Bodyshop loses customer support, lol

They tanked a really good brand. Another 80s teenager here who stopped buying from them after all the JKR nonsense but I'd already noticed increases in price, decreases in quality and a drift away from the principles it was founded on.

@AvacadoFieldsForever I don’t think AR was such a pioneer. She nicked the whole BS concept from two Californian women, forcing them to relinquish the name. She eventually paid them off years later.

It was AR who chose to begin an MLM arm to the BS (the now defunct Body Shop at Home), what could be more anti women than choosing a business model that targets women and their social networks and then scams them?

It was AR who was at the helm of BS when it was sold to L’Oreal who still allow third party testing on animals (though they offloaded BS in 2017).

It seems to me that the BS has a great tradition in being inauthentic and showing disdain for its main customers. meanwhile other companies have come along who have stepped into BS’s shoes and are doing a better job. I’m sorry for people losing their jobs but I can’t shed a tear over Body Shop’s demise.

Not surprised, my local is always empty. The poor sales person just stands there looking bored. One time the shutters were down with a handwritten note saying "closed, back at 2pm" Seemed the staff had buggered off for a proper lunch.

Not being listened to by a company that had seemed like an old friend was like being ghosted.

It was a company based on well-made products created from simple recipes, and 'doing the right thing'. Its customers (mostly women) loved it for both.

Are they really wondering how they lost everything?
(Losing track of what is right is easy if you only listen to the loudest voices.)

Fuck them. It’s clear who their main demographic should be and they don’t want them. This is the result.
middle aged women hold the purse strings and they don’t want to sell to them. These are the people who spend their pocket money in BS and would love to spend there again. Banana conditioner and dewberry soap with a side dish of ethical shopping, you couldn’t keep me away. Slag off JKR, you’ve lost.

Sermons no but I do want ethical stuff.

Anita Roddick was such a pioneering woman and so ahead of the curve. I’m happy to support free trade or products that were more direct from the producer or vegetarian products or local products or less packaging etc. The woke washing is such a cynical turn off.

Once again I’d guess women lose out as they were predominantly the shop workers.

I’m sorry they trashed the brand.

Sorry, not sorry.

Perhaps shops and businesses will realise that customers don't want a side order of politics or a lecture or a sermon when they buy stuff.

I'm sorry for the staff but pleased to see the back of the brand, in its current incarnation.

Part of me is sorry - I was a shopper back in the 80s and thought Anita seemed like a good sort.

I last went in a few years back (before that started trolling DV victims and declaring humans could change sex) and saw their latest ‘campaign’ was basically against older/men/white folk in politics (or something like that). I remember thinking ‘oh yes let’s have a 20 year old PM who has never had a job, mortgage or kids’. They seemed to be trying to out-Lush Lush (who I have noticed have closed a few stores near me).

Their stuff went stinky and expensive.

An update on The Body Shop.

"The new owners of The Body Shop are lining up administrators for its British arm just weeks after taking control of the cosmetics retailer, in a move which could threaten significant numbers of shops and jobs."

https://news.sky.com/story/new-body-shop-owner-to-call-in-administrators-for-uk-chain-13067609

I wonder how much business Lush took from them as another high st ‘ethical brand’ appealing to young people, and with added unicorns, scent and sparkle.

I'm another who stopped buying after the anti-JKR campaign so I didn't know about the price rise. It was a pity at the time as I liked the products and BS was one of few shops here.

Same here. I did the same search, was appalled. I have however kept going in on my birthday to cash in my £5 birthday treat. My dh was confused as to why since i was boycotting; but my theory was that i wasnt spending any money and was just costing them money.

I was an early customer of theirs, back when their only shop was in Brighton. Stayed with them through thick and thin even when I was broke! But over the last 20 years or so their stuff stopped being unique, and quality dropped as well. As soon as the JKR debacle happened I vowed never to buy Body Shop stuff again.

Yep, that was my final straw.

A few years earlier I had a till assistant insisting I had to tell them my birthday, so that they could send me greetings and birthday offers, allegedly. It became quite a stand off and I think I ended up not making the purchase.

I want a shop to sell me products with the qualities I am looking for at a price that suits me. I don’t want them to tell me what to think on any issues unrelated to their product.

@Ereshkigalangcleg this is quite old but you might find it interesting https://jonentine.com/a-social-and-environmental-audit-of-the-body-shop-anita-roddick-and-the-question-of-character/

Thanks for this, I wasn't aware of the origins of the business.

I agree with your point about companies hitching their wagon to every social justice cause. Take everything else out of the equation and it just feels so cynical and lazy to me, just turning with the tide without an actual moral compass.

That's what made The Body Shop so unique in the first place-it stuck to its guns when it came to ethical consumerism. What they could have spent the last few decades focusing on is still that writ large. Or they could have picked one area of focus under that banner - say palm oil - and focused all their efforts on campaigning against that. But no, it's just whatever is being shouted about the loudest that month.

If you stand for everything you stand for nothing.

I loved the body shop scented oils, particularly one called Chypre. The wee glass jars of lip balm and the vitamin e cream too.
Now, it's hideously overpriced. I've hated the shops for decades - those horribly aggressive sales staff pursuing you round the store drove me right back out of the door.
It's lost its way, its lost its customers and in the current incarnation, will be no loss when it finally implodes.

@InflagranteDelicto I think you’re right. I can’t imagine it surviving. I had heard that Body Shop at Home was the healthiest bit of the business but I find that hard to believe as it’s burned through its victims and those that haven’t already been burned by the BS MLM and are unaware simply don’t have the cash to speculate on a spare bedroom full of body butters (they then can’t sell) and become their own best customer.

I'm another who loved the Body shop as a teen, wouldn't go near it now. Likewise lush for all the reasons above.

On a tangent though - they've been bought by Aurelius, the same company that bought Lloyds Pharmacy. The body shop will be gone within 18 months, I'd put money on it.

The BS has always been a bit shifty IMO. The original concept was created by two women in California who started a small cosmetic company with a perfumed oil bar, using recyclable bottles. They painted the shop dark green and called it The Body Shop as they had shop space in a car repair business’s premises. Anita R came across the business on her travels. The Roddick’s eventually paid the two women for the rights to the name in the US. So Anita didn’t actually come up with the concept.

For me the MLM arm (started in 1994 as a party plan business; MLM pre internet) was a sure sign that they weren’t nearly as ethical as they wanted us to believe. There are so many people who have been badly ripped off having fallen for the lies coming straight out of Body Shop At Home’s HQ.

Then the sale to L’Oreal. That damaged them hugely. L’Oreal was not a company core Body Shop customers wanted anything to do with. Then the JKR business which was rightly hugely damaging for them as so many women voted with their feet.

I went into one of their shops recently having not gone into one since the 90s (no intention of buying). It was just incredibly bland and expensive for what it was. It was also quite a hostile environment; I was watched like an hawk and hassled. It was empty so I felt very conspicuous and couldn’t wait to leave. Other companies have come along doing things better and time is up for Body Shop, they’ll have to nick some new ideas.

If I were her, I'd have been fucking petty and bought them up so they'd have to answer to her. But I'm a bit of a bitch like that sometimes.

😂💪😁