I made a mistake of going into Lush and trying to buy...

Lord help is of they ever start selling sanpro...

Disposable razors, underarm deoderant, and many other products where there are essentially similar products sold in pink and blue flavours, the male version is generally cheaper.

Personally I’m all for clothes and toiletries being unisex. It’s the kind of woke I am all for! (I’m not usually for eradicating male and female, but the idea that there is a stereotypical male or female really seems silly to me).

However my teenage son would massively disagree. Unless it’s labelled heavily male he won’t go near it. And as a consumer, it’s the consumer’s that usually drive that, so Lush will just lose out I guess in the long run.

I got lucky in Lush yesterday - the product I wanted was right in the entrance, so didn't have to dodge anyone to get to it. But then I had to wait ages because all the staff were busy hassling people instead of serving at the tills...

Body Shop still have a men's section btw.

Perhaps they have secret shoppers going in to check on staff making inadvertent gendered recommendations. I don't have a problem with the concept of not labelling products as 'for men' or 'for women', but since their policy seems to be No Unattended Browsing Absolutely Ever, answering a perfectly normal query about where to find something matching OP's requirements wouldn't seem entirely out of order.
I won't shop there any more. I don't want to talk to excitable strangers about my shampooing needs and I hate being sold things I haven't already decided to buy.

This is bizarre. Why did you need specific bloke soap?

My husband has used many a lush bath bomb without checking whether it was specifically for men . Luckily he’s managed to avoid his penis falling off…

I can’t believe people are pretending that there isn’t a difference between women’s and men’s fragrances. My husband enjoys bath products as much as I do but I doubt he’d want to end up smelling sickly sweet like a lot of their products.

Fine for them to not segregate products into "men" and "women" but if asked "what would suit a teenage boy?" they should be able to respond "well this is quite popular at the moment". Giving a customer a lecture on the 'error of thy ways' is not the way to run a business.

This.

I've found DS - teen boy - and his friends the most conservative with small c to buy for.

I accept not all teen boys are like this but there is an stereotype with some truth in - plain packaging traditional and not overly floral scents is probably a more precise phrasing.

I think most people confonted with a question about teen boy gift sets/products have an idea what is meant - and how it would differ from one aimed at teen girl or older woman - and be perfectly well aware that teen boys who would like different products exit out in the big wide world - whilst still managing to be helpful to the person asking.

I personally not so sure such preferences are inate as much as social conditioning since childhood or some complex mix of both - like most human behavior - but this is a present and the OP probaly just wanted to get something that was liked with minimal hassle. Most shops just want to sell their products - so I can understand why she's a bit taken a back by her lush experince.

I went in on Monday, I was browsing for my other half (who is male) as it is his birthday soon, and he loves a bath bomb. He doesn't care what colour, or scent too much. In fact, he is fairly effeminate. However, I wanted it to be either gift wrapped, or in one of their holders. Every single holder or gift wrap was pretty much pink or purple as their main colours. Not inclusive of people who like other colours, is it? I walked out. I just wanted something wrapped or presented nicely, that my other half would like (he likes green FYI, so green wrapped gifts was what I wanted). They lost a sale because it is actually as if men don't exist in their sales demographics.

Being grabbed and smeared/sprayed without permission - is it really a thing? It sounds alarming and one way to a lawsuit.

It’s very wokey now. I avoid - even before they became insufferable bigots (remember the ‘no t*’ sign in their store in Edinburgh?) I wound it runnng the gauntlet to get in and without being pounced in by an assistant who wanted to show me something amaaaaaaazing.

Plus the stupid bath bombs had glitter that stuck in your (you know what) crevices, included little pieces of crapconfetti/petals that got stuck in the plug hole, or my personal favourite, dye that turned half of my child (and the bath) blue.

I used to like their products but the salespeople are insane. A lady with dreadlocks tried to grab my arm to dunk it in some water. No! Leave me alone!

I once walked past a branch and hesitated slightly and two shop assistants clocked me and started moving in like zombies. I dashed off quickly.

"Coercing their staff" into doing stuff like this:

I'm sure people can figure out what you mean by a bloke section. I got my brother, ages ago from lush, a gift box with beard cream, charcoal soap/mask, a woody scented moisturiser etc. Not sure if he would have appreciated a pink glittery bath bomb. And before the usual cry of "but anyone can like woody scented stuff/charcoal soap" and "I wouldn't like a pink glittery bath bomb" 🙄 you know what I mean. There are just certain things that would appeal more to men (and women of course) than other stuff.

I avoid lush with a vengeance now. You get pounced on as soon as you enter the store and pestered the entire time.

even clarks wont say girl or boy shoes

Clarks have traditionally been godawful for pushing utterly impractical footwear on girls, so this sounds like an improvement to me.

I'm pretty certain we used to have regular conversations in FWR about how this change was needed. I am still in FWR right?

I won't enter or buy from Lush. Multiple reasons:

• harassment of everyone but in particular neuroatypical people
• plastering their crap on people without asking, including a child with eczema whose mother had explicitly told them not to slap the cream on her child's arm
• misogyny central - just look at their advertising
• coercive treatment of staff, many of whom are uncomfortable with the heavy duty sales pitches and being told to strip off in the shop but can't afford to walk out of a job

You probably wanted either Dirty Springwash or Lord of Misrule if you were after more 'masculine' scents. I'm surprised they didn't just ask you though what types of smells he'd like - i.e. fruity, spicy, etc.

Here you go OP - these are the kinds of things we buy for my teen son:

these are fun to use and not girly looking
www.lush.com/uk/en/p/bat-art-bath-bomb

www.lush.com/uk/en/p/lord-of-misrule

www.lush.com/uk/en/p/ectoplasm-shower-slime

this is good for teen skin
www.lush.com/uk/en/p/mask-of-magnaminty-face-and-body-mask
as is this
www.lush.com/uk/en/p/ocean-salt-face-and-body-scrub

these are blokey looking soaps
www.lush.com/uk/en/p/outback-mate-soap

www.lush.com/uk/en/p/sea-vegetable-soap

wrapped up in
www.lush.com/uk/en/p/the-big-ski-knot-wrap

I completely agree, I would much rather be left in peace. But as op has proved most people need to be told what they want.

You are right they used to have mans section
Because I used to buy workmans hand cream and body scrub for my boys but oh no let's be pc and not mention gender jesus its getting mad now.even clarks wont say girl or boy shoes .they said they are all inclusive when I asked .when pressed why she said we are told to describe children are they them or it jings I was only enquiring about trainers .so out we go I am not having my granddaughters described as it . But anyway lush has a lurid green range not sure the name it may appeal to boys

I don't totally agree that soap is soap and isn't aimed at a particular market. I think different scents probably complement different pheromones which will change as we age as well as our sense of smell.

Lush shops are overwhelming at the best of times and it's hard to pick out an individual scent in the chaos. That's why it was useful to have a separate "men's" section. Its where I would look for products that might appeal to a person who shaves/has a beard, has short or less hair or who might prefer a scent based on herbs or essential oils as opposed to fruit or flowers.

I'm sure there are men who like pink, glittery, lavender scented bath bombs but I can find that by closing my eyes and touching any random shelf in Superdrug. The benefit of a "men's section" is to help you find gifts for the people who don't want rainbow fairy sparkles, and for shops to isolate absurd quantities of Lynx Africa in one area so it doesn't contaminate the whole shop.

I wrote Lush off due to a mix of the promotion of their 'cruelty free kisses' and Spycops campaigns. Their ethics truly are a repugnant as the stench that emits from their stores.

Not cut out for a sales role then if they can't stand the "general public". Also known as customers. The ones with the money that Lush wants to part them from.

Rule 1 of Woke retail. The customer is always a bigot.

(If you're working there, of course. If you're a customer, the staff member is always a bigot).