Mike's Natural Soap

Yeah Maggard's is about 75 miles away from me. Not exactly around the corner, but considering its one of the very few shaving stores in the country, its pretty damn close. If it was too much closer though I'd probably be spending a lot more money on shaving gear than I already do. So there are pros and cons depending on how you look at it, lol.

And Red Tipped Cobra, something I realized at the meet-up sniffing as many soaps as I could while I was there, is that A LOT of soaps smell the same, even if they have different scent profiles listed. Its really a crap shoot sometimes. I like to get an idea of scent strength though. I don't want to buy a soap with a specific scent if I can barely smell it. It kind of defeats the purpose.

Anyway, I'm drifting off topic here so yeah, Mike's is a great soap. While I do enjoy some straightforward simple scents, it would be nice if he came out with some new stuff with a little more complexity wouldn't it?

andrewjs18
We do get down there a fair amount.  My wife sings opera professionally and she performs pretty regularly with the Philadelphia Opera company.  I just tag along for the ride and enjoy the city.  In my opinion Philadelphia is one of the best!

Brad Maggard said in this interview with Mantic59 that 95% of their business is done online. I find it incredible that his accountant (if he has one) advised him to take on excess overhead with the burden of a brick & mortar store. It takes a huge pop. base such as NYC or Chicago to support one of these & even then I wouldn't do it. You reach far more people online IMO.

Brad Maggard said in this interview with Mantic59 that 95% of their business is done online. I find it incredible that his accountant (if he has one) advised him to take on excess overhead with the burden of a brick & mortar store. It takes a huge pop. base such as NYC or Chicago to support one of these & even then I wouldn't do it. You reach far more people online IMO.

You are without question right. It makes no sense whatsoever to open a brick and mortar shaving store unless the amount of stuff you have in stock occupies a large enough space and is in a nice enough location to open to the public. Additionally, if you're only employing yourself and 1 maybe 2 other people it might work in a large city. However, I am sure glad a few people have jumped in, because they're really fun to visit.

andrewjs18
We do get down there a fair amount.  My wife sings opera professionally and she performs pretty regularly with the Philadelphia Opera company.  I just tag along for the ride and enjoy the city.  In my opinion Philadelphia is one of the best!

Hi Merkur Man , my wife sang with Calgary Opera for 15 years Alto /Mezzo-Soprano - I've taken in many performances from the comp (cheap) seats. I'll never forget the first time I went with the comp tickets to get some opera glasses. They had all these nice little sets of opera glasses lined up on the table and the attendant asked to see my tickets. When I showed him the tickets he reached under the table and handed me a pair of field glasses. Yes that last row is a long way from the stage. My wife is retired from singing now and I have to say I miss the constant presence of singing in our lives.
Marko

Brad Maggard said in this interview with Mantic59 that 95% of their business is done online. I find it incredible that his accountant (if he has one) advised him to take on excess overhead with the burden of a brick & mortar store. It takes a huge pop. base such as NYC or Chicago to support one of these & even then I wouldn't do it. You reach far more people online IMO.

Brad Maggard said in this interview with Mantic59 that 95% of their business is done online. I find it incredible that his accountant (if he has one) advised him to take on excess overhead with the burden of a brick & mortar store. It takes a huge pop. base such as NYC or Chicago to support one of these & even then I wouldn't do it. You reach far more people online IMO.

You are without question right. It makes no sense whatsoever to open a brick and mortar shaving store unless the amount of stuff you have in stock occupies a large enough space and is in a nice enough location to open to the public.  Additionally, if you're only employing yourself and 1 maybe 2 other people it might work in a large city.  However, I am sure glad a few people have jumped in, because they're really fun to visit.

How do we know what 100% equals? Maggard is a very successful merchant, so maybe 5% is still more than enough to profit from having a brick and mortar store. I have not idea how much revenue they bring in, but it wouldn't surprise me if that's the case. Still, even if it wasn't profitable on the brick and mortar side, they have to have some type of building where there employees can work and they can store their products. They sell a great deal of products so I imagine the workers stay busy packaging shipments and handling phone calls and emails.

andrewjs18
We do get down there a fair amount.  My wife sings opera professionally and she performs pretty regularly with the Philadelphia Opera company.  I just tag along for the ride and enjoy the city.  In my opinion Philadelphia is one of the best!

Hi Merkur Man , my wife sang with Calgary Opera for 15 years Alto /Mezzo-Soprano - I've taken in many performances from the comp (cheap) seats. I'll never forget the first time I went with the comp tickets to get some opera glasses. They had all these nice little sets of opera glasses lined up on the table and the attendant asked to see my tickets. When I showed him the tickets he reached under the table and handed me a pair of field glasses. Yes that last row is a long way from the stage. My wife is retired from singing now and I have to say I miss the constant presence of singing in our lives.
Marko

Hi Marko, Funny to meet another singer spouse! My wife is also a Mezzo-Soprano. I had never seen an opera before we met, but I have to admit I think I'd miss it a bit if she wasn't doing it anymore. Although, she is currently downstairs at the piano working hard to memorize her next role, so if you asked her right now if she'd miss opera if her career was over I bet she would say she could happily leave it behind. Boy oh boy do they ever work hard to learn all that music!

After all the talk yesterday about Mike's Barbershop I decided to use it this morning.  What a wonderful scent, but the thing that impressed me most was the absolutely PERFECT performance... seriously, I kid you not, no flaws in performance. Perfect glide, perfect protection, perfect slickness, perfect residual slickness, perfect post shave feel...you get the idea, PERFECTION!  There is no finer soap out there for my preferences. I    Mike's!

USPS says I will receive the 3 new Mystic Water soaps at the office shortly. I say this because I have come around to these two artisan soaps again. Mike's and Mystic. We'll see how Michelle's new soaps perform but I can't imagine better soaps out there. Mike's Lime was like Nathan's video this morning and I am still thinking about it!

I see he has Hungarian Lavender in stock this AM as well as some others in either tin or bars. The bars are wonderful to just press or grate into a wide jar...same perfect soap base!

Mike was testing a Bulgarian Rose scent. He had beta versions and noted the next version will have a stronger scent. This was a couple months ago. Anyone have more info on this?