The other day I broke down the actual costs of a few Lush holiday gift sets. I mentioned I’d written to Lush to see how they explain the added expense. Here’s the response I received today:
Thank you for writing to us. I apologize for your disappointment with the pricing of our wrapped gifts. We put a lot of work into designing and sourcing our gift wrapping materials- for example, we use some handmade, embossed papers for some of our gift sets that we source from a cooperative in Nepal which are more costly, as well as other special boxes and hand processed ribbons that are sourced ethically, and sustainable. Also, our packing materials (the packing peanuts) are 100% biodegradable, and are made of vegetable starches so that they will dissolve in water, but is a more costly choice than Styrofoam for example. We also must account of the labour that goes into the hand wrapping of each gift set by the staff in our facilities who assemble and wrap each gift set.We do not advertise that our gift sets are more economical than purchasing the products individually, and we feel that giving a beautiful hand-wrapped gift made with hand embossed paper, and ethical ribbons, etc, is something that many of our customers are happy to pay a bit extra for.We also make sure to offer an option for customers who’d prefer not to purchase a gift like this, and that is that products can be selected, and then our knot-wrap furoshiki scarves can be purchased to wrap the gift in for $6.95. The scarves are made of recycled materials, and can be reused again and again, making them a great value.I hope this information is helpful for you. Please let me know if you have any further questions and I’d be happy to help.Kind regards,Megan
Customer Care Representative
So there you have it. Yes, Lush is charging you extra for that gift set, and no, they don’t see any reason to apprise you of that fact when you buy it. (Although they’re sure that, if you realized you were being charged extra for “hand embossed paper, and ethical ribbons, etc.” you’d be “happy” about it.) If you have questions for Lush, you can e-mail products@lush.com or call toll-free: (800) 733-5874.
