Lush - how do they get away with charging so much?

[Marissa5]

I've never shopped at Lush before. Not my kind of thing and they're a bit of an odd brand. However I just asked a friend what her child wanted for his birthday, and apparently he's after lush Mario products. I've just had a look online:

• £21 for a relatively small shower gel (290g).
• £12 for an egg bath bomb.
• £35 for a bottle of body spray.

This just seems absolutely insane to me! I buy mostly Korean bath products as they're a safe zone for my eczema, they have decent ingredients such as hyaluronic acid and have hardly any chemicals (they use ceramides instead) or weird colouring. The ingredients are far superior yet they're half the price.

The lush products have SLES listed as the third product so obviously have a lot of it, three different fragrances and tin oxide (glitter) which aren't great.

Do people actually spend this much money on gimmicky products? Are they actually good? Do they smell incredibly to justify that price.

£21 for shower gel just blew my mind.

Ok well the same applies to speciality stores too!

I live in quite a bohemian town with lots of niche and unique/speciality stores. None of them descend upon you the moment you enter. Usually what happens is the person behind the counter looks up and says hello, smiles or a similar greeting. Occasionally they might say give me a shout if you need anything. Thats fine. But descending on a person the moment they enter your shop and firing questions at them is completely unwanted and unappealing. I dont know a single person who enjoys that whilst shopping. I go out shopping to browse and relax- having to repeat "I'm just browsing" over and over and over again is not what I call relaxing. Its annoying.

Of course, and that's exactly what I am advocating. At no point have I suggested people should be jumped on and hassled the second they are in the door, in fact I've specifically said they shouldn't be. But neither should they be ignored. If you are any kind of speciality or independent business then that is suicide. In my following post I replied to someone else with this:

'Yes I do know what you mean. Cards on the table, I run a business that includes among other things, employing retail staff. Staff should be capable of applying a bit of emotional intelligence and common sense to the situation. I always say allow customers a few moments to orientate themselves, then approach soon after, but not the immediate second they walk in the door. It's about getting the balance right, but that's something that seems to be lost on so many people. I don't know why, it's not bloody rocket science.'

You personally might not like being approached but other people absolutely expect it. As a business owner I'd much rather my customers had their presence acknowledged, than not acknowledged, even if they didn't need help and wanted browse alone.

My company attracts people wanting niche products and the advice that goes with them. We have people coming in not really having a clue what they want, but knowing they want something and we sell it. They sometimes lack the confidence to ask, because they are afraid their question will sound stupid. I can spot them at 20 paces now. 😁

It's amazing how often people say 'Oh it's okay, I'm only browsing thanks' and then as you go to walk away they say 'but actually, while you are here, can you tell me what the difference is between X and Y? Or 'which A would you recomment to go with my B? And that will usually turn into a sale. Whereas if they'd never been approached they might have just left quietly without buying anything because they felt a bit overwhelmed and under-informed.

We get people travel long distances to visit us and we will occasionally get very sniffy emails or bad reviews complaining that the staff 'ignored' them when they came in, or didn't fawn over them quite as much as they'd anticipated based on our great reviews. Honestly, you can't win!

I absolutely love Lush products. But I can't afford them anymore. It never used to be this bad!

yes obviously you don't do things like that without getting a staff member??? parent your child. i hate entitled parents and their inevitably entitled children

They don't ask you if you need any help though. They're trained not to let you refuse help. They do stuff like compliment your hair and start trying to show you their henna or shampoo tub or curl cream, or ask if you've smelled their new soap. If you say yes they want to know what you think of it and if no they sometimes offer to wash your hands in it.

I went into lush today. Was asked if I wanted help with anything. I said no thanks and that was it.

Makes me sneeze, just walking past the shop. Dreadful.

The shampoo and conditioner bars are fantastic but absolutely no way am I spending prices like they charge on a single bath bomb when I can get a bottle of Neals Yard for the same price.

Also my daughter and her friend were once trying the perfume testers, got followed around the shop and then got asked to leave. No reason given at all. They are the most laws abiding girls you could get and it utterly traumatised them. I had to go and pick them up they were so upset. She’s never been back in and spends a lot on Korean stuff so their loss.

@HeadDeskHeadDesk Well I still disagree with you, sorry!

Not all customers want to be talked to whilst out shopping, I dont for starters and I cant be some unique special unicorn and in conversation with my friends in the past about this topic they feel similarly- they cant bear it either.

I am quite sure that you are right and some customers like it but NOT all of them and it's a bit silly to think you can generalise like that about everyone as we are all different.

In fact, I would ask you this- if people love the experience of chatting in high street shops so much then why is the high street dying a slow death? most people shop online now anyway and I suspect part of that is that they can browse in peace whilst sitting on the sofa in their pyjamas whilst drinking a cup of coffee. It's just way more relaxed.

"Online shopping has become a dominant consumer behavior, with global users reaching 2.77 billion by 2025 (33% of the population), accelerated by a 74% surge in online sales during 2020 and a permanent shift toward digital retail
. Key studies indicate 64% of consumers view online shopping as the new normal"

I used to love Lush when it was £2.50/3 for a bath bomb.

Went in a store at Christmas for the first time in a long time and had a shock at the prices!! The bath bombs were £8-12 each!! Insane.

Also, I didn’t like some of their activism back in 2018. It’s a bubble bath shop, I don’t want to see politics, so I stopped shopping there back then and won’t go back now because of the prices.

Because people are prepared to pay the prices.

They're not as ethical as they make out and have been accused of greenwashing before plus their products aren't as natural as they make out. One of their bathbombs turned someone's skin pink once. Their 'Rock Star' soap never held it's smell either after a few uses despite the shops being heavily perfumed.The founder's habit of using his business for political sloganeering, ('Spy Cops' comes to mind) I don't see what any of that has to do with bath products. The thing is, their fans are mostly young who love all of that and their fandom is pretty much like a cult. I critized them on a Tiktok and got a barrage of abuse from their fans.

@Marissa5 Do you have a link for your Korean bath products?

My teen DDs loved their bath bombs when they were little. I’d buy them one as a stocking filler at Christmas. All their shower gel and soaps have sls so we would never use them. We once spent a day with a charity called the Kindness Offensive packing boxes of Lush products that the company had donated. I had a headache from the smell for two days after … and am still reminded every time I come within four shops of Lush outlets! The DDs were less interested after our day 😂

@8books
They have bath bombs starting at £3.50.

The overwhelming smell of a lush shop is so horrible it could kill a bee at 50 paces
dreadful stufff
so glad I don’t have teen daughters now
bringing the stinky stuff in to the house
I think it’s marketed to teens
so pleased it’s just a phase

Their products are hand made in the uk (Dorset). Their ingredients are ethically sourced.
I rarely buy their products as I can’t afford them. They are quite generous with free samples though.

I rely on presents for Christmas/birthday.

Oh & I’m very far from being a teenager I’m afraid.

I've never been in, the garish colours and pungent aroma (stink) as you pass is really off-putting. They may be amazing but I guess I'm never going to find out. Sounds really OTT on pricing though, does it have gold nuggets in it?

Some fragrances are nice but the rest is a marketing hype. I'd only buy a specific thing as a present if I found it on Ebay or Vinted.

I can remember when they were Cosmetics to Go all those years ago. I think they were pretty dear then.

I see it as no different to the woman who bought a bit of cloth for her baby for £140 on another thread. You buy into the hype of the product. You believe the marketing, you think you’re getting something superior to the standard. You think the promoted lifestyle fits your way of life etc, so the mad money seems reasonable.

15 years ago I use to use all of lush products from shampoo bars to massage bars to creams and everything in between. My 10 year old loves lush. I very rarely buy any thing from there now. The price makes my eyes water. I use to love glitter bug massage bar was a couple of quid. Bought 1 a month. Now its over 10 quid and isn't very big at all.

Edit.... in fact I've just googled it. 14 pound for the glitter bug, its changed shape and it has shrunk more than half its size. 😤

Group accounts to June 25 due to be filed by the end of this month, but accounts for the previous year show a loss of £34m on a turnover of £690m, which was not too dissimilar to the year June 23. It’s not brilliant.
We’re nearly two years on from their last filed accounts, and businesses have had to deal with additional cost pressures, NI and minimum wage increases, energy costs, raw ingredients cost increases, plus customer base will be cutting back on luxuries the same as anywhere else.

😂 😂 the issue being I always assumed they were for display, as they have loads of little 'try me' signs in other places... So he asked me if he could and I said yes, go for it! 😬 Which is why I'm asking! As many people have said, they are always so keen to harass you and not let you browse... So on the one occasion where we were browsing and my ds was curious about the difference between a bubble bar and bath bomb I thought it'd be fine for us to use the bowl ourselves!

I used to love Lush products when they first came out. But then I found the prices creeping up and the smell of the soaps I used to buy, stopped lasting til the very end like they had. The last time I went in, I had a crashing headache within 5 minutes and now when I even pass the shop, the smell makes me feel sick! All those scents vying for top position! I'd be asking them to choose something else!