Buying your supplies from the Koreans? Please Watch This

aprilbiz said:
I hope to also open a supply store of my own or invest in one in the near future.

Amen. I would buy definitely send my business your way. I think black BSS owners need to use their own ingenuity and open up stores that specialize in the sell of black owned hair care lines such as black earth, qhemet, and other quality products that actually work on our hair....That way we won't have to break our necks to find these things online.
 
rinygirl6 said:
Amen. I would buy definitely send my business your way. I think black BSS owners need to use their own ingenuity and open up stores that specialize in the sell of black owned hair care lines such as black earth, qhemet, and other quality products that actually work on our hair....That way we won't have to break our necks to find these things online.

shelf life is a concern, especially in my business. Shelf life is a HUGE reason why many black owned bss don't sell stuff like Carol's Daughter.

It's not that we won't sell it... we can't sell it. Natural products spoil fast. It's also a pain in the butt to ship.

It's sad that even though the black community puts so much into the health in beauty industry, we are still brand loyal to stuff that habitually spells things wrong (doo-gro, etc.). You have the power to make them stop doing this.

You are extremely elite women. Only 45 percent of the US population has access to a computer with internet. Out of that, only 12 percent are of African descent. Out of that less than 1 percent go online to search for black hair care tips. Out of that... 11,000 are here, reading this board, learning tips, getting advice, becoming proactive about not only hair, but decisions on how and where to spend the beauty expense.

You have the power to make or break the Korean BSS. BREAK IT!
 
Unfortunately, there is only one black owned BSS near me and their prices are high compared to the Asian one that I frequent. The black owned BSS near me doesn't have a large selection of products either.

Last year I started a thread about how to become a distributor or start your own BSS. I tried researching this, because I wouldn't mind opening a BSS. However, I didn't find much information about it. When I talk to owners or people who may know black owners of BSS, they're pretty tight lipped about it.

Any ideas on how to start a BSS?
 
1QTPie said:
What difference does it make, because in the end 90% of the money we are giving to these so-called 'black companies' who make our hair products are white.

Let's get to the root of it first. We don't make half of the stuff that's marketed to supposedly make our hair look better and healthier. ;) Some white man in a lab coat, some white man in a suit etc.

Patrick Alès, is the founder of Phyospecific, "curl minimizer" as he calls it, he's a white frenchmen. But yet he gets $60 a pop a few times a year from a lot of us here.

This is the phytospecific man:
patrick.jpg

DING DONG!!! This is it right here! I couldn't have said it better. I agree 100%
 
anky said:
shelf life is a concern, especially in my business. Shelf life is a HUGE reason why many black owned bss don't sell stuff like Carol's Daughter.

It's not that we won't sell it... we can't sell it. Natural products spoil fast. It's also a pain in the butt to ship.

. BREAK IT!


Sephora sells carols daughter now and they dont seem concerned about spoilage. if sephora can sell them so can black bss.
 
rinygirl6 said:
Damn that was good! I've been thinking about this subject for years now. I always wondered how it was possible to have 5 BSS in a one mile radius, all selling the same products, and have them all stay in business. I came to the conclusion that when it comes to black women and beauty, the asian community have discovered that there is room for everyone.

I talked about this to my father a while back, and he said that korean people come from korea just to start nail salons and BSS stores, they have their own associations that provide funding to do this in korea, and once they come over here they have korean assoc. That support them.

Have you ever seen a korean beauty supply store go out of business?

Now, I don't blame them for finding a niche market....they've discovered a glodmine. However, I do not like the way some/most of these store owners treat their core consumer. Someone posted before that the black owned BSS had rude employees....well, there is something to be said about how mei ling all of a sudden needs to reorganize the shampoo bottles in every isle you go. There is a reason for this. This is not becuase of past shoplifter experiences.

I live in a black community where the average family income is 80,000/yr, and houses sell for $800,000-10million. Why the hell would any of these people want to steal a stinkin $3 dollar jar of Blue Magic? Well, it doesn't matter to asian store owners because part of the market research statistics they recieve when they start these BSS include the percentage rate of shoplifting among black people.

Another question, why is it that, eventhough we all know these stores make enough money, most asian owned BSS never clean up? I've noticed it has gotten better over the years, but I remember a time when all the hair was in a pile over here, the shampoo bottles where all smooshed over there, and the carpet look like it was growing hair....and yet we continued to come in droves(then complained about it to our friends while we opened up our new bottle of optimum care)

Lastly, I think that a woman on the documentary made a good point. The black community doesn't know how valuable it is to this country. They make money off of us, which is fine, then treat us unfairly. We create ideas out of necessity, then they take our ideas, make them their own, and don't give credit for these ideas, or atleast include us in the usage.

Did you know that companies are making cleansing conditioners now? They are geared toward caucasians because by doing this it is more market friendly.

And everybody knows that all races wear weaves now. But why are we the only ones that get a bad rep when we sport our weaves? Instead of "her extensions make her hair look so much fuller!", we get "She must be bald headed under there"

Did you know that asian women and some white women relax there hair?

And in europe (spec. germany), cornrowing, microbraiding, hair added individual braids, and dreadlocks among young white people are popular.

I could go on and on (more than I already have;)), but my point is that we should take these types of issues seriously, not just for face value. It's not just an issue of other ethnicities making a boat load off the black community. But more an issue of black people slowly loosing their right and ability to have a voice IN THEIR OWN COMMUNITY.

totally agree. koreans have a monopoly on the cheap low quality black hair products most of whch are white owned. we need to create a monopoly on quality black hair products that are black owned. a chain of black bss that only sells oyin, qhemet, jane carter, anita grant, ashas, etc would be a hit.
 
rinygirl6 said:
...Now, I don't blame them for finding a niche market....they've discovered a glodmine. However, I do not like the way some/most of these store owners treat their core consumer. Someone posted before that the black owned BSS had rude employees....well, there is something to be said about how mei ling all of a sudden needs to reorganize the shampoo bottles in every isle you go. There is a reason for this. This is not becuase of past shoplifter experiences...

Another question, why is it that, eventhough we all know these stores make enough money, most asian owned BSS never clean up? I've noticed it has gotten better over the years, but I remember a time when all the hair was in a pile over here, the shampoo bottles where all smooshed over there, and the carpet look like it was growing hair....and yet we continued to come in droves(then complained about it to our friends while we opened up our new bottle of optimum care)

Lastly, I think that a woman on the documentary made a good point. The black community doesn't know how valuable it is to this country. They make money off of us, which is fine, then treat us unfairly. We create ideas out of necessity, then they take our ideas, make them their own, and don't give credit for these ideas, or atleast include us in the usage.

Did you know that companies are making cleansing conditioners now? They are geared toward caucasians because by doing this it is more market friendly.

And everybody knows that all races wear weaves now. But why are we the only ones that get a bad rep when we sport our weaves? Instead of "her extensions make her hair look so much fuller!", we get "She must be bald headed under there"...

I could go on and on (more than I already have;)), but my point is that we should take these types of issues seriously, not just for face value. It's not just an issue of other ethnicities making a boat load off the black community. But more an issue of black people slowly loosing their right and ability to have a voice IN THEIR OWN COMMUNITY.

Amen!!!!!!
 
ximenia said:
totally agree. koreans have a monopoly on the cheap low quality black hair products most of whch are white owned. we need to create a monopoly on quality black hair products that are black owned. a chain of black bss that only sells oyin, qhemet, jane carter, anita grant, ashas, etc would be a hit.

That would be awesome!!!!!!!
 
Question- why is it that as soon as we decide to support black owned business and get 'burned' by them (sorry customer service, rude, etc) we SHOUT to the mountain tops about how we won't ever support them, but we experience the same treatment by non-blacks, shrug it off, and KEEP supporting them:scratchch
 
Bublnbrnsuga said:
Question- why is it that as soon as we decide to support black owned business and get 'burned' by them (sorry customer service, rude, etc) we SHOUT to the mountain tops about how we won't ever support them, but we experience the same treatment by non-blacks, shrug it off, and KEEP supporting them:scratchch

Thank you! This is one of my pet peeves. We become extremely vigilant when it comes to not patronizing Black businesses that do not give the best customer service. But we dish out big money to non Black vendors and store owners who treat us like our money is less than green and, while we may complain about Korean store owners following us around or white clerks not acknowledging us when we walk into the store, we seldom let it keep us from giving them our money.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think anyone should tolerate poor service when they are spending their hard earned money, but it has been my experience that the only time many of us let poor service keep us out of a store is when the owner looks like us.
 
Bublnbrnsuga said:
Question- why is it that as soon as we decide to support black owned business and get 'burned' by them (sorry customer service, rude, etc) we SHOUT to the mountain tops about how we won't ever support them, but we experience the same treatment by non-blacks, shrug it off, and KEEP supporting them:scratchch

Thank you!!!!
 
Nita81 said:
That would be awesome!!!!!!!

i was thinking that the investors who bought carols daughter should allow other lines in the stores. that would probably triple their profits. you could buy cd plus all the other natural lines in one place.
 

As I wrote in my earlier post, the closest thing that we have to a blk bss in our neighborhood is the Asian bss. (I don’t know where they are actually from)

We can scream and shout all we want but ppl usually hear you better when you talk to their wallet. Yes the ladies on LHCF can boycott, but we are such a small percentage (and most ppl think that we are just hair fanatics anyway). This information needs to be put out there in the mainstream; it needs to be shown where young people, business owners, and entrepreneurs can be educated about it.

When they started using rappers to “rock the vote” more young ppl registered to vote than ever before. The best thing we can do is figure out a way to get this to a bigger audience than us, because before this video I had never heard of BOBSA

Like most of the ppl on the video said you cannot really blame the Koreans for trying to corner the market, we wouldn’t blame Bill Gates for trying to squeeze out Apple Computer. Now it’s just time to take it back. Apple computer has made a comeback, why can’t we?
 
Bublnbrnsuga said:
Question- why is it that as soon as we decide to support black owned business and get 'burned' by them (sorry customer service, rude, etc) we SHOUT to the mountain tops about how we won't ever support them, but we experience the same treatment by non-blacks, shrug it off, and KEEP supporting them:scratchch

I couldn't agree more! I wish we would be more supportive of each other and a little more forgiving. :look:
 
MizaniMami said:
Can you say that again? I am NOT going to support any business (black included) that are rude to me and too high.

Most of the black business are too damn high.

I totally agree with you. I have tried to support black BSS but were just really overpriced and I'm not talking pennies.
 
Great post so informative. I think everyone should watch this video and think about what's being done to us and how we are being exploited.
 
fallback said:
I totally agree with you. I have tried to support black BSS but were just really overpriced and I'm not talking pennies.

They are overpriced because they have to pay the the Koreans to get the supplies, I would think they charge more for non-korean names.
 
This is what I do for this type of situation: rather than go buy ALL your stuff from a higher-priced black-owned bss, if you really can't afford it, just buy one or two things.
If more people started to buy just one or two things it would help. That'd be a few more dollars staying "black".
 
UmSumayyah said:
This is what I do for this type of situation: rather than go buy ALL your stuff from a higher-priced black-owned bss, if you really can't afford it, just buy one or two things.
If more people started to buy just one or two things it would help. That'd be a few more dollars staying "black".

What a great suggestion!:clapping:
 
This was very informative. Really makes me think about where I spend that mighty dollar... lol... Just Sunday my mom and I went to a black owned store called Hair Plus in Louisiana... and the people there were nice and helpful.
 
We have to be in a business frame of mind when conducting business.
I wonder if anyone has considered seriously: That when Miss Becky had a store and prices were high, black women would still go in and spend their dollars to get what they needed. When the Asian markets have it, we will put up with ish and drop our dollars even when we are paying for something that does not work or causes damage....gots to have it!!!! How much did that cost you? But as soon as we talk about BSS owned by blacks....we start to back peddle and use the same old phrases: "Blacks charge to much!"... Blacks are rude!" But even when the Asians are rude blacks flock. When the whites were rude, we were dying to get in there. The bottom line is, do you want to support black business if they are willing to provide what you need and good service....? If you are pro black business and not indifferent to the "power and control" issues involved in capitalism ... maybe the answer is to confront in a very polite and friendly way, Black business owners and tell them that their staff is costing them money due to non professionalism and that is one of the reasons we have not been coming in and we notice that their prices are a little higher, and there are some specific things that we use regularly that they are not carrying but that we will switch all our hair business over to them if they give us a reasonable discount and we will bring our friends. Ask if they are willing to try that for a year? What are your thoughts on taking it strictly to the business level of approach? One lady (black business owner) where I shop, ALWAYS GIVES ME A DISCOUNT...without me even asking). For those owners who are pinching a penny to save a dollar, talk to them from a money point of view and then follow through. Instead of boycotting the Asians and leaving it at that...go to the black businesses and lay it on the table..." I am prepared over the next year, along with my friends.....xxxx number of dollars....are you interested in our business?.. because we would really like to support you if you could give us a slight discount on products if we consistently shop here....Maybe we need to change some of the black business owners' concepts of cheap black customers, who always shop black last. When I am travelling I search out black salespersons, waiters etc. to give my business to. I get good service...and I tip well. and I am very polite to anyone who gives me service. I get treated really well. And if I am in a place and the personnel are white, I tip them too. I get what I want in the end. Information, good service, and the extra mile and I am happy and they often say, "you made my day!". Sometimes you have to give to get...sow some seed. You need to be “business” with people in “business”. bonjour
 
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Lansing, Michigan is the capital but it's still pretty small IMO. The only African American owned beauty shop is closing because of this stuff. She said she has been loosing money for years. It crushes my spirit that there is no support going to African American owned business.
 
Mahalialee4 what you say is the truth! I agree 100%. When I watched this documentary I felt so sad. Its true we do overprice. I think its because of our lack of faith that we will do well and sell all of our products.

There were two hair shops in our small town in London. One was run by arabs and the other was run a black lady. She always looked sad but she was never rude. My boyfriend at the time, pointed out the store and told me that I should do some of my shopping there. So I did, and the prices were out of this world, for the same products that I would get from the arab store and the experience I had, whenever I went there was just depressing, but this didn’t stop me. Not long after that, about 3 weeks later, I went back to the store and couldn’t find it – it had closed down. The whole thing was just sad.

We need to have faith, like the other races, that if we sell our products cheaply, have loyalty cards and offer discounts to regular customers, that we will do well and be successful. We should not be so scared about making the money back, because it is inevitable that every business will lose money at first. We need faith to continue, so that we can reap the rewards that we deserve! Otherwise we will lose out.

Our priority should not be prices, but regular customers.
 
MizaniMami said:
Can you say that again? I am NOT going to support any business (black included) that are rude to me and too high.

Most of the black business are too damn high.

Maybe there are too high because they have to pay higher premiums than the koreans. I would def support a bbb!! Consider their prices, maybe if they had more customers the prices would drop. Look at the bigger picture. Koreans and other races stick together but blacks seems so selfish just looking at the mighty dollar.
 
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