To think zoella is lying

[Itsgonnabeacoldone]

Skip to 33. The calendar that her own company makes she says it's all down to boots and they choose the £50 price. She's been doing products for years and has full ownership of her company. She's not new or anything to releasing products

It's been on sale for two months and it's her name on it and was apparently only sad in the last few days when the backlash started.

Her body language is all off, avoiding eye contact and looking around. She says shes not in it for the money but has a long history of releasing cheap stuff for high prices.

[MargaretCavendish]

Will be really interesting to see if Boots release a statement on this. They probably won't because they don't want to damage their relationship with her brand, but she really has completely sold them out and put all the blame on them.

It is obviously complete nonsense that she had no idea about pricing, like the first she heard of the price tag was when it went on sale. I also find her insistence that criticism 'makes her sad' both pathetic and very manipulative towards her (mostly young) fans. She's a 27 year old woman who has made a not-so-small fortune from her persona and marketing.

[Itsgonnabeacoldone]

Boots released a statement first, they are the only ones that have apologised. I presume it's a no brainer for them as they are a brand and happy to take the fall for her.

You're right it's very manipulating. There is no way on earth she wasn't involved in pricing, I'm sure that's one of the first things they will have discussed in order to get a juicy profit margin.

She's used to selling things for £10 that cost 50p to make, so saw nothing wrong with selling something for £50 that cost £2.50 to make.

[Fabellini]

She's "sooooo sad" about it all.
Are ye, aye?

[MargaretCavendish]

Just looked at the statement from Boots and it's a classic non-apology apology - 'we're sorry to hear...'. I more meant whether Boots would clarify who set the price - because I'm sure that they could prove that she knew the price mark and was involved in those discussions from the off.

[justilou1]

This is the best lesson about Youtubers for my gullible 13 year old daughter!!!

[SunnyTunny]

She has form for lying. Remember the book she "wrote"? She was the victim there again for the vicious backlash...

[Itsgonnabeacoldone]

Oh I see what you mean. No way will boots tell the truth and say "50 was the rrp set by the manufacturer and we just sell it with the exact same markup on the wholesale price as other items in the shop"

People are posting homophobic and generally pretty vile tweets that she sent in the past. Her fans are still defended her as she was only 21

[BulletFox]

I'd genuinely never heard of her before all this kerfuffle!

[Bicarb]

The final pricing decision will sit with the retailer. It's against anti-competition law for suppliers to set customer prices unless they're selling direct.

Having said that, there is no reason that Zoella couldn't have 'suggested' a price, and done the maths accordingly to give her and the retailer the sell-in price and margin suggestion to achieve that.

[reachforthestarseveryday]

Actually weeping with laughter. She took a year to design that crappy calendar with the 12 shitty products in it??????

Lol lol.

Wish my job could be so easy!!

And yes, it's been out for 2 months and she's only sad now there's a backlash? Liar, liar, pants on fire...

And Bots is going to sell the calendar for £25 from tomorrow!

Not sure how much Boots is to blame. They do a 3 for 2 offer on all their Xmas stuff so they're already losing the price of every third thing they sell.

[MargaretCavendish]

I agree they probably won't, but I can imagine them issuing a bland 'all exclusive product prices are the result of discussion between the manufacturer and retailer'. Not least because after her video they'll be getting a lot of hate mail from her fans, who will be furious that they did this to 'poor zoella'.

[notsohippychick]

Oh for goodness sake - these sorts of calendars always sell for that sort of price - even the product is rubbish.

She should have made the product better!!!! Why would you put confetti in an advent calendar? She would know this was off the mark.

Talk about passing the buck!!

[KitKat1985]

Blimey, she's really biting the hand that feeds her putting all the blame on Boots isn't she?

And what a manipulative 'apology'. Trying to make all her young fans feel sorry for her so they continue to buy her over-priced tat merchandise.

[violetbunny]

Bicarb is right. Only Boots can legally dictate the pricing.

[Scabbersley]

Boots are slightly to blame. If the calendar is exclusive then zoella and boots would have worked very closely together. It wouldn't surprise me at all, knowing how these things work, if the calendar was designed and filled by her account manager at boots. Of course she can't admit that as the shill is that she's slaved for a year sourcing those pompoms

[reachforthestarseveryday]

This is a great lesson for teens or tweens in how YouTubers maniuplate people, though. Think she's come out of this really badly.

The other Boots advent calendars are MUCH better value, so not sure how Boots can be blamed...

[Scabbersley]

If the calendar *wasn't designed and filled..

[VileyRose]

I can't even watch that. She is very annoying.

[CandyMelts]

Pricing is legally down to the retailer. You can't tell them a price to sell at.

[Scabbersley]

No, but you can set the wholesale price and you would know what margin boots expects to make

[Scabbersley]

And boots will have tried to beat her company down on wholesale price

[thecatfromjapan]

It's like a form of grooming, isn't it? "If you know me ... those of you who know me ... there's no point in ... because if you know me ... Thank you to those who have offered feedback in a reasonable manner."

We don't know her.

She's a grown woman, selling to young, young children, making (substantial) a profit from that.

It's interesting to see how that is and isn't represented in her 'reality' vlog: the missing business meetings; the emphasis on creativity instead of profit margins; the pink fridge and snacks rather than discussions of distribution, sourcing, production, etc.

It's a representation of sugar-coated, fairy-light strewn business. No wonder it's worrying when the holes in that 'reality' (all the things we don't see in the reality blogs) start showing.

[Roomster101]

Boots probably do set the price although it would be interesting to know how much they bought the calender for. If they are dropping the price to £25 tomorrow it suggests that they hugely marked it up.

[thecatfromjapan]

Yes. There was no mention of the wholesale price, or the deal with Boots at all.

The vlog implied some sort of flat-rate fee for name + creative input (!) which is well and truly beyond unlikely.

I'm sure it would have been a very complicated set-up, including lots of different payments for differing promotions and selling-points.

[Itsgonnabeacoldone]

at some people defending her. Yes she can't legally tell them what to sell it for. But the manufacturing costs and RRP do dictate the price. She is downright lying if she says she had nothing what so ever to do with the price. That probably would have been the first thing discussed with the calendar as she cares so much for the profit.

She's trying to just say its boots put a ridiculously high price in order to scam people and she's a victim in this too. When it's not that at all.