(This is more about messages on bottles, but I hope you'll grant me some leniency, dear reader.)
When I was a little girl, I spent a lot of time reading Dr. Bronner's labels in the bathroom. My parents have always been on the hippie fringe, and while Dr. Bronner's is now widely available, it used to be a pretty niche product. I was probably seven or eight when I realized there was more to the label than ingredients.
If you're unfamiliar with the brand, it's a family owned soap company, specializing in castile soaps. It can be used for washing the body, hair, teeth, your dishes, your dog; if it's dirty this 18-in-1 product will clean it. I learned that from the label. The labels are also full of Dr. Bronner's thoughts on faith and the meaning of life. Dr. Bronner was my first philosophy professor.
The highlight of Dr. Bronner’s Moral ABC's are "Work hard! Prosper! Learn, grow, improve. Success is the engine that makes everything else possible. 1st: If not for me, who am I? Nobody! 2nd: Yet, if I’m only for me, what am I? Nothing! 3rd: If not now, when?!” The second point always struck me as the most important, the value of success is not only in improving one's station, but how that success improves the lives of others. Pretty profound for bath time.
As the years went on, the label changed, the Leaping Bunny (against animal testing) and B-Corp certifications were added, in addition to changes in the headline above the Dr. Bronner's name. These certifications mean a lot to me. The tell a story about a commitment to something beyond profit, a conscious effort to use capitalism as a force for good.
Another company that prioritized the idea of "Business for Good" was The Body Shop. If Dr. Bronner's awakened me to the idea that a product can mean something, The Body Shop was a brand I put faith in.
Founded in 1976 by Anita Roddick, the Body Shop started out as a single store. The iconic green paint that became a staple of malls in the 1980s and 90's was chosen to cover up mildew in that first shop, the best storefront Anita could afford. As the brand grew, Anita's vision of business for good grew alongside. The Body Shop was one of the first skin care brands to create community fair trade partnerships, use primarily natural ingredients, and stand against animal testing, not only in final products but also throughout the supply chain. The brand supported Greenpeace and brought attention to the AIDS epidemic at a time when silence around the issue was deafening.
My mother, always the trendsetter, was an early devotee of The Body Shop upon its arrival in the U.S. and as a kid, I fell in love. There was something really special about the products, they smelled real, like strawberries and mangos, not perfumey and artificial. In the stores, the sales associates were kind and patient and would joyfully tell the story of the mission behind the brand. In 1998 I joined the team.
As a team member I learned the backstory of every product, where the ingredients were grown and who grew them, the reasons the ingredients were chosen, and how they would impact the skin of the customer. I cared so much about the community trade partners in developing countries, the schools they built with the income from trade, and the impact on the ecology of the places where they lived. I cared about our customers, who would tearfully share their challenges and frustrations with their skin and leave filled with hope. So often they would return thrilled to stock up and share their joy in having found something that worked for their skin.
Loving the skin you're in was a way of life, at The Body Shop. Anita refused to use words like "anti-aging", "flaws", or "anti-wrinkle" in advertising and they were verboten in-store as well. We were taught to celebrate the beauty of diversity long before it was cool. And then there was Ruby.
In 1997, at the height of the heroin-chic movement, The Body Shop introduced Ruby, a plus-sized Barbie style doll who challenged the notion that beauty stops at a size 2. As a plus-sized 18 year old, I saw myself, for the first time every, reflected in a shop window. I felt seen in a way I'd never experienced, not as an object of scorn and derision, but of strength and (dare I say?) beauty.
For those born in a more enlightened era, where body positivity has a foothold, it might be hard to understand how revolutionary Ruby was. Even more revolutionary was the message that came with Ruby, "Love Your Body." It was the antithesis of the fear mongering advertising of the day. Some people really hated it. I loved it. For the first time, I could openly admit to loving my body and, as an associate, I got to encourage others to love theirs too. It was an incredible gift.
I look back on my time with The Body Shop with a great deal of pride. The company created incredible good in the world, with their activism, investment, and vision. A B-Corp before such a designation existed, it was a company worth believing in. I say was because in early March, The Body Shop U.S. closed its doors. The private equity firm that acquired the company in November 2023 filed the U.K. version of bankruptcy in March.
Whether the U.K. stores will survive is unclear, but it seems like after nearly 30 years in the U.S., The Body Shop is dead. I wept when I told my husband the news, not because my favorite shampoo would no longer be available, but because of what it said about us, the American consumers, and about the future.
The failure of The Body Shop in the U.S. began in the early 2000's when it was acquired by L'Oreal which cared little about the brand's ethics, and tried to make it more like Bath & Body works and other cheap and shiny retailers. The packaging got fancier, the prices increased and the heart got lost along the way.
The heart of The Body Shop was never really the final products in the bottles, which were great, but the thing that truly set those products apart was the dream of a world where people and the environment thrived. It was the acres of Amazon rainforest that weren't clear cut, because the Brazil nuts were worth more to The Body Shop. It's the collectives of women who were able to use their traditional skills making shea butter, cactus mitts, and tea tree oil. It's a lot to expect from shampoo, but the idea of business as a force for good is one worth fighting for.
It's so easy to forget that every decision we make as consumers has an impact on someone somewhere. Most people make decisions based on price, but more and more I find myself choosing based on cost. How well or poorly farmers, growers, harvesters, and factory workers are treated, that's cost. The impacts on the water and air in the places the products are produced, that's cost. How the people in distribution and sales are treated, and whether they can afford to feed themselves, let alone their families, cost.
Generally speaking, if something is cheap, someone, somewhere, is getting taken advantage of. In our global economy, it's so easy to forget that, eventually, we all end up paying the price of unrelenting growth. The price of cheap goods is appealing, but the costs are unfathomable. Choosing products made with these costs in mind takes effort, but the more we as consumers pay attention to the impacts our shopping has, the better off we'll all be.
A few things to keep in mind, should you decide to become a conscientious consumer. First, separate need from want, or at least be aware of the difference. Second, avoid retail therapy. The siren call of shopping is a great distraction from the banality of modern existence, but it rarely makes anything better for long. Save your money for real therapy, go outside, take up a hobby, learn to fix the things you already have, invest in adventures, make shopping a last resort. Third, choose to spend your money with companies whose values align with your own. Corporations are some of the largest donors to political campaigns, so your money might be spent on things you vehemently oppose. Do a little investigating into where your money is being spent. Fourth, when you shop, choose local. Supporting your local businesses means investing in your community. And finally, look at the labels. When available, choose products from B-corps, Fair Trade Certified, or Leaping Bunny certified to ensure that the products you buy contribute to a better world. It really is what's inside that counts.
