MILWAUKEE, WI – In September, the team at the four-store Lectric Beach chain celebrated 26 years in business. Tanners reaped the benefits throughout the fall with
22 special celebration days and retro deals on tanning, red-light sessions and teeth-whitening at slashed prices.
“Every year around this time, we decorate all the salons to get the party atmosphere going,” said founder Dion Borkowicz. “It’s a big deal to have been giving area residents a great tan for all these years. We want to thank them for being so loyal and we’re proud of the success we’ve accomplished.”
Primarily relying on EFT memberships to stabilize and grow Lectric Beach year in and year out, Borkowicz pulls out old school packages at anniversary time like, “tan til’ the end of the year” or “buy 20 sessions, get six free” as a nod to the 26th year. “It’s just a great time to reconnect with our customers,” says Borkowicz. “They come in to stock up on tanning sessions and wish us happy anniversary. We’ve gotten cards, flowers. We talk about how the salons used to look or past member appreciation picnics, baseball games or other memories. It just makes you feel you really are contributing to the community,” Borkowicz said.
Working on linking all four salon computers, managers Melanie Murphy and Pamm Timm noted how amazing it was to encounter clients whose start dates with Lectric Beach went back to the early 1990s. Though Lectric Beach opened its doors in 1987, it took a few years before the salons were computerized.
While Borkowicz, Murphy & Timm have 53 years of collective tanning industry experience and are looking ahead with the help of fresh-faced new staff and long-time employees who have been through the anniversary hoopla. This year, they decided to party with Milwaukee radio station Energy 106.9 – with a demographic aimed at college-aged listeners. They celebrated at a local club, with a DJ flown up from Tampa and the first drink for each guest was “on the house.” Lectric Beach gave away 26 months of level-one tanning and at the end of the evening, a full year of unlimited tanning.
“It was just an ideal pairing for us this year, at this time,” said Borkowicz. “Who knows where we’ll be for our 50th?”
