TX
18. Richardson, TX
19. Bothell, WA
6 other former franchise locations have had operations taken over by 18|8 corporate;
1. Anaheim Hills, CA
2. Lake Forest, CA
3. Centennial, CO
4. Annapolis, MD
5. Princeton, NJ
6. Powell, OH
The franchise page of the eighteeneight.com franchise website states: “Total Investment Range is $291,851 – $513,639 for a single 18|8 Fine Men’s Salon.”
Considering all store closures, rebrands, and corporate takeovers, this equates to $14.3-$25.1 million in lost investor value. This total does not include resales that have netted the original owner negative value.
Scott Griffiths claims 150 units in development. In the first 6 months of 2018 alone, over 2 dozen locations have either closed or rebranded, while only 2 new locations have opened. In an amazing twist of irony; the recent Forbes article is titled “Growth Stories: How the Financial Crisis Caused This Business To Grow Ten Times Faster.”
Share your personal Growth Story with 18|8 Fine Men’s Salons in the comments.
[End of Guest Submitted Content]
See how many locations Ultimate Franchises, Inc. claims to have as of July, 2017. See Item 20 for location and sales information, and the exhibits for a list of current and former franchise owners:
ALSO READ:
FRANCHISE DISCUSSIONS by Company
NOTE: We invite all parties discussed to share corrections, clarifications, explanations, rebuttals, and alternative points of views. Franchisors, franchisees, employees and others discussed here can leave comments below or submit rebuttals and clarifications via email to UnhappyFranchisee[at]Gmail.com.
Opinions and representations expressed are those of the parties alone; do your own research and make up your own mind. We are a discussion site and invite all opinions from all points of view which can be left as comments or submitted to UnhappyFranchisee[at]gmail.com for possible publication. Anonymous commenting is fine. Please consider supporting our effort with a contribution to Unhappy Franchisee.
ARE YOU AN 18/8 EIGHTEEN EIGHT FRANCHISE OWNER OR GRIFF’S SHAVE BAR FRANCHISEE? WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE ULTIMATE FRANCHISES, INC. CONCEPTS AND SUPPORT?
IS SCOTT GRIFFITHS EXAGGERATING THE SUCCESS & UNDERSTATING THE RISK OF HIS FRANCHISE OPPORTUNITIES?
SHARE A COMMENT BELOW.
TAGS: 18/8 Fine Men’s Salons, 18/8 Fine Men’s Salons franchise, 18/8 Salon franchise opportunity, 18/8 Fine Men’s Salons franchise complaints, Eighteen Eight Salon franchise, Eighteen Eight Salon franchise, Griff’s Shave Bar franchise, Ultimate Franchises Inc., franchise complaints, Scott Griffiths, W. Scott Griffiths, Ron Love, Loretta Hwong Griffiths, , Brigitte Love Thewes, Mark Elson, unhappy franchisee
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View Comments
Chris Brown is not even interested in continuing to own and operate two locations. Powell, OH, the location Chris Brown received for free from Scott Griffiths after the original franchisee closed, is currently listed for sale on BizBuySell.com. Go to hell, Chris Brown. You already sold your sole. So did Mr. Integrity, Andrew Hulse, husband of Gay Hulse, from Elk River, MN.
Even by Scott's standard of stretching the projections and misleading people, this is taking it too a whole new level. This great for laughs until you think it is remotely possible that someone, who obviously does not know Scott, could actually believe it. Then it becomes really sad to think of more people of having a high probability of losing their life's saving.
Looks like Chris Brown and Andrew Hulse are perfectly willing to lend their names to this deception. Three peas in a pod.
Interesting they show stores long ago no longer in 18|8 in the same that shows the ending of "early stage" being the end of 2018. Guess they (Scott, Chris, Andrew) wanted to show a larger store count and didn't want to be worried little pesky facts. It's only a marketing document designed to get people to invest their savings. Read on. You can venture to read on and see if it makes you laugh, cry or both.
https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/3851913/3%20-%20Marketing/Landing%20Page/Eighteen%20Eight%20-%20Landing/Files/188%20Launch%20Deck.pdf
Hmmm, BodeTree must have a pretty low bar when it comes to taking on new franchise development clients. Unlike five years ago, it does not take much effort to uncover W. Scott's and his co-conspirators' long history of fraud.
anyone have a link to where to find the new FDD for 188 or Ace/Griffs. Not on Cali site. Looking for what they are using for financials and if they listed their legal activity. I heard there was one around but can not locate it.
With the legal hot water that Scott Griffith's is in, I wonder if Chris Brown and Andrew Hulse will have to start paying royalty payments to someone else.
At least now, Chris would only have to pay royalties on one store, unlike Andrew. Chris and Scott have said there is never a reason to close a store. They are on record of saying they could save troubled stores. The link below belies that. Chris's Powell, OH 18|8 store that was posted for sale is now closed. Per Scott, Chris, an 18|8 corporate officer, is the best franchisee of all. Since Chris is marketing to get more 18|8 investors, I guess he may have to say corporate (Scott?) messed up in approving the store location, to begin with. No matter how Scott, Andrew or Chris spins this, this is not good news for them or other franchisees hoping to escape their decision to invest in 18|8 by selling what few stores they built out of the total number units they paid for.
https://eighteeneight.com/powell-oh/
Below is the FDD link to Grreat Griffs Two Corp, a Nevada corporation (Not CA for some reason?)
Branded as Griff's Shave Bar.
Item 2:
Officers:
President: Tasha Griffiths
(Manager in 18|8 Costa Mesa 2008-2018)
(Served a president since January, 2019)
Director of Franchise Operations: Andrew Hulse
(Chris Brown, Scott, Loretta, Brigitte, Ron are not listed for some reason.)
Item 3
No litigation is required to be disclosed. (A new FDD, it appears, does not need to mention any litigation of its affiliated company even though there is a strong connection an 18|8 is referenced multiple times and even shows the 18|8 marks. Exhibit B has a checkoff line as to which Franchise Model is being selected. Franchise agreement section 6A refers to development of "18|8 salons")
Item 6
The marketing fee is 2%.
Late Fee $500.
Item 8
Can restrict products
Can restrict suppliers
Can require purchases "from us"
Have the right to receive payment from suppliers in dealings with you. (No cap is noted on how much of a cap or % would be laid on top of the portion of the payment made by the franchisee to the supplier.)
Item 15/Exhibit C
May require a personal guarantee of you AND your spouse.
Item 20
Zero franchisee stores, zero franchisor stores are noted. Projects 5 stores in the next year.
Item 23
It is intended to register this disclosure document in a long list of states e.g. CA and notes the contact info being Commissioner on Department of Business Oversight, 213-576-7500, http://www.dbo.ca.gov
https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/3851913/3%20-%20Marketing/Landing%20Page/Eighteen%20Eight%20-%20Landing/Files/181211%20Griff's%20FDD%20(multi-brand)%20FINAL.pdf
LoL. Andrew "INTEGRITY" Hulse now works for Tasha Griffiths at GRreat GRriffs Two Corp?
HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHHHAHAHAHHAHAHA! What a clown show.
Well, now it is probably safe to add Cooper to the strike list as well.
I'm just going to leave this here for all of you to think about and get back to me on.
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/30821-Seminole-Pl-Laguna-Niguel-CA-92677/25575874_zpid/
Quick favor to ask ya'll.
I'm researching the role of franchise brokers (they call themselves free franchise "consultants" but get commissions from the franchisors) in the selling of bad or ill-fated new franchises.
Were any of you steered to 18|8 or Griff's by a franchise consultant? Can you share his/her name and company name? You can post it here or email me at unhappyfranchisee[at]gmail.com.
Allegedly, a franchise broker organization has privately taken credit for the growth of the 18|8 Fine Men's and still promotes them as a "franchise partner" along with Griff's.
The brokers are now aggressively pushing "Diesel Barbershop" which I suspect will not end well for franchisees either.