As anyone who has read my previous posts on The Body Shop will know I am a huge fan of their products. They take me back to really happy times in my life from the time it first opened in Belfast and my friend got a job in it to the time I lived in Brighton and was able to do a Body Shop tour in their place just up the coast in Bognor and all the great times inbetween and since.
So you can imagine my dismay when I saw this in my local shopping centre:
The actual Body Shop shop had closed and this replaced it. A very sorry excuse for The Body Shop. It obviously stocks a lot less than the shop did and the makeup section is non existant. Pathetic really and I find it extremely sad. It depresses me every time I walk past it. The worst part though is the fact that it is only like this until Christmas and then it will be GONE!! The staff who have worked there for years are to lose their jobs. An unfortunate reminder of the times we now live in. I really feel for those girls, some of whom have been there for a long time. They have to spend their final days as Body Shop employees sitting in the middle of a shopping centre. The chairs look really uncomfortable and if they are there on their own at any time how do they manage a toilet break?! Just to make their last days in this job even more depressing they have to completely stock this stall in the mornings and then completely unstock it at closing time so that it looks like this:
Seing it like this depresses me even more:( Of course we will still have an actual Body Shop shop to go to in Belfast (at least I think I do but it may have been reduced to a similar stall type thingy) but it's just not the same. I loved having a browse before I did my weekly groceries and if I needed anything it was literally a 5 minute drive away. I loved the smell of the shop and the friendliness of the girls.
There is also the online side of the Body Shop where I will still be able to buy stuff but it's so much more difficult to try anything new if you can't see it. I feel that is a very important aspect of The Body Shop that really shouldn't be lost.
I'm sure Anita Roddick would be turning in her grave to see what's become of the actual shops.
Do you still have a local Body Shop? Would you be sad to see it go or am I alone here?
My Body Shop is in the middle of town & at the moment is a nightmare to drive too :( it has been there for years now & i would miss it if it closed
ReplyDelete@Shelley It does seem to be getting more and more difficult to get to a Body Shop. I hope they don't close them all down and just become an online only retailer. That would be a nightmare xx
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