Luxury providers in game of survival

Viridian Day Spa in Mount Pleasant sent out an e-mail to clients Tuesday morning with the subject line "Sad News from Viridian."

In it, owner and founder Laura Kennedy revealed that the spa would close Oct. 26.

The reason: "The economy has taken its toll on many new businesses recently and we are no exception," she wrote. Kennedy, who declined to be interviewed, went on to say the country's recent economic woes "have magnified the impact on Viridian and, undoubtedly, will continue to impact discretionary services like spa visits."

Perhaps better termed luxury goods, discretionary services face a game of survival whenever their customers begin to tighten the budget strings. These past few weeks alone, some of them have met their match.

Frank Berger, chief executive officer and founder of You've Got Maids, said he considers himself fortunate that his numbers have been steady for franchises in both Charleston and in Orlando, Fla. But he did notice a trend among the spreading economic fallout.

"We've seen a disproportionate number of formerly independent maids coming to us looking for a job," he said.

Berger said customers who choose independent cleaners tend to have less disposable income. If you want insured, background-checked, drug-tested service, you have to pay more, he said.

Dr. William Terranova at The Center for Plastic Surgery in Charleston has heard of as much as a 25 percent drop throughout his industry over the past several months.

The impact on individual practices, Terranova said, largely depends on whether patients' surgeries are medically necessary or cosmetic. He's not sure how much the economic downturn has affected his business but said 95 percent of his patients would fall into the latter category.

"What I've seen is it's not people canceling surgery," Terranova said. "They don't come in to consider it."

He said people today are weighing any discretionary purchases against the security of having that money stashed away.

"Some of my general surgery colleagues have patients with hernias who put off getting their hernias fixed," Terranova said.

Local spa consultant Christina Robertson cautions that the downturn hasn't taken every business with it. Some spas, she said, are in higher demand than ever.

"Some businesses have even had a slight increase," she said. "They have clients who are stressed out."