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A beauty salon in Montluçon (Allier): “We don’t have the same customers as in shopping centers”

Arriving as an employee at the Institute in 1988, Claudine Blanchonnet never left. “It was small, family-run, with a good atmosphere. The big brands, I wouldn’t have liked it, ”she says in this small shop located at number 3, which offers beauty treatments and perfumes.

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A different clientele

She became the boss in 2012. “We don’t have the same clientele as in shopping centres. People come for us. We have known some of them for twenty or thirty years, sometimes we have their daughters or even their granddaughters, which makes us laugh less”, smiles Claudine Blanchonnet nevertheless. For her part, employee Aurélie Emery notes that many Parisians from Montluçon prefer this salon to the “less speedy” rhythm of those in the capital and go there every time they return to their families.

Montluçon, a dynamic city fifty years ago

It was Marie-Joëlle Demiot, now retired, who created the business fifty years ago, replacing a perfumery. The brand was called Coryse Salomé at the time. “I had the choice between Châtellerault and Montluçon to settle down, I chose Montluçon because it was a very dynamic city”, says the former boss.

premium Lamy and Langlois, two families who travel through the ages on boulevard de Courtais, in Montluçon (Allier)

Over the years, the boulevard has lost its appeal and the Institute has found itself in competition with shopping centers and large specialist retailers. “There is a huge difference with the boulevard before. When I started, there was the boss and three employees, and we had no holes in the agenda. It was particularly crowded on Saturday, people were a lot more on the boulevard, ”says the manager.

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