To wonder what happened to Body Shop?

[Handbaghag]

Where have they gone wrong? Why are their shops so dead on the high Street. They were buzzing in the 80s. Is it online shopping? Lush?

Well, against the grain here, but myself and two DD's still buy at Body Shop. In particular DD2 who has super sensitive skin and can't have anything with alcohol, or benzoates or any other harsh chemical, uses the Aloe range. I was using No7, but now have also moved on to Aloe, and Vitamin E ranges, and also tried the drops of youth which was pretty good and cheaper than No7.

We also use the Ginger Shampoo and Conditioner as that is mild too.

We never pay full price, always use bulk and/or discount, and use the loyalty card. Lush is way more expensive, and stinks.

The people in the shop are not recruiting down lines for MLM.

Nor do L’Oreal own The Body Shop now (many posters have already pointed this out upthread).

I don't mind shop assistants 'pouncing.' I'd much rather that than having to flag someone down as they can't even be arsed to look up when a customer comes in their shop.

The complete rebrand is what did for them. Out went all the refills, simple stickers and pocket money items.
In came uniform plastic packaging and a corporate feel.
No doubt it was changed for profit but in doing so it lost a lot of its original uk customer base.
I'd love to know how the business is doing in each country?

The Body Shop is no longer owned by L’Oreal, it is owned by a Brazilian cosmetics company called Natura.

The Body Shop is no longer owned by L’Oreal, it is owned by a Brazilian cosmetics company called Natura.

This has been said a number of times. I still feel betrayed by them being sold to L’Oréal and it is going to take a lot of work to win that trust back.

I'm the same as others regarding the old days, the small bottles, refillable bottles, simple labels, the products of the time, prices etc. I have to go to my nearby city to find a shop, we don't have one in town.

I'd love to see a return to this.

As for being pounced on when you enter, no thanks. I think, though, that there is a compromise there. If at least one assistant makes it obvious they've clocked you, gives you a smile, nod, whatever, and leaves you alone, I'd say that would be enough to feel welcomed and not harassed.

@pancake I didn’t know Anita but I believe she had genuinely good intentions for doing this.

I was under the impression they are now starting to reuse/recycle all their packaging. If you take it back you get a £5 voucher for every 5 items you return. This alone would tempt me back as beauty products must be one of the biggest users of single use plastic!

StitchingMoss Yep, we have already done this.

You can find nice, environmentally sustainable etc products. I use Cyril’s Goat Shed soap instead of shower gel and shampoo. You just get a block of nice smelling soap in a cardboard wrapper, no palm oil etc, no plastic.

I shred the boxes and put it on the compost heap, so no rubbish.

QuimReaper the ones I’ve had are usually in the toiletries bit where they have the accessories like sponges and body brushes. Only a couple of quid normally.

Regarding the pouncing sales staff, lots of stores of all types have a tracking device in the entrance which calculates footfall converted to sales, then the till calculates items sold per transaction. That could explain the upselling pressure. I dislike Lush but went in for Snow Fairy. Appalled at teenage shop worker putting a new large size version in my kid’s hand and telling her it was “ONLY” twenty quid! BS should look at the skincare revolution pioneered by the likes of the Ordinary and Caroline Hirons and go back to ingredient led well priced effective and ethical products. Big market for that and customers are very clued up thanks to mumsnet and blogs. Refills and recycling... give the people what they want. Also the guy who set up Lush claimed credit for some BS classics like ice blue or similar and there was a spat if memory serves.

Can you ask HO to bring back the tropical rainforest shampoo and conditioner, the make up and the bit. E range....please!

I think the move away from the original concept has lost its special feel - and whenever I've been in recently it feels corporate and nothing special.

Their original concept with refills and natural ingredients would be just the thing nowadays.

Because someone in management (who will probably never have worked on a shop floor in their life) has decided that this makes for good customer service. The staff hate it, customers hate it (an acknowledgment of my existence in the shop is fine, as is being in hand if I need to ask a question but other than that leave me the fuck alone) but someone in Head Office (or possibly a consultant brought in) had a module on their management training course about staff interaction and has decided that an American-style more-is-better is the way to go. These people are idiots and don’t realise that they actually drive customers away.

You can’t refill online. There’s your USPand would drive customers into the store. Surely all retailers need an edge over online in this current marketplace?

I didn’t know you could reuse the packaging but I’m definitely going to do that from now on.

I love The Body Shop. Their seaweed facial range literally transformed my skin and I’m also obsessed with the face masks. Can’t stand Lush!

I'm not sure I could pass up selling my business for 130 million if that's what AR got. That would ensure the security of my family for many generations. Would be extremely hard to refuse. Private schools,private health care into old age etc,hard to refuse that sort of security.

Too expensive

Can I ask why you wouldn't buy from them? Xx

I'm seeing a lot of negativity around the mlm aspect of the body shop.

Anita herself set this side up of the business 25 years ago to empower women and let me tell you, it's one of the best things I ever done. It's not like one of those typical pyramid schemes where it's all recruit to make those above you richer. As a consultant I'm at the "bottom of the pile" but I can make as much as I want and I have no pressure on me to become a manager etc.

The body shop at home is an incredible company and yes it's had its rough patch but the things they are doing now for the community and environment is so awe inspiring. Xx