La Salano Spa Extending Food Drive Discount Special Through End of Year

The ad had been running for the last few weeks in the local paper: for every canned food item a customer brings in to La Salano Spa, they get a 1 percent discount on their service plus a potential additional 50 percent off for the whole visit. There were no limits to the number of canned goods that can be brought in, and the offer was only good through December 15.

Then during one morning last week, it took owners Teri and Bret Wilcox, along with daughter Alissa, all of two minutes to decide to push the special out to the end of the year.

"If we can get more food donated to bring to the [Kiwanis] food bank, then why not?" mused Bret.

This is how quickly decisions can be made at a casual and homey family business like La Salano, which only opened in Enumclaw this past July and according to Bret, has already developed a client base of about 450 people, with an 80 percent retention rate (they've come back more than once).

"We didn't expect to grow that quickly," he said, which is why the family is looking to give back to the community in which it has lived for the past 17 years.

They were active in the Enumclaw Wolverines organization, Teri said, with their son playing football and daughter Alissa in cheer. Bret's other mechanical drafting consulting business, CAD Man Do, has been in town almost 10 years.

"The community was really important for us," Teri said.

Of the new business, "it's been so amazingly received," she said.

Teri, who has massage training and previously worked at a Massage Envy in Federal Way, had been holding sessions at her home when the demand became too great. 

She then went to esthetician school with daughter Alissa, who expressed a passion for skin care and make up, though mom stuck mainly with massage and in particular specializes in deep tissue work.

After a prior career at Horizon Airlines which involved much physical exertion, "I had a passion for helping people who were hurting," Teri said. 

When La Salano opened, 60 of Teri's clients followed her to the new location. "We truly believe that massage is such a healing art," she said. "People don't get touched enough.... Human contact has been taken away. [At La Salano], you're getting back at our core values, that one-on-one contact affects a person's day-to-day outlook on life. It's grounding and healing."

While La Salano currently specializes in skin care, make up (including eyelash extensions), massage, and even teeth whitening, it will soon expand its repertoire of services to include nails.

The Wilcoxes are operating in a tough economic climate that recently led to the . Bret attributes part of their success at seemingly begin able to buck the trend to the fact that the family renovated the building (it was the Remax insurance building previously) themselves and to date has low overhead costs to deal with. 

The family's success also makes it possible for them to provide discounts such as those connected to the food bank, as well as coupons through Valpak. La Salano also has a mutual promotional effort with .

The Deal

From now through the end of the month, come in to La Salano with any amount of donated foods you'd like to bring, and receive 1 percent off for each item. Then, before you check out, you will receive an additional automatic discount with a potential to be as high as 50 percent off.

"Bring in as many cans as you want," said Teri.