Don't Rain On My Parade: Sun Tanning Without Sun (cont.)

In my previous entry I mentioned mass-market self-tanning and bronzing products but I also want to think about services.

1. The Spray Tan Booth.
I find this one particularly interesting. Watch the first 30 seconds of this video. Is it really that easy to spray tan? The reason why I chose Mystic tan is because appears to be the most prominent brand for this service. Strangely enough the locations for Mystic Tan are where people typically get more sun anyways. Mystic Tan has the most stores in California where the weather is warmer all year round. There are four California locations: Los Angeles, San Diego, Bakersfield and Riverside. These are all large university locations. Is the tanning trend geared towards college students?  Click here to see the map of Mystic Tan locations.

2. Tanning Beds.
Tanning beds give you high exposure to UV light from the top and the bottom. I find these to be really creepy because they remind me of coffins!

I didn’t realize how popular tanning is until I counted how many tanning salons there are around this town. I am living in a small suburban town of 18,000 people and there are six tanning salons open for business. This really surprises me because I didn’t think there would be such a high demand for tanning services. Again, I wonder if the tanning trend is geared towards college students as the college students do make up most of the town population.