'It was more than just a business' says family after closing longstanding hair salon at Masonville Mall

Niki Delis says it felt like the grief over a loved one's death when she closed down the hair salon her father started at London's Masonville Place four decades ago as one of its first tenants. 

Delis and her family have ran Hair Effects on the ground floor of the mall since 1985 and over the years, have made countless memories and developed a loyal staff and client base. 

That journey came to an end last week, making them one of the latest mom-and-pop businesses in the north London mall to permanently shutdown due to financial pressures resulting from rent hikes and sales that haven't bounced back since the COVID-19 pandemic. 

"It was more than just a business to us. It did extremely well for many years and continued up until COVID," said Delis, who ran the salon with her husband and sister. 

"We were still a viable business but not for the expenses we had. We signed up for our rent before COVID, but five years ago, our business was doing 35 to 40 per cent more than it was now and that makes it very difficult to keep up with expenses."

Recurring closures from lockdowns and pandemic social distancing rules forced Delis to reduce the number of clients who could get help at one time, and after the pandemic the salon lost several employees who wanted to work shortened hours or out of their homes, said Delis.

The family made every effort to retain their salon, including ramping up advertisement, special deals, getting rent relief from their landlord and even trying to move to a smaller storefront in the mall, but none of those were able to save the business, Delis said. The salon's retail side, selling hair care products, also saw a major decline in revenue, she added.

"We didn't want to leave. We all tried very hard and we did see a slight increase in business in recent months and that was a positive thing because prior to that my husband and I would put in our own finances to cover payroll and rent," she said. 

"There wasn't enough walk-in traffic [in the mall] that there was before to bring in a new stylist, so we were left with 15 and that wasn't enough to sustain the rent we signed up for." 

Cadillac Fairview, which owns Masonville, didn't respond to CBC's interview request asking about the mall's vacancy rates and how much rents have increased since the pandemic. 

High costs, reduced foot traffic 'tough' for small shops

Increased costs of goods have made it difficult for both family-owned businesses and customers, whose shopping habits have also changed, said Toronto-based retail analyst Bruce Winder.

A greater push toward online shopping has reduced foot traffic in malls, which were historically a one-stop-shop for people to buy what they need, and service businesses in malls such as hair salons have been caught in that crossfire, he said. 

"More people dye their own hair because it can be quite costly to go out to a hair salon and get your hair coloured when you can do it with a bottle for a fraction of the price at home," he said. 

"There's also a lot of people who cut hair underground — you give them $30 and they'll do a good job at home. People will find ways to save a buck."

Although he anticipates more mom-and-pop stores will close in the months to come after what he described as a tough holiday season, Winder said independent businesses bring a sense of culture into communities that large franchises can't replicate. 

"It helps employ a lot of people in the area, it also offers unique services and a one-to-one relationship with someone that you can't get in some of the big boxes," he said. 

Delis's dad, George Koutsoyanakis, opened Hair Effects when she was 17 and she remembers how hard he worked to establish the salon. It's also where she met her now-husband Marino, who started managing the salon after Koutsoyanakis fell ill. 

Jennifer Proulx was a hairstylist at the salon for 15 years and said the team felt like family "who welcomed her with open arms" when she first moved to London. The closure has been difficult to process and she'll miss working at the location and clients she has grown close to, she said.

Although the family hasn't yet decided their plans for the future, Delis said the opportunity to continue her dad's legacy is one she will cherish forever. 

"It's been our livelihood and being able to work together with my family has been a privilege," she said. "All those memories and my staff and clients who feel like family, is a lot that's been ripped out of my heart."