What has happened to Body Shop?

[puddingsforsandy]

Yes I know it was sold off a long time ago but it's unrecognisable in terms of products and prices. Half of the stuff I used to buy years ago like their body butter and perfume oil have really gone up in price. The perfume oil must have changed ingredients as the smell is so weak compared to a few years ago. Their makeup is Mac prices.

The sale stuff are rubbish and still expensive.

Does anyone here still shop there?

will add sam & her husband run TSC everything is made by hand on their own also have fb page few other stores in other places which is run again by self employed people

opps sorry phone signal playing up!!

I love the Hemp range at the body shop. Hemp handcream is the best I've ever used. Have just started using the hemp face cream and it's amazingly good for the price. I got a massive bargain buying online as well.

I was a huge Body Shop fan in the early 90s. Especially loved Fuzzy Peach shower gel and Tutti Frutti lip balm. I then worked there around 10 years ago and wow, had it changed.

I don't know if it's still the same but, at that poi t there were franchise stores and "company" stores. I worked at one of the franchises and the franchisee was really struggling. As staff we never got to try out new products etc - there was also a strict eye kept on how many testers of makeup we would open, and it was frowned upon to give makeovers to those who didn't look as if they'd spend a lot. Teenage girls, therefore, were pretty much ignored.

There was also a lot of target-setting around customers'average spend. We were to aim for £20 and always try to upsell. I think the change in ethos was also made clear in one training session we were sent to, which told us that the Body Shop's target customer had changed to the - and I quote - "aspirational middle."
We were told that the company was aiming at those who usually shopped in John Lewis, ie not those who wanted to pop in for animal-shaped soaps or bath pearls.

After I left, I carried on buying the makeup for a time, but have since stopped as the quality went downhill. The foundation just isn't as good as Benefit, Clinique etc. The only products I use now are the body butters and the Hemp hand lotion, which ate very good.

I think the decline of such a once-great firm is a real shame. At one time I'd clean out my bottles and return them to the Body Shop almost weekly, whereas now I rarely even pop in.

If you're an O2 customer there are always priority offers for the body shop.

Aww this thread is a real nostalgia trip! My first teenage trips "up town" the only things we could afford to buy were a couple of bath pearls and a £1 bottle of shower gel. I was always Fuzzy Peach rather than Dewberry though. I'd forgotten all about the animal soaps and the perfume bar.

It really is a shadow of its former self these days.

I actually like Bodyshop - I only buy specific things though and only when they have sales/discount codes. I reckon they must do good business on the Hemp hand cream alone which is fantastic stuff. Also the staff have always been really friendly and helpful and don't hassle you.

On that note, I went into Lush the other day for a browse and the staff wouldn't leave me alone. Literally (I really do mean literally) every single time I looked at something or picked it up they were in my face. I expect they have to do this but who on earth thinks this is a good marketing tactic? It's put me off ever going in again.

I haven't shopped in Lush since Mark Constantine was a wanker on the Lush forum to the loyal customers who supported the brand. One poster said the products were too expensive and Constantine was a complete dick to her, told her that buying Lush was more important than paying the gas/ electric bill and managed to call everyone on the form fat and unemployed . Total tosser and I used to spend a lot at Lush!

Body Shop favourites in my teens were the glass pots of lip balms, kiwi fruit and rum n raisin tasted just like ice cream. Fuzzy peach and raspberry ripple shower gels. Banana shampoo as well.

The only things I buy from there is the lip stain and Born Lippy tinted lip balm.

Bath pearls, did you leave them to melt into a nasty empty skin or did you squeeze underwater them when they were soft so the oil spurted out...

I haven't been in one in at least 15 years. I didn't know it had been sold. Is it still keeping up the ethical stance?

Since I found out their stuff still contains parabens, I've avoided it.

I still buy their cocoa butter body lotion, banana conditioner and chocomania shower gel as they smell nice. Also have one of their lip balms which is nice

www.thesoapycauldron.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=63_64&products_id=744

This was being sold at £6.50 and the man said him and the lady with him were the place that made them.

Remember lush being 'cosmetics to go' fab mail order before they became huge

Both with the bath pearls.

Soak then after oil comes out Squidgey skin

Who could forget white musk...my personal favourites were the almond and glycerine face wash and the passion fruit shower gel (also a 90s teen).

I don't remember the bath pearls though.

Oooh I remember the bath pearls - I remember trying to keep them in the bath for as long as possible before they started leaking/bursting.

And when I was annoyed, I could just go SQUISH.

Always found it expensive, but valued the ethics. Cosmetics to Go / Lush for me though.
Won a Body Shop tea tree oil face wash / bath type thing gift set in an Xmas raffle....stuff was so strong it nearly took my skin off. Binned it all.

Everyone's favourite was dewberry, I liked to be different and chose fuzzy peach . We all had bodyshop pencil cases in school too.

I didn't realise it was still going to be honest

My grandad one year for my birthday filled now I mean filled one of those large wicker gift baskets full of nothing but bath pearls,he giggled for ages about the look on the sales lady's face.

Bath pearls, did you leave them to melt into a nasty empty skin or did you squeeze underwater them when they were soft so the oil spurted out...

Sounds yucky when described like that- Suddenly I don't miss them anymore

I used to love Body Shop, I haven't shopped there in years. Pound shop makeup at MAC prices now, it used to be quite good value but no more.

I've not been in Lush in a couple of years as it's quite pricey, but having seen that blog, I won't be darkening their doors again. Absolutely appalling to expect that of the staff.

Vashta - yes, bloody loved the animal shaped soaps! I always used to love it in there as a child/young teen butI'd just go to boots for toiletries now.

Wasn't there a carrot oil as well or did I imagine it . Bright orange and you put it on your face?

I think the change in ethos was also made clear in one training session we were sent to, which told us that the Body Shop's target customer had changed to the - and I quote - "aspirational middle."We were told that the company was aiming at those who usually shopped in John Lewis, ie not those who wanted to pop in for animal-shaped soaps or bath pearls.

A shame because they must have done really well in those days?

I'm not one of these people who does all my shopping in John Lewis, but if I could afford to, I'd probably get my toiletries from, well erm, John Lewis-not The Body Shop!