Some new Aromatherapy fragrances that were coming out soon, more new Easter Body Care items we will see...and the upcoming changing price beginning today of one of my favorite things to buy in Bath and Body Works stores. Pocketbacs.
The news was met with a bit of grumble...but the day went on. I later shared why we see this happening, and today it was revealed in stores and online.
At the beginning of the year, it became quite noticeable that Bath and Body Works were raising prices on EVERYTHING. From Body Care products to Home Fragrance; nothing was missed on the old markup sheet. Consumers like myself were miffed.
How could we not be? Granted, yes, business is business and we all see those price raises everywhere business is conducted. Two cents here and there on bread and milk...a dime a gallon for gas. Yes, we know.
Those are the staples of life. But when there are remarkable increases to our luxury, self-indulgent items...we start to question "do we need these?" and "are we willing to pay?"
They know us though, don't they? They know like the bread and milk...fifty cents here and there stuck onto the retail sticker pricing will slide past the casual shopper of these goods. All while us seasoned shoppers grumble and moan begrudging the want of the new.
You know a few things about my love for certain things they offer. Give me the adorable sticker on anything and I am there checking it out and stuffing it into a blue mesh bag to take home. Hand soap and pocketbacs are my weakness. I am not a casual shopper of those...hence the hundreds of each taking up space in my cabinets and on my shelves.
Pump Hand Soap? You can grab a HUGE bottle of any scent at Walmart for way less than the $8.50 sticker price for one 8 ounce bottle on the shelf in Bath and Body Works. Hit up a Dollar store and you can buy 8!!! with change.
And don't get me started on Hand Sanitizer. Lord, the cutesy stickers on the front of the bottles got me...I dare not even say how many times...but this new, this is what we are going to charge for ONE OUNCE of 68% alcohol antiseptic with a minimal amount of fragrance and an adorable character sticker on the label is fixing that addiction.
When I started shopping for them they were cheap. So cheap you can grab the monthly selection of scents put out and never break the bank. So, I did. Then they went to 5 for $5 sale pricing. Okay, okay. I can now get 30 bottles for $20 with my survey coupon.
Fast forward to the new bottle design, raised pricing and I am still getting them now 5/$6. Not as many...but my favorites. Truth be told, this past holiday season I cut back drastically only grabbing maybe one of each of my favorite scents. Certainly not all of the scents available.
Here comes the new pricing. 5/$7 Wait. What?? Hey, B, you must be drinking these little alcohol-filled bottles with this new price thinking. You're Drunk, go home.
But the purchases are still happening.
Nope. They aren't drinking it...we must be for buying them?
Sticker priced now $1.95 each my husband looked at me and asked if all of the prices went up in store because this is crazy. In all of the years, I have shopped here, which is a very long time now, he's never mentioned price to me at all. I sadly informed him, yes and I got the look. Girls...you know the look. Not the "you're not buying that" look, because then he would get "A" look. His was more of a head-shaking there goes good money look. And he is not wrong.
So when I heard that the Sale pricing was ending and each pocketbac will cost the sticker $1.95 price I thought I better share that news. Then I also heard that there will be limits on how many you can buy in stores and online. In-store was set at 20 and Online was one bundle of five.
I haven't checked out retail stores stock of Purell and other brand name or generic hand sanitizers to compare them to this situation now at Bath and Body Works. I use hand sanitizer often throughout the day, every day and especially in winter during flu season. The number of people with sniffles and coughing is crazy, I only wish more people would sanitize their hands. Eww.
Those who read the post of the price changes were not happy. Of course not. Who would be? Here were are at the beginning of the year with bunches of newness coming out and the information I am sharing is not great, to say the least.
I was asked why this was happening and a few friends confirmed for me the reasoning behind it. Most I already assumed because we have seen this before with candles. Supply...and...Demand.
When the candle sale was decent enough for us to haul candles, they had a hard time meeting our demands so they would pull the sale pricing for a time until more stock would become available and hit the stores. And then another sale would appear and we were back to shopping.
What is happening now is the recent outbreak of Coronavirus has customers buying more pocketbac hand sanitizers and the spring collection is selling out with no backup yet to replace it.
This caused the sale of the hand sanitizers to be pulled (hopefully only) until more stock arrives.
The concerning thing about this is our willingness to purchase them at a higher price may end up costing us more money when the stock returns.
Look at our current sale pricing now on candles. What will our sale price for sanitizers end up being?
Will this lapse in available on-hand stock currently cause us, consumers, to seek out more reasonably priced products to fill those needs? Time will tell.