• Contact Us
  • Events calendar
Entering Swellesley
Pinnacle, Wellesley

The Swellesley Report

More than you really want to know about Wellesley, Mass.

  • Advertise
  • Contribute
  • Eat
  • Wellesley Square
  • School
  • Top 10 things to do
  • Embracing diversity
  • Charities/Community
  • Arts
  • Camp
  • Kids
  • Events
  • About us
  • Subscribe
  • Natick Report
  • COVID-19
  • Letters to the Editor
Needham Bank, Wellesley
Boston Sports Institute, Wellesley

Wellesley Business Buzz: Laidback bringing massage chairs to town; Sunset Sale on Thursday

August 12, 2020 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

Our round-up of the latest Wellesley, Mass., business news:

Relax: Laidback bringing massage chairs to town

laidback belclare
Proposed design for Laidback storefront (via Design Review Board application)

The Belclare retail strip on Washington Street, which has been starving since last year to refill storefronts, will soon welcome Laidback, an outfit owned by a Dover couple that sells massage chairs and related services. Chairs can already be seen through the windows of the shop, which could be operating in some fashion as soon as next week (though the official opening is planned for after Labor Day).

Laidback, a play on the last names of owners Dave and Chris Laidman, represents a rebranding of their Engaged Wellness Solutions business at least for the store. Laidback also “conveys a feeling you’ll get when you experience the chair,” Dave says.

In addition to reselling Infinity Massage Chairs that go for $3,500-$10,0000, the Engaged Wellness offers services, which entail working with HR and wellness departments at businesses to bring massage chairs on site to help relax employees. Engaged Wellness also offers companies, sports teams, gyms and others body composition analysis programs. But with so many employees working at home during the pandemic, the corporate business has ground to a halt.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic has raised prospects of selling chairs to those who are now suddenly working from home, and realizing they aren’t necessarily set up to work remotely or comfortably.

“With the experience we gained visiting companies and having thousands of people sitting in our chairs, we know that there’s a market for wellness at home, which prompted the pivot to a retail store,” says Dave Laidman, whose email signature includes the tagline “No matter how things are going at home or in the office, it’s nice to be kneaded.” His background includes sales and marketing at a company that sold fancy ski poles and sales at an early networking company called Shiva that I used to write about back in my business technology reporting days.

Naturally, the massage chair business is one that wants to get you in to try their chairs, the only way you can really judge them. They have chairs that customize massages based on a scan of your body and that feature rollers that “feel like the hands of professional massage therapists,” according to one of their pitches.

Why Wellesley? The Laidmans had a test site in Natick where people could try out the chairs. “We quickly learned that we needed to be visible and near other retailers, which prompted the move to Wellesley,” Dave says. “We live in Dover so we drive by the Belclare regularly and on a whim we asked what the possibilities were and voila, we’ll soon be there.”

Sunset Sale on Thursday

Wellesley Square Merchants

 


swellesley business ad

print

Share

Filed Under: Business

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Linden Square, Wellesley
Write Ahead

Tip us off…

Please send tips, photos, ideas to [email protected]
Wellesley Square ad
Wellesley, Jesamondo
Sexton test prep
Feldman Law
Fay School, Southborough
Wellesley Theatre Project
Admit Fit, Wellesley
image of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
Never miss a post with our free daily Swellesley Report email
Name: 
Your email address:*
Please wait...
Please enter all required fields Click to hide
Correct invalid entries Click to hide

You can subscribe for free, though we appreciate any contribution that supports our independent journalism.

Click here to read our Natick Report

Natick Report

Events Calendar

« January 2021 » loading...
S M T W T F S
27
28
29
30
31
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
1
2
3
4
5
6
Tue 26

Rum tasting and history talk

January 26 @ 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Most Read Posts

  • Rise in COVID-19 cases forces Wellesley High back to all-remote
  • Spelling gives way at reconfigured Wellesley rotary
  • Wellesley Police arrest 3 juveniles following Crest Road-area car break-ins
  • At Wellesley High, you can't have too many robotics clubs
  • Wellesley Business Buzz: Babson might want to study us; Downtown Starbucks temporarily closed; Sisters of Charity partners

Pages

  • Wellesley coronavirus (COVID-19) updates
  • Wellesley’s 7 official scenic roads
  • Wellesley, Mass., fishing spots
  • Please support our advertisers—they support us
  • Embracing diversity in Wellesley
  • Wellesley, MA Police logs
  • Wellesley Choral Society
  • Wellesley College Notable Alumnae
  • Wellesley College, Wellesley, Mass.
  • Wellesley outdoor art gallery
  • Wellesley restaurants offering take-out and delivery
  • Wellesley, Massachusetts restaurant — Amarin of Thailand

Recent Comments

  • Barbara Moore Keever on Wellesley Animal Control Officer Sue Webb to retire after 45 years on the job
  • Anon on Wellesley Police arrest 3 juveniles following Crest Road-area car break-ins
  • PZ Maury on Wellesley Police arrest 3 juveniles following Crest Road-area car break-ins
  • TAhern on Wellesley Police arrest 3 juveniles following Crest Road-area car break-ins
  • Abe Froman on Wellesley Police arrest 3 juveniles following Crest Road-area car break-ins

Links we like

  • Great Runs
  • Jack Sanford: Wellesley's Major League Baseball Star
  • Taquitos.net
  • Tech-Tamer
  • The Wellesley Wine Press
  • Universal Hub
  • Wellesley Sports Discussion Facebook Group

Categories

  • 2021 Town Election (4)
  • Animals (377)
  • Antiques (48)
  • Art (534)
  • Beyond Wellesley (28)
  • Books (342)
  • Business (1,356)
  • Camp (1)
  • Careers/jobs (44)
  • Churches (72)
  • Clubs (207)
  • Construction (280)
  • Dump (113)
  • Education (2,876)
    • Babson College (239)
    • Bates Elementary School (14)
    • Dana Hall School (29)
    • Fiske Elementary School (6)
    • Hardy Elementary School (33)
    • Hunnewell Elementary School (34)
    • MassBay (47)
    • Schofield Elementary School (20)
    • Sprague Elementary School (19)
    • St. John School (1)
    • Tenacre Country Day School (9)
    • Upham Elementary School (30)
    • Wellesley College (598)
    • Wellesley High School (883)
    • Wellesley Middle School (195)
  • Embracing diversity (36)
  • Entertainment (721)
  • Environment (663)
  • Fashion (133)
  • Finance (12)
  • Fire (141)
  • Food (327)
  • Fundraising (559)
  • Gardens (136)
  • Government (382)
    • 2020 Town Election (47)
  • Health (735)
    • COVID-19 (132)
  • History (357)
  • Holidays (365)
  • Houses (118)
  • Humor (45)
  • Kids (814)
  • Law (3)
  • Letters to the Editor (5)
  • Media (63)
  • METCO (5)
  • Military (3)
  • Morses Pond (96)
  • Music (543)
  • Natick Report (26)
  • Neighbors (241)
  • Obituaries (58)
  • Outdoors (582)
  • Parenting (60)
  • Police (687)
    • Crime (344)
  • Politics (534)
  • Real estate (286)
  • Religion (127)
  • Restaurants (302)
  • Safety (142)
  • Scouts (1)
  • Senior citizens (107)
  • Shopping (121)
  • Sports (896)
  • STEM (104)
  • Technology (154)
  • Theatre (383)
  • Town Meeting (22)
  • Transportation (209)
  • Travel (11)
  • Uncategorized (1,205)
  • Volunteering (316)
  • Weather (161)
  • Wellesley Election 2019 (21)
  • Wellesley Free Library (258)
  • Wellesley's Wonderful Weekend (5)
RSS Feed Icon Subscribe to RSS Feed

© 2021 The Swellesley Report
Site by Tech-Tamer · Login