How a Whitehorse salon owner snagged a $50K suite to see Taylor Swift

When BC Place emailed Shari McIntosh and offered her the opportunity to buy a box for Sunday's Taylor Swift concert in Vancouver — for $50,000 — her first reaction was to assume she'd have to let it go.

"I said to my husband, 'I need $50,000,' and he's like, 'No, it's not gonna happen,'" McIntosh recalled.

The Whitehorse woman had tried months earlier for some standing-room-only tickets for her sister, daughter and herself, and was only able to get on a waiting list for a box.  

The offer came on a Saturday, and she had to respond to the arena by Tuesday at 8 a.m.

McIntosh and her sister own the Mint Salon Collective, a beauty salon in Whitehorse.

"So I came out to the girls, and I said, 'Who wants to go?'" said McIntosh.

The box seats 19 people, so each would need to pay around $2,600. Still a lot of money, but McIntosh says individual tickets at that time were going for $5,000 online. 

Her colleagues weren't biting. So McIntosh reached out to a Facebook group of other Taylor Swift fans and sold all the extra tickets in the box "right away," to a Vancouver woman.

But as the concert got closer, friends and acquaintances started reaching out to McIntosh to see if she had any open spots. So when the Vancouver woman offered all those extra tickets back — she'd since bought another box — Shari jumped at it. 

She says she was able to re-sell all the tickets to Yukoners right away. She said there were some tears when people found out they would be able to go.

"I kind of felt a bit like Santa Claus. Everyone has to pay, but it was a really fun experience."

Judy Boyco is a medical aesthetician at Mint Collective. She grabbed one of Shari's extra tickets on the second go-round. 

"As the hype grew, and the excitement grew, I was like, 'heck, yeah.' So I just did it," said Boyco. 

McIntosh said the concert will be a lot of firsts. 

"So we're in this fancy suite, and we've got food, and we've got parking, and we've got all these perks — and I've never been in a suite, so it's a huge experience," said McIntosh, who's been wearing Taylor Swift t-shirts and other paraphrenalia all week. 

She said she's trying to keep her 13-year-old daughter's expectations in check. 

"I'm reminding her that, you know, from here on out, we go back to the plastic seats at concerts," said McIntosh.  

Shari's sister Staci McIntosh is the co-owner of the Whitehorse salon and she'll also be going to the concert on Sunday. Shari gifted her the experience for her birthday.

"She worked really, really hard for this, for all of us," said Staci. "Shari is the biggest Swifty I know, and her enthusiasm is absolutely contagious."

Shari said she and her daughter have made 150 friendship bracelets and counting. It's become a tradition to make and trade friendship bracelets at Taylor Swift's concerts.

"It's actually been an amazing bonding experience for us," said Shari. 

She says they've been working on it for six months and will need a pool noodle to carry them all in.

They're excited to be part of Swift's final show of her Eras tour.

"I really feel like it's the end of an era," Shari said.

"I feel like I've been knee-deep in this for two years, and I'm probably gonna have a little bit of Swifty depression when it's all over."