Hair dryer safety rule creates profit potential, controversy

Discount Store News, March 30, 1987

Hair Dryer Safety Rule Creates Profit Potential, Controversy

New hair dryer safety standards will result in higher prices for the main staple of the keenly promotional personal care appliance business.

At least one major retailer, however, said that the revised standards could inject new life into a category that has suffered from drastic price erosion due to intense competition. It remains to be seen, however, whether consumers will pay more for a product that is safer and better made.

Additionally, personal care appliance manufacturers who must meet the new standards are concerned that a new hair dryer safety switch, now required under updated safety regulations, could result in as many deaths and injuries as it is designed to prevent.

Regardless of their potential drawbacks, the updated safety standards set by underwriters Laboratories (UL), the privately-owned, not-for-profit, third party certification organization, will mean higher prices for hair dryers, vendors caution.

The new expense stemming from the guidelines was a factor in the decision by some manufacturers like Black & Decker to leave the competitive personal care market and others, such as Sunbeam, to trim their marketed lines.

Oct. 1 Standards Deadline

As of Oct. 1, vendors who want to earn the UL label will have to meet a new standard for exposure to water. The new safety criteria is intended to safeguard the user against a strong electrical shock should the dryer be dropped into a sink or bathtub full of water when the unit if plugged into an electrical socket, as long as the power switch is turned off. On previous models, users could get a fatal shock from dropping a unit into water, even when the switch was off.

The new regulations, however, still won't protect a user if the switch is on.

Technology to comply with the new rules is varied, but any soluion will result in a retail price hike, vendor representatives said.

A large number of children have been electrocuted by knocking a hair dryer into a full bathtub or sink, Consumer Product Safety Commission figures show, triggering the new safety standard, an UL spokesman said.

Dennis Dorn, senior buyer, small appliances at K mart, called the new UL safety standar a "once in a lifetime opportunity to present the consumer with better quality, higher ticket merchandise that will put the category back on track to profitability."

Dorn said that his main personal care appliance supplier has not yet provided anticipated cost changes to comply with the new requirements. K mart carries 14 hair dryers from Conair and Conair's Jheri Redding division, maker of the discounter's private label line, as well as a couple of Black & Decker models that are being phased out.

"We've been in a Catch 22 situation [with personal care appliances]. To improve sales, we've had to sell more units every year due to price erosion. Now we can come out with new merchandise that could work us out of the rebate situation," Dorn said. He was referring to the rebate marketing tactic that just about every hair dryer manufacturer employes, which many retailers blame for depleting hair dryer profitability.

"I think if manufacturers put as much energy and money into new product development as they do into rebates, we'd all be a lot better off," Dorn asserted.

The 14 hair dryers K mart handles sell for $14.97 to $22.97. Dorn acknowledged that the personal care appliance business is highly price sensitive, with lower price points selling better and promoted more often than higher-ticket models. Nontheless, Dorn predicted the consumer will accept higher-ticket, better quality units. He does not plan to reduce his assortment in response to price changes.

Manufacturers, on the other hand, said UL made a hasty decision that could come back to haunt all concerned.

"The standard is wholly in-appropriate," said Dick Bruno, vice president of marketing and sales at Hialeah, Fla.-based Windmere Corp. The company manufactures more than 30 hair dryer models selling under a variety of labels, including Brut and Faberge.

"The issue we're already being forced to comply with has not been well thought out by UL or the industry. We're being forced into a very untenable position. We'll be telling the consumer that the hair dryer will be safe when it's plugged in, switched off, and dunked into water but unsafe when plugged in, switched on, and dunked into water," Bruno said.

"I think it would be good for the UL to back off the date, so manufacturers, UL and the industry as a whole can sit down and discuss the UL decision," he added.

Peter Cuneo, president of Clairol's New York-based personal care division voiced similar concerns. "I'm deathly afraid that we're going to see an increase in accidents because of this standard.

"It's a complicated change. Consumers don't read anything in depth, and they're going to interpret it to mean that the dryers are safe when the switch is in any position."

Regarding the cost factor, Cuneo predicted that consumers are going to respond poorly to higher priced hair dryers, based on a consumer survey taken by Clairol's parent company, Bristol-Meyers.