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The Body Shop

104 replies

ChristinaXYZ · 30/08/2023 14:00

The DT has an article about the problems The Body Shop is having. Whilst it is no doubt right that it has had troubel finding its way post-Anita Roddick, I do wonder how much pissing off many women in their 40s and 50s who loved it as teenagers but don't believe in gender identity or some of their other political stances has affected them.

I have not bought a single thing since they mocked JK Rowling for standing up for women. It was my go-to place for small pressents for women and teenage girls. I bought stuff for me there too. Now not only do I not buy there any more DC and MIL know I won't shop there and have stopped buying me things from there too.

Gender is not mentioned in the article but many of the comments point it out as an issue.

"Amid dwindling sales and profits, the chain’s Brazilian owners Natura & Co are considering selling it off – just six years after buying it for €1bn from French beauty house L’Oreal.

“It is no exaggeration to say that 2022 was the most difficult year in the history of The Body Shop,” Natura & Co, which also owns beauty business Avon, said in its most recent annual report. “An extraordinary set of external factors significantly disrupted the business.”"

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/08/30/body-shop-lost-grip-britain-beauty-market-lush-rituals/

Why The Body Shop can’t blame the economy for what went wrong

The retailer is finding it difficult to stand out amid competition from rivals such as Rituals and Lush

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/08/30/body-shop-lost-grip-britain-beauty-market-lush-rituals

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ahagwearsapointybonnet · 30/08/2023 17:20

Same, I liked some of their stuff a lot (currently using up some very old Pink Grapefruit bits I'd bought before I started boycotting!) and was in their loyalty scheme, but haven't been back since that incident. I was also a massive Lush fan too but have given that up as well, which must have lost them a LOT of money between what I used to spend and the other people who used to buy me presents from there (especially with the way their prices have shot up!). It's a lesson in how to lose your most loyal customers...

Hopelesslydevotedtoshrews · 30/08/2023 17:20

It's hard to see where they fit anymore. Too expensive for that exciting 'buying my very own toiletries and fragrance ' moment in your teens, not really able to compete in ethics or quality with other brands, add the ageism and misogyny and well... don't let the door etc.

LunaNorth · 30/08/2023 17:20

I look back on the early days of The Body Shop so fondly. The best Christmas present I ever had was a huge hamper of the little bottles from my sister - I was 12 and there wasn’t a Body Shop in my town, so it was like manna from heaven to me.

The banana conditioner, Japanese washing grains, strawberry shampoo, pineapple shower gel…I loved it all.

Then it went irredeemably shite, then they started mocking me.

So they can fuck off. That’s what happens when you bite the hand that feeds you.

🎻

BeverlyBrook · 30/08/2023 17:19

Beowulfa · 30/08/2023 15:41

The Body Shop under Anita Roddick showed you could be ethical and profitable. Quite impressive to have fucked up both.

This is pretty succinct

LondonLass91 · 30/08/2023 17:19

I used to go to the Stratford one all the time, but haven't been since that JK tweet, fucking bunch of arseholes they are. I do miss the hemp handcream but they'll never get a penny more out of me, or my children..

Lovecleansheets · 30/08/2023 17:16

I used to shop there a lot as family members really like the products. I boycotted both The Body Shop and Lush after their nastiness about women’s rights. I won’t go in there at all and buy different gifts now. Not surprised they are in trouble.

SecretPlanToFightInflation · 30/08/2023 17:14

I've boycotted them since the JKR nastiness, despite my love of white musk. Don't buy from Lush either, and I spent a fortune at both.

user1477391263 · 30/08/2023 17:11

I never see anyone in there; not surprised they are struggling. Body Shop used to be “ethical and affordable” and was a young consumer-oriented brand. Now the younger kids mostly go to Superdrug, I think. They’ve been trying to turn themselves into a kind of L’Occitane-type brand, I think (pricy stuff aimed at over-30s), but I don’t think their packaging or their very sweet-smelling products are sophisticated enough for this. And any claims to ethics went out the window after the company was sold to L’Oreal. Hard to work out what their USP is.

camperjam · 30/08/2023 17:08

Same here, I used to love them but I won't buy from there or Lush

BreadInCaptivity · 30/08/2023 17:03

teawamutu · 30/08/2023 16:04

They can GTF, as can Lush. I don't fund misogyny.

Well said.

I agree and buy from neither brand.

AtrociousCircumstance · 30/08/2023 16:25

I also immediately boycotted it when I learnt of their anti-woman stance.

Used to go there fairly regularly. Never again.

identiy102 · 30/08/2023 16:23

Tinysoxxx · 30/08/2023 16:17

I told them to take me off their list and why too. Death by a thousand boycotts.

Lush - I hold my breathe as I go past as it stinks so much. I don’t know how anyone works in there.

Yes lush is disgusting.

Full of septum piercing blue haired gender fluid women as well.

Tinysoxxx · 30/08/2023 16:17

I told them to take me off their list and why too. Death by a thousand boycotts.

Lush - I hold my breathe as I go past as it stinks so much. I don’t know how anyone works in there.

Zimunya · 30/08/2023 16:09

@teawamutu - love your phrase - "I don't fund misogyny." Succinct and apt. I'm going to borrow it.

Like other posters, I used to love the Body Shop. But I don't shop there after the JKR incident, and have made family members aware that I'm boycotting it, so no more gifts from there either.

AmbleInAnnBoleyn · 30/08/2023 16:07

yeah FRO Body Shop. Your tears don't bother me, soz.

Sunnava · 30/08/2023 16:07

Similarly I have never bought from them (or Lush) again after their misogyny was doubled down on.

teawamutu · 30/08/2023 16:04

They can GTF, as can Lush. I don't fund misogyny.

MrsMitford3 · 30/08/2023 16:02

I will also never buy from them again

Actions have consequences and I am enjoying them facing their consequences

identiy102 · 30/08/2023 16:00

Come on, it's expensive

imed · 30/08/2023 15:59

Good. I've boycotted them too.

Redshoeblueshoe · 30/08/2023 15:57

Serves them right

MotherEarthisaTerf · 30/08/2023 15:50

I'm delighted they turned out to be TRAs. I used to get all my skincare from there and I never bought another product after their JK clapback. Discovered much better products!! Which are also better value (cerave, la roche posay, embryolisse etc)

Random789 · 30/08/2023 15:43

It just doesn't have a USP anymore. It used to be a standout brand because of a genuine committment to ethical products and 'natural beauty'. Now all beuty brands engage in ethics-washing (without making any credible attempts to substantiate any commitment to ethics other than as a marketing strategy). That is why they were so vulnerable to the gender bullshit, with its fact-free, cost-free claim to some sort of undefined righteousness.

It is amazing to think that when it was founded, its values actually meant something.

Beowulfa · 30/08/2023 15:41

The Body Shop under Anita Roddick showed you could be ethical and profitable. Quite impressive to have fucked up both.

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