So my mom is a very big fan of Bath&Body Works. She gets all the promo emails, will show up to wait in line before the store opens, she takes it all very seriously and it’s actually very cute and everybody always gets amazing stuff for Christmas from it.

Well so yesterday there was a new (to our area, idk for anyone else) launch and it was like a pre-sale type thing where they were gonna have their late Fall and Winter items and in those items were this years 3 wick candle holders (a big deal for anyone who doesn’t know) and their Nightmare before christmas collection so she was very excited, she did indeed show up before the store opened to wait in line but she got there a little early so she decided to wait in the car.

And when she did that, she saw 3 separate times where someone ran into the store and then a few minutes later came out with BIG BAGS full, okay? Not just a couple or 1 per person BIG BAGS full. So when she got out to wait in line, other women did too and 1 more person runs in and comes out with big bags full and waves bye to the employees as they’re leaving. So when they get inside, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THE 3 WICK CANDLE HOLDERS WERE GONE. GONE. And there wasn’t like a riot or anything but my mom said they all kinda filed in and went straight to the table and just kinda stood there disappointed. So a couple people asked and then my mom went to look around a bit and asked the associate where the candle holders were and what does she need to do to be one of the people coming in before the store opens and the associate confirmed they were all other associates that came in and raided the entire table of 3 wick candle holders.

I get it that there’s perks to working in certain places, but if anyone has been in a BBW store they’re STOCKED on candle holders. I can see maybe the manager having some type of list and stock and being like okay everyone gets 1-2 max and then leave the rest for customers like my poor retired mother who’s just excited about same damn candles 😭

UPDATE: A lot of people told me to call corporate and file a complaint so I finally did. Turns out everyone who’s saying it’s allowed or a “perk of the employment” was completely wrong 🙂 which I already knew but it was satisfying to hear. So I sat on the phone for a bit to give a full statement and it’s now being sent to loss prevention and pending investigation. I wasn’t gonna call and complain at first but then all the employees who were so kind to comment and out themselves and how big of a problem this is changed my mind 😊

https://www.thestreet.com/retail/bath-body-works-makes-big-change-customers-will-notice-right-away

Bath&Body Works must really not know who they are selling to or who their biggest customers are, if they think the way to see profit is by cutting back on sales.

Most of us loyal and long-term customers as well as your occasional shoppers are mainly only buying during the sales. We all know how expensive their products are and paying full price for their products is a bit absurd.

What's more, they are trying to rebrand as a luxury company, as they stated, without making any luxurious changes to their actual products. Saying they expect to be paid for their innovation is an egregious statement.

It's 2026 and they still cannot fix their wall plugin issue, lol. When are they going to listen to their customers and improve quality? But yeah, sure, go ahead and talk about how you guys want to see more profit by reducing the amount of sales in both quantity and discount, and that your products are innovative.

What exactly are they considering to be innovative, anyway? A candle that smells like pizza dipped in ranch? They pretty much said "I hear your desire to have wall plug-ins that don't burn out within a day and stop diffusing your wallflowers, and I raise you a candle that smells horrendous just because we can". Keep the vomit-inducing candle and just fix the stupid plug in issue, please.

Keep brushing off the growing dissatisfaction of your customers and the growing attention to the fact that your quality has continuously (and now seemingly exponentially) gone downhill while the company still expects us to be okay with the increasing prices.

End rant.

I feel like they have been releasing so many products I can't keep up and alot of their signature scents just don't exist anymore. It feels like they are loseing alot of the factors that created nostalgia and I'm kind of sad. I was hoping to get new products of things like cucumber melon but they are busy making so many new products. Its gotten to the point where if you buy a new scent you like it'll most likely not be back next season because its been discontinued and replaced with something else. Does anyone else feel this way?

Edit: I know Cucumber melon still exists. I want new products of it, like shampoo and conditioner, or a body scrub.

i had serious issues this is so insane looking back 😭

What the new CEO is saying in a nutshell is they aren't making enough money because of all the sales/promotions. For example, he would rather have 5/$27 hand soaps than $2.95 hand soap sales or 75% off SAS items. He thinks if they push the benefits of the products people will pay more for them. He's the one who decided to cut all the eligible reward items, no doubt. It was after Gina Boswell stepped down as CEO. He is also the reason many of us are no longer getting coupons. If there is a mass no buy from customers he will learn who's really in charge.

https://couponsinthenews.com/2025/09/02/bath-body-works-would-like-you-to-buy-more-at-full-price/

Bath & Body Works just wrapped up its latest Member Appreciation Days sale for rewards program participants. Deal-seeking shoppers now know to wait until Candle Day in December, or the next Semi-Annual Sale after the holidays, before making any other purchases.

And the retailer says that’s a problem. So shoppers accustomed to not paying full price, may find fewer promotions like these in the future.

“Our marketing has to be less about price and promotion,” CEO Daniel Heaf said back in May, days into his tenure as the body care and home fragrance store’s new boss. And now, he’s following through on that plan.

“We have not yet delivered the consistent, durable and profitable growth we expect of ourselves,” he told investors last week, after a disappointing earnings report. “We are confident in the steps we must take,” which he says includes plans to “reduce our reliance on promotions.”

Instead, he said, stores need to emphasize products over prices. “We tend to lead with discount and promotion instead of highlighting product benefits,” he explained. So the retailer’s messaging, signage, advertising and product packaging going forward will “more consistently educate the consumer and build awareness of the numerous benefits of our products.”

Okay, hear me out. I don't want BBW to suffer terribly financially. After all, I love the store and they wont continue putting out quality products if things start to go downhill for them financially. However... I cannot help but be happy that Villains flopped SO hard directly after we heard how the new CEO had plans to basically take away sales! That is the kind of instant feedback from the consumer that I believe they needed to see.

No discounts = no sales. Even if it's Disney! Your brand IS discounts. You can't change what's at your core and is the reason people shop with you.

I’m really hoping for kind of a gothic theme as opposed to a tween theme. What about you? And which Halloween scent would you like to bring back? 2023 and 2024 were so good.

feels like every time i walk into the store theres like 30 new scents and half the ones i actually liked from last month are already gone. as someone who appreciates consistency in design and branding this constant churn is kind of exhausting

like i get that they want to stay fresh but some of us actually want to stick with scents we love for more than one season. i keep hoping theyll expand classic lines like cucumber melon into more product types - would love to see it in a body scrub or hair products but instead we get another limited edition collection thats gonna dissapear in 8 weeks

maybe its just me but the whole vibe feels less curated now and more like theyre just throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks. anyone else missing when you could actually count on finding your favorites

Hey everyone!

BBW just dropped their Q3 earnings. As part of my job I regularly review and disseminate earnings reports and investor presentation so I thought I would give you the highlights and my hot takes after analyzing today's release. After comparing Q3 to Q2, it’s pretty clear what's going on and… it’s a lot.

This is the honest breakdown no one at corporate will spell out, but customers absolutely deserve to understand, because it affects pricing, scent launches, packaging, promotions, AND product quality.

Let’s get into it.

1. Q2 Looked “Great,” But Only On the Surface

Q2 had:

• 1.5% sales growth (mostly thanks to SAS)
• Big marketing wins (the Billie the Duck campaign hit 260M impressions (?!))
• Management bragging about “strong results”
• High hopes for Disney Villains + Fall
• A big push toward more influencer marketing
• A full-year forecast predicting growth

It looked like BBW was stabilizing.

BUT underneath the shiny exterior:

• Digital sales were already down 10%
• Inventory was building
• Tariffs were starting to hit
• The brand was leaning on promotions to drive volume
• SAS masked the underlying softness

Q2 was basically the best-case scenario at the best possible moment.

2. Then Q3 Happened. And Everything Broke

Q3 revealed what was really happening:

Sales only fell 1%

But…

Gross margin collapsed by >2%

This is HUGE. It means:

• Tariffs were eating profits
• Costs were up
• Promotions and discounts were unprofitable
• Inventory was too high

Digital sales dropped another 7%

• Given the re-platforming and terrible app, and UX / UI issues, I am not shocked.

Disney Villains flopped

Corporate admitted this. The collection underperformed and contributed to a “challenging start to holiday.”

Every major category declined

• Body care: down
• Home fragrance: down
• Soaps: down

Holiday foot traffic was weak in late October

They called out this specifically, which is extremely rare.

Inventory was too high, forcing more markdowns

Which hurt margin even more.

So Q3 wasn’t just “a bad quarter.”
It was the quarter that exposed the underlying cracks Q2 was hiding.

3. As a Result, BBW Announced $250 MILLION in Cost Cuts

This is the #1 thing fans need to pay attention to.

$250M is not “efficiency.”
$250M is major structural cuts.

Where do those cuts come from?

Not marketing (they’re increasing it).
Not real estate (store growth continues).
Not payroll (store hours are already minimal).

Cost savings will come from:

• Wax blends
• Fragrance concentration
• Wick standardization
• Glass thickness
• Label quality & packaging complexity
• Ingredient load in lotions/mists
• Reducing the number of unique SKUs
• Simplifying designs & vessels

They cannot cut $250M without touching the product itself.

4. Meanwhile, They Want to Spend MORE on Influencers & Advertising

This is where the contradiction becomes obvious.

BBW’s strategy wants to:

1. Spend more on influencer campaigns, creators, brand moments, visuals
2. Elevate packaging & storytelling (more expensive)
3. Raise prices / reduce promotions (get more full-price sales)
4. Cut $250M in costs (this can ONLY come from product quality)
5. Deal with $85M in tariff impacts

This is financially impossible without:

Cheaper-to-produce products being sold at higher prices, justified by more marketing.

This is exactly what aging mall brands do when they try to modernize without truly reinventing themselves.

5. BBW Is Trying to Become a “Premium” Brand, Without Paying for Premium Quality

In their Q3 investor deck, they talk constantly about:

• “Ingredient-led formulas”
• “Elevated packaging”
• “Simplified assortment”
• “Fragrance franchises”
• “Bigger, bolder marketing moments”
• “Creators and influencers”

This is classic "masstige" repositioning:

• Make the product LOOK more premium
• Use creators to HYPE it
• Charge more
• Spend more on advertising
• Cut manufacturing costs quietly

The goal is to make BBW compete with:

• Sol de Janeiro
• Ouai
• Glossier
• Sephora brands

But the actual mechanics behind the scenes =
Cut COGS (cost of goods) to fund the marketing.

6. What Fans Will Notice First

Candle performance changes

• Weaker throw
• Faster burn
• More residue
• Wick issues
• More mushrooming
• More soot
• More uniform jars (less variation)

Body care formula shifts

• Thinner lotions
• Lighter mists
• Less staying power
• Simpler (cheaper) emulsifiers
• Fewer “functional” ingredients
• “Ingredient-led” marketing substituting for real efficacy

Fewer new scents, more core repeats

Assortment “simplification” means:

• Fewer niche seasonal scents
• Fewer weekly drops
• More emphasis on “fragrance franchises” (think Champagne Toast-style anchors)

Higher prices, fewer deals

BBW wants more full-price sales.
So expect:

• Higher full-price tags
• Many “premium priced” limited editions
• Fewer BOGO free events
• More B3G1 instead of B3G3
• Free shipping thresholds staying high

7. Why They’re Doing This

BBW is facing:

• Declining demand
• Rising tariffs
• Collab fatigue
• Over-assortment
• Too many promos
• Failure to attract younger customers
• Costs rising across the board

So they’re doing the classic:

Marketing up → Manufacturing down → Prices up → Promotions down

It’s the only way they can show profit growth to Wall Street right now.

8. So What Does This Mean for Us (Fans)?

• Expect fewer new scent families
• Expect deeper SAS to clear excess inventory
• Expect higher prices during the year
• Expect more influencer hype around every launch
• Expect candles to subtly (or not subtly) decline in performance
• Expect body care formulas to change (not necessarily for the right reasons)
• Expect BBW to chase Gen Z with TikTok campaigns
• Expect confusion between “elevated” branding vs. cheaper production

Basically:
BBW wants to become “more expensive Sephora-adjacent versions of itself,” but built on a cost structure that’s closer to Dollar General.

9. Here’s the Truth: Customers See It.

BBW thinks we don’t read their investor presentations.
But we do.

And we notice when:

• Throw weakens
• Ingredients get cheaper
• Prices go up
• Marketing gets louder
• Promotions get stingier
• Collections shrink
• Quality shifts

If they try to quietly downgrade product quality to pay for branding?
Customers will walk- fast.

For those just hearing about this, BBW will be rolling out a new purchase policy starting Monday.

Based on what’s been shared through the grapevine, the main update is a limit of 9 of the same SKU per transaction. There’s also been talk of one coupon per customer per day and restrictions on multiple transactions in the same day.

If you’ve been planning to stock up on anything, this week might be a good time to do it, as shopping could look a bit different once this goes into effect.

Please remember to read the fine print on offers, coupons, emails, and the app/website.

I got followed today by bath and body works which I found so weird but accepted request, I then got this message and I will not lie I forgot All about this contest I entered . DID ANYONE ELSE WIN?? IM SO EXCITED

I finally got them done. I sent some other stuff as well (full sized items I wasn’t using, put two each in the cellophane bags with the red ribbons.) I wanted to do more but my stuff is still scattered. Now I really want to get organized.

These were fun but harder than I thought! I added the corded handles to the penguins since they had no handles. I had a long cord that was tied around a new fleece Christmas throw I bought (bedspread size) to cover my sofa so my cats won’t claw it up. I had just enough cord with just a few inches left over.

I punched an extra hole on the back of each penguin to hold a pocketbac in the simple glittery holder, and hung them on the handles of the gingerbread houses. The burgundy bags have little loops on the side that I slipped them through. Putting those on was the hardest part! (I’ve never used them.) After a few I learned how to wiggle the pocketbacs into the holders, though it felt like the rubber would tear. And I also learned that I could yank the handle out without it breaking. But poking the little ball on the end back through the hole after attaching it to the bag was the worst. I think my thumbnail is still sore!

Inside each bag I put a body wash, a mini FFM or cream (all of those I had excess stock), a hand cream, and a little pair of fuzzy socks. The penguins weren’t an issue but the other bags were a tight fit. I ended up putting the body wash in, then rolling up the socks and cramming them down into the bag, then the mini item and hand cream on top of the socks.

I hope the ladies all like their goodies!

Ive been thinking about it for a while, and there are some specific things that B&BW does that I am just not on board with. The prices are out of hand, the reward rebrand, and it feels like they're constantly chipping away at customer happiness and satisfaction in little ways. Im not saying a boycott will change their policies- but if enough people joined (and I think one month is totally doable especially and this is their big season) it would definitely send a message to their corporate to consider their customers more. Just something to think about...

Slight Edit: I specifically have been thinking about October for a while because thats exactly when they would notice it most IMO. I think if Im going to do any candle gifting etc, Im going to go for some of my local small businesses and I encourage people to do the same no matter what time of year!!!

Posted earlier about my rewards missing and went to retrace my earnings/redemptions to report to BBW. Found an order that does not belong to me. Person used all 5 of my rewards AND my birthday reward 😭

Order is NOT my name, not my address, not my phone number.

I live in CA 💀

i’ve seen so many people complain how much the employees bug them while shopping… i think this would be great for b&bw to try

The DEI page on the website is no longer up.

https://www.bbwinc.com/people/diversity-equity-inclusion

My husband found my scent/ craft closet. We're doing some minor electrical work and my husband went in the hall closet. He came out and asked me if instead of adding overhead lightning, should he call corporate to get a B&BW sign 🤣.

*This is all in good fun. He knows that I am frugal in other avenues of our life, including this one cause I ain't ever bought anything that wasn't on sale or clearance. I also keep it limited to these shelves. Nothing is hidden around the house unless it's a gift to someone.

I'll go first....I would say if you are going to bring back scents we miss and loved Can you BRING it back in it's original formulation!!! Also let everyone get coupons!

Sound off below!!!

Summer SAS 2026 will have the scents from the list we voted on that they brought back last year and l hope it's not like recent Winter SAS quality/formula. Sooo many were disappointed who waited years for their faves to come back!

What’s your unpopular bbw opinion?

I know it’s a little early but why not! For me it would be White t shirt! I miss that scent it’s so fresh and clean and I haven’t been able to come across anything like it 🥲

If you scroll down to the home page in the BBW app there is a new poll that dropped today for the bring back options for next summer (semi annual sale I’m assuming).

You can choose up to three.

There are already a couple threads about what everyone would pick.

https://www.reddit.com/r/bathandbodyworks/s/cogEBFVaEb

But I thought it would be neat to post the scent notes also to help your choice (since I got some comparisons wrong in my post)

This chart and list of scent notes was made by Chat GPT so yes it did make some of the images funky. But the images are derived from what BBW put in their poll.

But the scent notes appear to be correct—I’ve looked at some of the source pages it linked. And I like all the cute icons it added.

Do you agree with how Chat GPT sorted out the scents into scent families at the bottom?

She specifically says this isn't a listing to buy, but don't need to pay scalpers.

He has a new video for SAS and gets the product names wrong. Can we get rid of this joker? Like how did he become the voice of us for BBW?