Lush and Shopping Local

[Susie]

I was in London earlier and I walked past a Lush that had a sign which said, 'Buy Fresh Buy Local!' on the door. Now I definitely don't think Lush are exactly the epitome of the unacceptable face of global capitalism, I don't know much about them but I don't know much bad. However this really irritated me because they are not a local shop, they are a national chain (and also their products still have synthetic ingredients although I think they are better than a lot of cosmetics sellers). I have looked on their website, which is also making a big fuss about having local suppliers - when I looked more closely they seem to have three suppliers in the UK. It's excellent that they try to source ingredients ethically from the UK, but..... is that anyone else's idea of local? I think it just struck me because it was a Lush on the same street as a big market where people actually were selling some local, and handmade stuff, including soap! (without SLAs!).

I thought I might send a very nice, friendly email to their press department asking how they were defining local, and pointing out that notices like that could be a bit misleading and might irritate awkward people like me. I would be nice and constructive (because as far as I know they actually do have hoards of regional suppliers). Is this the first step to becoming Disgruntled Of Cambridge? What do other people think?

[crowsashes]

i personally have no problem with them - i prefer to buy local products if i can but with the current infrastructure and preference for monoculture etc it can be difficult to secure the quantity of ingredients needed from one particular area.

in an ideal world they would use what was available and have a weekly/ daily special and only sell products that had the available ingredients in so if no local lavender flowers were available then no lavender products would be sold etc. but its a chain store and as we all know chain stores like to be exactly the same regardless of being in the uk or canda etc
supposedly its 'frustrating' for consumers not to have exactly what we want id hate to think what would happen if we had to wait!

anyhow with regards to being local - i have no problem with uk produced and grown goods - after all it has to be much better than delivering by air, sea im not that sure on.

i also read an article recently on 'local' goods from supermarkets and the fact some products are sent on a round trip to a distribution centre before being sent back to the supermarket having been grown only 3-4 miles away! . i dont know if lush does this, it would defeat the whole point of local and low product mileage!

i tend to only get soap bars from lush - have found 3 bars that a) doesnt cause me to itch like mad and render me incapable of doing anything bar take anti-histamines b) pick it up on a trip out when i need another without having to wait for delivery and pay nearly a fiver for postage and packaging

[Susie]

I agree actually, I don't have any problem with them getting their ingredients from the UK and (as far as I can see) trying to use small-scale producers - good on them.

I think what annoyed me was them trying to jump on the 'local' bandwagon - if they'd said, we're working towards sourcing as many ingredients as possible from the UK and dealing ethically with our suppliers, I would probably have thought wow great and gone and bought a bar of soap.

(Not very catchy to put on a door, I do see! ).

[crowsashes]

if you think about it though - with our current reliance on imported goods from china , new zealand lamb, bananas from s. america etc anything grown and produced in the uk could be considered local - even i it is grown up in the north and shipped down here to stupidly humid ( at the mo anyway) plymouth or to london.

its not ideal and we dont have all the local crafters/makers/ producers etc avaliable in every city or town as much as id love there to be. im lucky enough to have a grocers, butcher and a yarn shop that stocks uk made and produced wool yarns! i cant find reasonable priced soap and cosmetics that are chemical free with out a hefty price tag with postage. so i have to compromise. so much so the only place i can get ecover laundry liquid is t£$co around here ( with out resorting to a £3.30 bus journey)

everything is compromise and if i had the time, space and basic equip to make soap i would but for now this is the next best option .

[Green Aura]

I was blasted the last time I criticised Lush. So I'm saying nothing now except, you go for it girl.

Well I will say one thing - no natural essential oils that I know smell that strong or that far up the street! Now I'll say nothing else

[Susie]

Thank you. I think I will email them.

I know they're by no means a terrible company, and they probably are trying to source ingredients ethically, and they don't test on animals, and they make vegan stuff. But... they're certainly not fresh, and they're certainly not local! It doesn't necessarily make them bad... but it's greenwashing.

Mind you I've seen an advert for a Fiat 500 today that was so unspeakable I actually couldn't believe it. I think my metamorphosis into Disgruntled Of Cambridge is almost complete

[Millymollymandy]

Mind you I've seen an advert for a Fiat 500 today that was so unspeakable I actually couldn't believe it. I think my metamorphosis into Disgruntled Of Cambridge is almost complete

Pray tell!! Were they advertising it as a Ferrari?

[Millymollymandy]

I was blasted the last time I criticised Lush. So I'm saying nothing now except, you go for it girl.

Well I will say one thing - no natural essential oils that I know smell that strong or that far up the street! Now I'll say nothing else

Moi aussi, give me the Body Shop anyday! Only been into a Lush once and once was enough for a lifetime.

Plus I didn't know what exactly they were selling! It wasn't obvious. Just sort of lumps of smelly multi coloured stuff.

[Susie]

Pray tell!! Were they advertising it as a Ferrari?

It was a special advert, specially for the ladies. It was about how you wouldn't care about the engine but you would definitely care that Fiat 500s now came in pink. I looked for levels of irony and sophistication but I don't think there were any. I can't boycott Fiat though, I've got a Punto. (It isn't pink although I'd probably have bought a pink one if it had been cheaper!).

[Millymollymandy]

Crazy! Now if they were the REAL Fiat 500s the kind my mum had when we were little then they would look good in pink as they are quite a classic car, but these new 500s I believe don't even have a tiny 500cc engine but a more powerful one , are miles bigger and don't look anything like the real thing. Bit like those new minis and beetles which are all horrid.

My mum's old 500 struggled to get to 60mph! Everyone used to love it.