By Faith Miller
A brand-new, family-owned Great Clips opened on December 3, 2020 in FishHawk West. The salon is located next to Publix in the Alafia Commons shopping center.
Lea Orchard is the salon owner/franchisee of this Great Clips. She became a franchisee in 2001 in order to build a family business to provide a strong future for herself and her family. Her original career was as a CPA with PricewaterhouseCoopers. Orchard was one of the original franchisees in this market, (Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Hernando, and Sarasota Counties). There were no Great Clips here at that time, now there are 87.
This Great Clips is number 13 for Orchard. Her other stores are located in Carrollwood, Lutz, Citrus Park, Land O’Lakes, Wesley Chapel, Riverview, Apollo Beach, Clearwater, Dunedin and Tarpon Springs.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, this new FishHawk West Great Clips and all of Orchard’s other salons have continued their enhanced strong sanitation and cleaning procedures to ensure the safety of all customers and employees.
Orchard said, “All stylists and customers are required to wear masks. After every haircut, the entire area, including the chair and tools, are all deeply cleaned and sanitized. For each new haircut, every person is given a new, freshly washed cape.”
Orchard is hands-on with her business and makes frequent visits to each of her Great Clips locations. She also handles her own accounting and back office procedures. She gets much help from her general manager, Hanri Cochran, and her son, Sam Orchard, as well.
Great Clips at FishHawk West is having its grand opening right now and through Sunday, January 31. During the grand opening, all haircuts will be $7.99. The regular haircut prices are very reasonable at $15 for adults and $13 for children and seniors.
Orchard and her salons do everything they can to support the local community. Between sponsoring Little League, girls’ softball and USF Cuts for Cancer, Orchard and her staff are all about giving back to the community. They recently were a sponsor of the golf tournament to support the Newsome High School Hockey Team.
Ever since the grand opening, the business has felt welcomed in the community, helping give out multiple haircuts from day one. The construction and buildout was made possible by South Shore Contracting.
Project Manager Jeffrey Miller, who worked with Orchard on the project, was the first to receive a haircut at the new location. While looking a little shaggy when waiting to receive his haircut, he was able to provide a great looking salon despite potential COVID-19 setbacks.
Great Clips salons have the convenient Great Clips Online Check-In app that allows guests to check in on their cell phones or laptops and add their names to a waiting list. This ensures a much shorter wait time when they arrive than those who did not check-in online.
“About 40 percent of our customers use our Online Check-In app because it is so convenient and such a timesaver,” said Orchard.
Great Clips at FishHawk West is open seven days a week for the convenience of their customers. “We offer affordable, convenient, quality haircuts that fit the busy schedule of the whole family,” Orchard said.
Great Clips at Alafia Commons (FishHawk West) is located at 5631 Circa FishHawk Blvd. in Lithia, right next to Publix. Call 502-5980 or check in online using the Great Clips app.
