The Body Shop

[ChristinaXYZ]

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/

This is pretty succinct

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.

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.

🎻

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...

and of course, they are a fucking MLM now as well - I mean lets kick women while they are down eh?

I had to boycott them too, it made me so sad because as a teenager, in the 80s, Body shop was one of my favourite shops. It’s a shame because their stuff would make nice gifts.

I don't think I've even set foot in a body shop since around 1995! Just thinking about white musk or dewberry gives me a migraine.

With online shopping and plenty of similar products available everywhere else, it's current situation is unsurprising.

I would really love to buy a lot of stuff in the Body Shop but have refused to set foot in it since their treatment of JKR. DD2 loves some of their stuff but I refuse to buy it for her - if she wants anything from there she has to use her own pocket money for it (so they get less business from dd as a result of how cross I am with them).

Yes, I have boycotted them too since that terrible marketing campaign. There was at least one very long thread on here about it at the time with hundreds of messages promising to boycott.

Hope they read this! I boycotted them after the JKR thing having been a customer for years and a Love Your Body member. Will never buy anything there again unless perhaps they apologise to JKR. Miss the peppermint foot cream

Yeah, I think this is it, mainly. Older women don't love most of their products. Maybe a few things, but overall it's not sophisticated stuff. The ethical element isn't so much of a thing now, for several reasons, and the brand just seems tired.

Most younger people I know go to sephora and overall there seems to be less desire to avoid big companies. Or maybe acceptance that it's not really possible to do it, even if you want to.

I wasn't aware about lush (haven't bought from the bodyshop since JK fiasco.) What happened with lush?

I’m another one that hasn’t spent a penny with them since they mocked JKR for talking about her experiences of domestic and sexual violence. Their tone was staggeringly callous.

Fuckers were giving out free breast binders to teenage girls as they scrabbled to cash in on the rainbow marketing bandwagon. Migraine-inducing toiletries with a little free gift of self-harm. No thanks.

Body Shop hemp hand cream was good, couldnt stand Lush anyway.

I wouldn't bother thinking about white musk anymore if I were you. They fucked it up completely by removing the honey and making it a vegan product that doesn't smell anywhere near as lovely as the original.

TBH I think this is where the Body Shop has gone wrong. They have forgotten they are a business and they need to make money and have instead decided to cater for an on trend minority - vegans and TRAs and in the process alienated many customers.

Fancy having a best seller like white musk and then changing the recipe to cater to a tiny percentage 😂You'd think at the very least they'd keep both versions to compare sales.

I thought the body shop was always vegan

No, it's a relatively recent thing.

I too used to use Body Shop as my go-to for gifts, all my teenage Christmas memories smell of white musk, but I haven’t been back since their JKR tweet.

That’s particularly stupid re: White Musk as not all Body Shop products are vegan. And they have a range with honey as a key ingredient.

It used to be far harder than necessary to work out if something of theirs was vegan or not (don’t know if that’s improved since they went for Rowling) & they’ve never recaptured the wonder of the shop of my childhood. Also: Ice Blue Shampoo. If you are one of those lucky people who gets eczema on their scalp &/or hairline - the stuff was like magic. It also didn’t smell like you’d fallen into a bog (meaning the peat variety) nor of something vaguely hospitally. If they brought that back I might crack.

Me too.

I rarely manage to make boycotts stick but I've swerved the Body Shop since the JKR business, despite a long-standing love of White Musk.

Ladies ( &gents) if you are looking for a replacement product I would suggest that you google " twitter #boycott bodyshop / lush & your product " .

Each time a boycott was trending people had tried loads of subsitute products and could usually recomend a small brand and /or a cheaper brand.

Lush wasn’t hard to boycott as it stinks and makes me think ‘BV/thrush’ whenever I pass a store.

It isn't ethically sound any more, isn't affordable any more and politically motivated.