vox--2020-12-17--The Lost Year: A woman, an injured baby pig, and a series of revelations

This is The Lost Year , a series of stories about our lived experiences in 2020 , as told to Vox critic at large Emily VanDerWerff .
Emily works as a communications manager for a small consulting firm and lives just outside of Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania .
She was used to working from home , so when quarantine began , it didn ’ t cause a major shift for her .
She had realized her marriage was over in late 2019 , and 2020 had already kicked off with significant changes in her life .
Quarantine wasn ’ t one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the world shut down for the year , Emily found herself adopting a tiny injured pig and nursing it back to health , until it could be returned to live with the other pigs on the farm where it was born .
I don ’ t know what else I could say to better set up this story , except that I hope you ’ ll read it .
The way she told it when I spoke to her blew me away .
So here ’ s Emily ’ s story , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I ’ ve been volunteering at this small organic farm outside of Pittsburgh for about five years .
I think I ’ m helping , but mostly it ’ s showing up and playing in the dirt and hoping that I don ’ t make their lives harder .
This past summer , I showed up to pick up some vegetables , and the couple who runs the farm , Greg and Jen , said , “ We ’ re doing chores .
You want to come with us ?
” They were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ water to a pig who had just given birth the previous week on the side of a hill and couldn ’ t make a wallow .
It was over 90 degrees outside , and she was terribly uncomfortable .
She had crushed one of her piglets .
Greg pointed to the piglet and said , “ That one ’ s probably not going to make it.
” I think my face was like , [ makes sad face ] .
He said , “ Or we could take him in a bucket up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bottle-feed him.
” I said , “ I want to do that.
” The pig was so in shock that he wouldn ’ t even feed .
I sat there and held him in my lap while he shook .
Greg and Jen came up to me and asked if I wanted to bring him home and see if I could get him through the weekend , so we could hopefully reunite him with his mom .
But by the time he was well enough to try to integrate with the herd , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ He didn ’ t recognize his mom , and she didn ’ t recognize him .
He kept running away from her to try to get to me .
I thought I had ruined this pig .
We decided we would try to reintegrate him once he could eat solid food .
In the meantime , I had him for seven weeks .
I spent the first few nights in the shower stall at my parents ’ house with him .
( I ’ m separated from my husband and living with my @ @ @ @ @ @ @ parents ’ porch , carrying a crate that ’ s making noise .
And I told them , “ He ’ ll be here for at least four days , and we ’ ll see if he turns around.
” But this is a thing that I do .
My parents were like , “ What is it now ?
What tiny , wounded animal is it now ?
” I named him Franklin .
I tried on a lot of names .
Jean-Paul was in the running , and so was Hamilton @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the cultural reference .
But I yelled for him so often when he was getting into trouble .
He needed a yellable name .
And Franklin was very cute and also very pig-like and also very yellable .
Franklin graduated from the shower stall to a dog crate on the porch right outside the window , so he could look inside to the kitchen and see me .
But if I wanted to work from home , I couldn ’ t let him see me , because he ’ d start yelling for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ my office into the kitchen , so he couldn ’ t see me .
When he was a little bigger , he graduated to a dog crate under the porch .
So I was just working remotely on my laptop in my parents ’ yard with this little pig rooting around in the grass .
And every night , he would curl up in my lap before I tucked him into bed .
It was really sweet .
I ’ d sing to him .
Talk to him .
It was really special @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is that he ended up dying of uncertain causes in November .
After seven weeks with me and a few months on the farm , after he was reintegrated with the rest of the pigs , Greg found him in the pig hut , curled up with everybody else , warm and cozy but not breathing .
They had gotten seven tons of watermelon and cucumber delivered the previous day , and he was mowing into this whole watermelon by himself .
The list of possible causes of death is very long , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ate himself to death , then died peacefully in a warm cave with his brothers and sisters .
At least that ’ s what I ’ m pretending to tell myself .
I talked about Franklin in therapy a lot .
This experience was definitely a rehashing of a story that has happened over and over in my life — me showing up with a box with a wounded animal in it at my parents ’ house and them being like , “ Here she goes again.
” That was a part of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and hidden from people as this dark secret .
I tried to nurse animals back to health , and I inevitably ended up failing .
The animal would die , and then I fear I only extended its suffering .
I had a teacher once tell me a story : Her first husband told her he didn ’ t want to be married to her .
He dropped her off at her parents ’ house .
She spent weeks lying on her childhood bed , and her mom would come in and hold @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and lie next to her .
Her mom had a cat , and the first relationship my teacher built after her husband left was with this cat .
That ’ s how she learned to trust again .
I decided to leave my husband about a year ago .
And I remember trying to imagine my life a year from then .
I did not picture picking up a pig out of my parents ’ shower stall and singing to him and trying to get him to latch onto a bottle and mixing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to try to get him to eat .
The night before I brought Franklin back to the farm , he was sleeping in my lap .
I told him , “ I don ’ t think I told you that I was married.
” I just started to cry .
There was this moment of being alone again , this problem of doing the right thing .
Maybe that ’ s how Covid-19 feels , too .
We ’ re isolating ourselves to do the right thing , but we ’ re all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ re seeking companionship in these very odd ways .
We ’ re talking over Zoom .
I ’ m cradling a pig .
I saw one morning that I had missed Greg ’ s call , and I knew immediately that Franklin had died .
It wasn ’ t a text with an update .
It wasn ’ t a photo update .
I knew he was calling me to tell me Franklin had died .
When I talked to him , he said , “ Our friend has gone on to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And he said , “ I think he ate himself to death.
” I laughed about that because that ’ s objectively a funny way to go .
And as I was laughing , I said , “ I ’ m very sad , and I ’ m going to cry about this.
” And he said , “ Me too .
What do you want me to do with him ?
” Greg has only buried two other pigs on the farm before , but Franklin was buried that day .
Greg @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
I said , “ I can ’ t ask you to hang on to a pig body until I ’ m ready .
Do the burial.
” So Greg buried Franklin in the woods under a tree .
And I cried in the shower about this pig .
But as I was trying to make sense of it , I thought , I ’ m so glad I didn ’ t have to make another hard decision .
This whole process of taking him home , deciding to try to reintegrate him @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fail , seeing him run to me because I was his mom , thinking I had ruined this pig , finally reintegrating him , finally healing so he looked happy and healthy , then he passed away .
And we didn ’ t have to decide whether we were prolonging his suffering .
He died the day after Community Supported Agriculture season was over .
[ CSA is a program where individuals subscribe to a service that offers produce from independent farms . ]
It ’ s like he knew he was alive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the CSA members were coming in and interacting with him , and the next night he passed away .
It was as if he was like , “ Okay , you guys seem to enjoy this , so I ’ m gon na keep hanging on .
But now I ’ m done .
This has been a wild ride.
” One of the first things that Greg said when I decided to take Franklin home was that farming is so hard that hope is costly .
And sometimes it ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people come in , that they can see and help out in a new way and be creative and intervene in a way that my friends don ’ t have space for .
They ’ re terribly kind people , but they have to be quite a bit more practical .
But he said it ’ s nice to be reminded to hope .
It felt like it ’ s possible to do the right thing and have it be the hard thing .
It ’ s possible to do the right thing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I told a friend , “ I would do it again because I don ’ t learn.
” But I don ’ t think that ’ s true .
I think I am replaying the same lesson over and over again because I have to keep learning this lesson .
That lesson is not that this is superfluous or silly or that I have these inclinations because I ’ m a silly girl who can ’ t be realistic .
Sometimes that thing still gets taken away from you .
A thing disappears @ @ @ @ @ @ @ walk away .
That doesn ’ t mean it was wasted .
It ’ s such a silly way of looking at things to believe that love or care can be wasted .
But that ’ s also not an excuse to stay in a bad situation !
In my past , that idea of “ your love is never wasted ” is an idea that I ’ ve played out as a way to stay in places that were harmful to me .
Not accidentally , not as a way of being @ @ @ @ @ @ @ me in a way that hurt me , and I just kept staying because I believed it was my job to care for them .
Part of this story is that I left church at the same time I left my marriage .
Because of that experience , I ’ ve had such a difficult time thinking in spiritual ways or in these cosmic , redemptive ways , because those things felt familiar in a way that wasn ’ t comforting anymore .
But there was a meteor shower in August , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
So several of us stayed up until 2 or 3 in the morning .
I had the pig .
He was sleeping in the crook of my arm .
And the rest of us were socially distant lying in this field on this organic farm in Pittsburgh , watching the stars all over the sky and listening to classic rock on Spotify .
It ’ s a lot easier to believe that everything is holy lying in a field under the stars with good people and a pig sleeping in the crook @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t wasted .
To say that something good is wasted because it didn ’ t last ...
I don ’ t know .
I tend to make things into lessons .
I ’ m perpetually trying to impose meaning on everything .
Also , it didn ’ t have to mean anything .
Maybe it was just a nice thing that happened .
Or maybe , sometimes , you bottle-feed a pig for two months and he still dies .
It ’ s out of your control .
There ’ s a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it .
That feels like an important lesson to me .
Next : Non-monogamy , Zoom sex , and the agonizing wait to kiss your partner .

This is The Lost Year, a series of stories about our lived experiences in 2020, as told to Vox critic at large Emily VanDerWerff.
Emily works as a communications manager for a small consulting firm and lives just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She was used to working from home, so when quarantine began, it didn’t cause a major shift for her. She had realized her marriage was over in late 2019, and 2020 had already kicked off with significant changes in her life. Quarantine wasn’t one of them.
But as the rest of the world shut down for the year, Emily found herself adopting a tiny injured pig and nursing it back to health, until it could be returned to live with the other pigs on the farm where it was born.
I don’t know what else I could say to better set up this story, except that I hope you’ll read it. The way she told it when I spoke to her blew me away.
So here’s Emily’s story, as she told it to me.
I’ve been volunteering at this small organic farm outside of Pittsburgh for about five years. I think I’m helping, but mostly it’s showing up and playing in the dirt and hoping that I don’t make their lives harder.
This past summer, I showed up to pick up some vegetables, and the couple who runs the farm, Greg and Jen, said, “We’re doing chores. You want to come with us?” They were going to cart gallons and gallons of water to a pig who had just given birth the previous week on the side of a hill and couldn’t make a wallow. It was over 90 degrees outside, and she was terribly uncomfortable.
She had crushed one of her piglets. Greg pointed to the piglet and said, “That one’s probably not going to make it.” I think my face was like, [makes sad face]. He said, “Or we could take him in a bucket up to the house, and you could bottle-feed him.” I said, “I want to do that.”
The pig was so in shock that he wouldn’t even feed. I sat there and held him in my lap while he shook. Greg and Jen came up to me and asked if I wanted to bring him home and see if I could get him through the weekend, so we could hopefully reunite him with his mom. But by the time he was well enough to try to integrate with the herd, two or three weeks had passed. He didn’t recognize his mom, and she didn’t recognize him. He kept running away from her to try to get to me. I thought I had ruined this pig.
We decided we would try to reintegrate him once he could eat solid food. In the meantime, I had him for seven weeks. I spent the first few nights in the shower stall at my parents’ house with him. (I’m separated from my husband and living with my parents.) I walked onto my parents’ porch, carrying a crate that’s making noise. And I told them, “He’ll be here for at least four days, and we’ll see if he turns around.” But this is a thing that I do. My parents were like, “What is it now? What tiny, wounded animal is it now?”
I named him Franklin. I tried on a lot of names. Jean-Paul was in the running, and so was Hamilton, both for the pun and for the cultural reference. But I yelled for him so often when he was getting into trouble. He needed a yellable name. And Franklin was very cute and also very pig-like and also very yellable.
Franklin graduated from the shower stall to a dog crate on the porch right outside the window, so he could look inside to the kitchen and see me. But if I wanted to work from home, I couldn’t let him see me, because he’d start yelling for me. I had to army-crawl from my office into the kitchen so he couldn’t see me.
When he was a little bigger, he graduated to a dog crate under the porch. So I was just working remotely on my laptop in my parents’ yard with this little pig rooting around in the grass. And every night, he would curl up in my lap before I tucked him into bed. It was really sweet. I’d sing to him. Talk to him. It was really special.
The sad part of this story is that he ended up dying of uncertain causes in November. After seven weeks with me and a few months on the farm, after he was reintegrated with the rest of the pigs, Greg found him in the pig hut, curled up with everybody else, warm and cozy but not breathing.
They had gotten seven tons of watermelon and cucumber delivered the previous day, and he was mowing into this whole watermelon by himself. The list of possible causes of death is very long, but we like to think that he ate himself to death, then died peacefully in a warm cave with his brothers and sisters. At least that’s what I’m pretending to tell myself.
I talked about Franklin in therapy a lot. This experience was definitely a rehashing of a story that has happened over and over in my life — me showing up with a box with a wounded animal in it at my parents’ house and them being like, “Here she goes again.” That was a part of myself that I have felt ashamed of and hidden from people as this dark secret. I tried to nurse animals back to health, and I inevitably ended up failing. The animal would die, and then I would fear I had only extended its suffering.
I had a teacher once tell me a story: Her first husband told her he didn’t want to be married to her. He dropped her off at her parents’ house. She spent weeks lying on her childhood bed, and her mom would come in and hold her hand, not saying anything, and lie next to her. Her mom had a cat, and the first relationship my teacher built after her husband left was with this cat. That’s how she learned to trust again.
I decided to leave my husband about a year ago. And I remember trying to imagine my life a year from then. I did not picture picking up a pig out of my parents’ shower stall and singing to him and trying to get him to latch onto a bottle and mixing up a pumpkin puree in Greek yogurt to try to get him to eat.
The night before I brought Franklin back to the farm, he was sleeping in my lap. I told him, “I don’t think I told you that I was married.” I just started to cry. There was this moment of being alone again, this problem of doing the right thing. Maybe that’s how Covid-19 feels, too. We’re isolating ourselves to do the right thing, but we’re all suffering because of it. We’re seeking companionship in these very odd ways. We’re talking over Zoom. I’m cradling a pig.
I saw one morning that I had missed Greg’s call, and I knew immediately that Franklin had died. It wasn’t a text with an update. It wasn’t a photo update. I knew he was calling me to tell me Franklin had died. When I talked to him, he said, “Our friend has gone on to the great feed trough in the sky.” And he said, “I think he ate himself to death.”
I laughed about that because that’s objectively a funny way to go. And as I was laughing, I said, “I’m very sad, and I’m going to cry about this.” And he said, “Me too. What do you want me to do with him?” Greg has only buried two other pigs on the farm before, but Franklin was buried that day. Greg asked if I wanted to join him. I said, “I can’t ask you to hang on to a pig body until I’m ready. Do the burial.” So Greg buried Franklin in the woods under a tree. And I cried in the shower about this pig.
But as I was trying to make sense of it, I thought, I’m so glad I didn’t have to make another hard decision. This whole process of taking him home, deciding to try to reintegrate him with the herd, realizing that would fail, seeing him run to me because I was his mom, thinking I had ruined this pig, finally reintegrating him, finally healing so he looked happy and healthy, then he passed away. And we didn’t have to decide whether we were prolonging his suffering.
He died the day after Community Supported Agriculture season was over. [CSA is a program where individuals subscribe to a service that offers produce from independent farms.] It’s like he knew he was alive for us. One day, all of the CSA members were coming in and interacting with him, and the next night he passed away. It was as if he was like, “Okay, you guys seem to enjoy this, so I’m gonna keep hanging on. But now I’m done. This has been a wild ride.”
One of the first things that Greg said when I decided to take Franklin home was that farming is so hard that hope is costly. And sometimes it’s nice to be reminded, when other people come in, that they can see and help out in a new way and be creative and intervene in a way that my friends don’t have space for. They’re terribly kind people, but they have to be quite a bit more practical. But he said it’s nice to be reminded to hope.
It felt like it’s possible to do the right thing and have it be the hard thing. It’s possible to do the right thing and have a thing end anyway. I told a friend, “I would do it again because I don’t learn.” But I don’t think that’s true. I think I am replaying the same lesson over and over again because I have to keep learning this lesson. That lesson is not that this is superfluous or silly or that I have these inclinations because I’m a silly girl who can’t be realistic.
Sometimes that thing still gets taken away from you. A thing disappears, or it’s time to walk away. That doesn’t mean it was wasted. It’s such a silly way of looking at things to believe that love or care can be wasted. But that’s also not an excuse to stay in a bad situation! In my past, that idea of “your love is never wasted” is an idea that I’ve played out as a way to stay in places that were harmful to me. Not accidentally, not as a way of being, but that people were taking from me in a way that hurt me, and I just kept staying because I believed it was my job to care for them.
Part of this story is that I left church at the same time I left my marriage. Because of that experience, I’ve had such a difficult time thinking in spiritual ways or in these cosmic, redemptive ways, because those things felt familiar in a way that wasn’t comforting anymore.
But there was a meteor shower in August, and it was very visible from the farm. So several of us stayed up until 2 or 3 in the morning. I had the pig. He was sleeping in the crook of my arm. And the rest of us were socially distant lying in this field on this organic farm in Pittsburgh, watching the stars all over the sky and listening to classic rock on Spotify. It’s a lot easier to believe that everything is holy lying in a field under the stars with good people and a pig sleeping in the crook of your arm.
Those moments aren’t wasted. To say that something good is wasted because it didn’t last ... I don’t know. I tend to make things into lessons. I’m perpetually trying to impose meaning on everything. Also, it didn’t have to mean anything. Maybe it was just a nice thing that happened.
Or maybe, sometimes, you bottle-feed a pig for two months and he still dies. It’s out of your control. There’s a different kind of surrender that comes with it. That feels like an important lesson to me.
Next: Non-monogamy, Zoom sex, and the agonizing wait to kiss your partner


vox--2020-12-17--One company thriving in the pandemic? Bath & Body Works.

In a dying mall in New York ’ s Hudson Valley , all the department store anchors are gone ; Dick ’ s Sporting Goods is the biggest store now .
The carpeted interior of the mall is eerily quiet , with empty , barred storefronts everywhere .
But at noon on December 4 , Bath & Body Works was abuzz .
After all , it was Candle Day , the scented sale bacchanalia it holds the first week of every December .
I was hoping to pick up a “ Fresh Balsam ” candle , which smells like 10,000 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ jar .
The store was teeming with about a dozen masked people , many carrying the cardboard crates the store provides for lugging around bulky candles .
I can tell you from experience that you can smell the fragrances through a mask just fine .
A salesperson told me seven people were lined up to get in when the store opened at 6 am .
On Candle Day , Bath & Body Works ’ famous $ 24.50 three-wicks , in scents like “ Twisted Peppermint ” and “ Champagne Toast , ” are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ $ 9.95 this year .
Candle Day lasted a full weekend in stores this year , but just one day online .
Historically , fans load up their online carts the night before and click “ buy ” as soon as the sale hits .
True diehards show up in person to try to maximize their hauls .
Many retailers have struggled in 2020 , but Bath & Body Works is thriving .
By the end of October , it racked up $ 3.7 billion in sales , which is up almost 20 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ same time last year .
It did that despite its over 1,600 stores being closed for weeks , followed by occupancy limits imposed on shoppers for Covid safety reasons .
For context , beauty retailer Ulta saw its sales decrease by 20 percent for the first nine months of this year compared to the same period in 2019 .
Since its founding in 1990 , Bath & Body Works has been a perennial favorite .
But this year in particular , the devotion is striking .
It has a foundation of built-up good @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of any similar close competitors .
It also has a savvy discounting strategy , like Candle Day , that constantly drives customers to stores looking for deals .
And crucially in 2020 , it has the sheer luck of selling the very things that people are craving during this pandemic : cozy candles , hand soap , and sanitizer .
“ They have items that are very broad penetration , which means many , many people are willing to buy that , ” says Barbara Kahn , a professor of marketing at Wharton @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sweet spot .
And then when you add on top of it a good price in a time when people are obviously facing some big economic difficulties , that ’ s a very good strategy.
” Marcy Alvarez , who lives in El Paso , Texas , was one of the pre-dawn line waiters , showing up outside her local store by 4:15 for the 5 am opening .
The store was only allowing 25 people in at a time , and she wanted to be in the first group .
She ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Days and knows the ropes .
The 28-year-old is a bartender who ’ s been out of work since March because of the pandemic and the mother to a young son .
Her husband is a frontline health care worker .
Alvarez says she doesn ’ t leave the house much lately , but she made an exception for Candle Day on December 4 .
“ If I can have one thing this year , let me have Candle Day , you know ?
” Alvarez said on a call .
During this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ make themselves feel more comfortable in their homes , that provide a means for self-care , or that they hope will keep the virus at bay .
Candles obviously fit the bill here , at a price point that ’ s considerably cheaper than a new couch .
And why wash your hands 20 times a day with utilitarian hand soap from Target or use dodgy no-name sanitizer , when you can scrub with “ Frosted Moscow Mule ” and carry “ Sunshine & Lemons ” sanitizer gel on an anthropomorphic avocado keychain @ @ @ @ @ @ @ smell a candle , that ’ s one more sign you may not have Covid . )
Bath & Body Works ’ CEO Andrew Meslow said on an earnings call in November , “ There has been , understandably , a lot of attention paid to the tremendous growth that we ’ re seeing in our soap and sanitizer business and we certainly count ourselves fortunate to be a major player in that category… ” Soap sales made up about a quarter of the brand ’ s sales this year , up from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ selling great all over since the pandemic started .
An analyst at Kline Group , a market research company , wrote in a report in August , “ Home scent products , notably candles , have become a category of comfort and escapism for housebound consumers in 2020 , moving from a desirable purchase to a quarantine essential.
” Kline notes that Bath & Body Works is a top-five home fragrance seller , along with brands like Glade , Febreze , and Yankee Candle .
So it ’ s fortuitous that Bath & @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , but the retailer has also spent decades building a model that ensures people are continually buying them .
“ The once-a-year event means the absolute best prices for customers on the largest selection of highly coveted candles – customers prep and plan ( some even dress up ) and they have adopted this day as part of their annual Christmas traditions , ” a Bath & Body Works spokesperson said in an email .
The event has been around for seven years .
Alvarez , for one , bought 20 candles this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ She burns different seasonal candles most evenings and estimates that she spends about $ 500 a year at Bath & Body Works .
( Her husband loves the body washes , too . )
She collects the brand ’ s coupons and carefully strategizes how to shop to maximize her discounts .
She recalls waiting in line for an hour during her first Candle Day , but was in and out quickly this year thanks to a pared-down Covid-19 crowd .
But that ’ s not to imply this Candle Day was a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s website crashed on and off through the day , as virtual customers flooded the site .
Bath & Body Works was founded in 1990 and is a part of L Brands , the company that includes Victoria ’ s Secret and which used to own The Limited , Express , Lane Bryant , Abercrombie & Fitch , Henri Bendel , and others .
L Brands was founded by Les Wexner , who stepped down as CEO amid questions around his long business relationship with the late accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Victoria ’ s Secret and Bath & Body Works .
Victoria ’ s Secret was formerly the powerhouse earner , but it canceled its televised fashion show last November and closed about a quarter of its stores as its hypersexualized selling tactics have become offensive and outdated .
L Brands tried to sell Victoria ’ s Secret to a private equity firm , but the deal fell apart early in the pandemic .
Bath & Body Works , growing consistently for years , is now the crown jewel .
As Racked chronicled in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Bath & Body Works has tinkered with its selling model through the years , bringing third party brands in and offering more complex fragrances .
White Barn , a more sophisticated and mature in-house brand , has been incorporated into the overall collection ; some stores have Bath & Body Works and White Barn shops side by side .
If you ’ ve never been in a Bath & Body Works store or can ’ t quite recall the assault on your nostrils when walking past one in a mall , the store @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — in lotions , hand soaps , sanitizers , home fragrance plug-ins , and candles .
( Alvarez ’ s favorite , for instance , is “ Watermelon Lemonade.
” ) The names are whimsical , the packaging is colorful , the salespeople are friendly .
The stores are not chic or cool .
They ’ re warm , inviting , and a little overstimulating .
There are classic fragrances that are always there , but much like a sneaker company or Supreme , Bath & Body Works trafficks in drops and limited @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 33 , is a recent convert to the brand , having been introduced to its candles by an ex-partner three years ago .
( He has since turned his roommate onto them . )
His most prized candle now is “ Pistachio Ice Cream , ” a retired scent that he only burns sparingly .
Tran lined up at 4:15 am at his local store in Richmond , Virginia on Candle Day , after having made a reconnoitering trip earlier in the week to make a list of his must-haves .
His roommate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ so she was on her computer early .
During his shopping trip , he says at one point a clerk screamed out , “ Just found some more ‘ Sweater Weather , ’ who wants it ?
” He picked up seven candles , but didn ’ t get everything he wanted .
“ I wasn ’ t able to get the Blueberry Maple Pancake , which I know is like a really hot ticket item , ” he said on a call .
How Bath & Body Works uses deals to keep @ @ @ @ @ @ @ advantage of being a trusted , known entity , with plenty of reasons for spontaneous trips .
“ [ Bath & Body Works ] has the consistency and nostalgia and the brand identity , but also innovation and newness , ” says Kahn , the Wharton professor .
Then there are the discounts and freebies .
Both Alvarez and Tran , the two Candle Day early risers I spoke to , stacked some of the many deals Bath & Body Works constantly offers on top of their candle discounts .
Alvarez says she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the brand .
This year it offered $ 10 off a $ 40 purchase that coincided with Candle Day .
Thanks to friends and family , she had four of these , which the store let her use by ringing her haul up as four separate purchases .
Tran also used a few of these coupons , plus got a free product .
As for me , “ Fresh Balsam ” was sold out .
As I was lamenting the lack of the piney candle I wanted , the salesperson recommended that I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at a later date to exchange it for the one I wanted once it was restocked .
Using discounting is tricky in retail .
If brands do it too often — as has been the case at struggling stores like The Gap and J .
Crew — it can be a sign of desperation and can lead to a degraded or cheapened perception of a brand ’ s image .
It also makes customers never want to pay full price if they know that eventually it will be 40 percent off .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pointed out , is what JC Penney did a few years ago .
It took away sales and implemented an “ everyday low price strategy .
The mistake is they didn ’ t give people a reason to come into the store.
” She explains that you “ need a trigger to initiate the shopping trip.
” Bath & Body Works walks this line perfectly .
Alvarez says she ’ s never paid full price for a candle .
The store discounts a lot , but in a way that allows people to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ just only flat sales .
It ’ s Candle Day , or a free lotion with a purchase , or a “ Buy 3 , Get 2 Free ” deal .
It brings people in , and they inevitably buy more than what the promotion is offering .
Tran said he made sure to buy at least five candles so that the discount would kick in .
He says of Bath & Body Works ’ appeal , “ The coupons definitely play a factor.
” There are plenty of places that sell inexpensive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them do it quite like Bath & Body Works does , and in as many places as it does .
Khiem says he tried Yankee Candle , a similar price point , but wasn ’ t impressed .
Alvarez tried to support some smaller brands but says the scents weren ’ t consistent .
“ [ Bath & Body Works ] are working on a strategy of accessibility and low price , ” says Kahn .
“ It ’ s kind of like a candy shop .
Scent is a dimension that people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ So it ’ s fun .
It ’ s pleasurable .
And that ’ s where you get fierce loyalty.
” But this is not guaranteed forever .
The majority of Bath & Body Works stores are in malls .
Department stores are dying , taking malls along with them .
By some estimates , 25 percent could close by 2025 .
If the malls that house its stores start closing , Bath & Body Works is going to have to invest in real estate elsewhere .
Then there ’ s e-commerce .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Works ’ online sales increased by 138 percent due to the pandemic .
It takes different skills , warehousing , tech , transportation , and fulfillment capabilities to be a good and efficient e-tailer .
Candle Day did not go smoothly online .
The site crashed multiple times , and there have been complaints on forums like Reddit ’ s r/bathandbodyworks from customers with confirmed orders getting messages that they weren ’ t going to be fulfilled due to products selling out .
Plus , selling scents through a computer is a different @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to read a description of the abstract fragrance “ Party Dress ” and another to stick your nose in and really experience it .
But for now , Bath & Body Works keeps collecting fans .
Alvarez says she convinced a friend to get up early to hit up Candle Day with her .
“ She told me , ‘ I want to experience a Candle Day in all of its glory with you , but I ’ m only going to get maybe five or six.
’ She walked out with 16 @ @

In a dying mall in New York’s Hudson Valley, all the department store anchors are gone; Dick’s Sporting Goods is the biggest store now. The carpeted interior of the mall is eerily quiet, with empty, barred storefronts everywhere.
But at noon on December 4, Bath & Body Works was abuzz. After all, it was Candle Day, the scented sale bacchanalia it holds the first week of every December. I was hoping to pick up a “Fresh Balsam” candle, which smells like 10,000 Christmas trees were crammed into a glass jar. The store was teeming with about a dozen masked people, many carrying the cardboard crates the store provides for lugging around bulky candles. I can tell you from experience that you can smell the fragrances through a mask just fine. A salesperson told me seven people were lined up to get in when the store opened at 6 am.
On Candle Day, Bath & Body Works’ famous $24.50 three-wicks, in scents like “Twisted Peppermint” and “Champagne Toast,” are offered for about 60 percent off — $9.95 this year. Candle Day lasted a full weekend in stores this year, but just one day online. Historically, fans load up their online carts the night before and click “buy” as soon as the sale hits. True diehards show up in person to try to maximize their hauls.
Many retailers have struggled in 2020, but Bath & Body Works is thriving. By the end of October, it racked up $3.7 billion in sales, which is up almost 20 percent compared to its sales by the same time last year. It did that despite its over 1,600 stores being closed for weeks, followed by occupancy limits imposed on shoppers for Covid safety reasons. For context, beauty retailer Ulta saw its sales decrease by 20 percent for the first nine months of this year compared to the same period in 2019.
Since its founding in 1990, Bath & Body Works has been a perennial favorite. But this year in particular, the devotion is striking. It has a foundation of built-up good will and loyalty coupled with a lack of any similar close competitors. It also has a savvy discounting strategy, like Candle Day, that constantly drives customers to stores looking for deals. And crucially in 2020, it has the sheer luck of selling the very things that people are craving during this pandemic: cozy candles, hand soap, and sanitizer.
“They have items that are very broad penetration, which means many, many people are willing to buy that,” says Barbara Kahn, a professor of marketing at Wharton. “It’s in a sweet spot. And then when you add on top of it a good price in a time when people are obviously facing some big economic difficulties, that’s a very good strategy.”
A pandemic purchasing powerhouse
Marcy Alvarez, who lives in El Paso, Texas, was one of the pre-dawn line waiters, showing up outside her local store by 4:15 for the 5 am opening. The store was only allowing 25 people in at a time, and she wanted to be in the first group. She’s been to three consecutive annual Candle Days and knows the ropes. The 28-year-old is a bartender who’s been out of work since March because of the pandemic and the mother to a young son. Her husband is a frontline health care worker. Alvarez says she doesn’t leave the house much lately, but she made an exception for Candle Day on December 4.
“If I can have one thing this year, let me have Candle Day, you know?” Alvarez said on a call.
During this pandemic, people are buying things that make themselves feel more comfortable in their homes, that provide a means for self-care, or that they hope will keep the virus at bay. Candles obviously fit the bill here, at a price point that’s considerably cheaper than a new couch. And why wash your hands 20 times a day with utilitarian hand soap from Target or use dodgy no-name sanitizer, when you can scrub with “Frosted Moscow Mule” and carry “Sunshine & Lemons” sanitizer gel on an anthropomorphic avocado keychain? (Plus, if you can smell a candle, that’s one more sign you may not have Covid.)
Bath & Body Works’ CEO Andrew Meslow said on an earnings call in November, “There has been, understandably, a lot of attention paid to the tremendous growth that we’re seeing in our soap and sanitizer business and we certainly count ourselves fortunate to be a major player in that category…” Soap sales made up about a quarter of the brand’s sales this year, up from the mid-teens.
Candles have generally been selling great all over since the pandemic started. An analyst at Kline Group, a market research company, wrote in a report in August, “Home scent products, notably candles, have become a category of comfort and escapism for housebound consumers in 2020, moving from a desirable purchase to a quarantine essential.” Kline notes that Bath & Body Works is a top-five home fragrance seller, along with brands like Glade, Febreze, and Yankee Candle.
So it’s fortuitous that Bath & Body Works sells these things, yes, but the retailer has also spent decades building a model that ensures people are continually buying them.
“The once-a-year event means the absolute best prices for customers on the largest selection of highly coveted candles – customers prep and plan (some even dress up) and they have adopted this day as part of their annual Christmas traditions,” a Bath & Body Works spokesperson said in an email. The event has been around for seven years.
The scent of success
Alvarez, for one, bought 20 candles this year, her biggest haul ever. She burns different seasonal candles most evenings and estimates that she spends about $500 a year at Bath & Body Works. (Her husband loves the body washes, too.) She collects the brand’s coupons and carefully strategizes how to shop to maximize her discounts. She recalls waiting in line for an hour during her first Candle Day, but was in and out quickly this year thanks to a pared-down Covid-19 crowd. But that’s not to imply this Candle Day was a bust — online, the brand’s website crashed on and off through the day, as virtual customers flooded the site.
Bath & Body Works was founded in 1990 and is a part of L Brands, the company that includes Victoria’s Secret and which used to own The Limited, Express, Lane Bryant, Abercrombie & Fitch, Henri Bendel, and others. L Brands was founded by Les Wexner, who stepped down as CEO amid questions around his long business relationship with the late accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
The diminished company is now down to Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works. Victoria’s Secret was formerly the powerhouse earner, but it canceled its televised fashion show last November and closed about a quarter of its stores as its hypersexualized selling tactics have become offensive and outdated. L Brands tried to sell Victoria’s Secret to a private equity firm, but the deal fell apart early in the pandemic. Bath & Body Works, growing consistently for years, is now the crown jewel.
As Racked chronicled in a 2014 feature on the brand, Bath & Body Works has tinkered with its selling model through the years, bringing third party brands in and offering more complex fragrances. White Barn, a more sophisticated and mature in-house brand, has been incorporated into the overall collection; some stores have Bath & Body Works and White Barn shops side by side.
If you’ve never been in a Bath & Body Works store or can’t quite recall the assault on your nostrils when walking past one in a mall, the store sells scents. A lot of them — in lotions, hand soaps, sanitizers, home fragrance plug-ins, and candles. (Alvarez’s favorite, for instance, is “Watermelon Lemonade.”) The names are whimsical, the packaging is colorful, the salespeople are friendly. The stores are not chic or cool. They’re warm, inviting, and a little overstimulating.
There are classic fragrances that are always there, but much like a sneaker company or Supreme, Bath & Body Works trafficks in drops and limited edition scents too. Khiem Tran, 33, is a recent convert to the brand, having been introduced to its candles by an ex-partner three years ago. (He has since turned his roommate onto them.) His most prized candle now is “Pistachio Ice Cream,” a retired scent that he only burns sparingly.
Tran lined up at 4:15 am at his local store in Richmond, Virginia on Candle Day, after having made a reconnoitering trip earlier in the week to make a list of his must-haves. His roommate was interested in online-only exclusive scents, so she was on her computer early. During his shopping trip, he says at one point a clerk screamed out, “Just found some more ‘Sweater Weather,’ who wants it?” He picked up seven candles, but didn’t get everything he wanted.
“I wasn’t able to get the Blueberry Maple Pancake, which I know is like a really hot ticket item,” he said on a call.
How Bath & Body Works uses deals to keep people coming back
The brand has the advantage of being a trusted, known entity, with plenty of reasons for spontaneous trips. “[Bath & Body Works] has the consistency and nostalgia and the brand identity, but also innovation and newness,” says Kahn, the Wharton professor.
Then there are the discounts and freebies. Both Alvarez and Tran, the two Candle Day early risers I spoke to, stacked some of the many deals Bath & Body Works constantly offers on top of their candle discounts. Alvarez says she gets emails daily or more frequently from the brand. This year it offered $10 off a $40 purchase that coincided with Candle Day. Thanks to friends and family, she had four of these, which the store let her use by ringing her haul up as four separate purchases. Tran also used a few of these coupons, plus got a free product. As for me, “Fresh Balsam” was sold out. As I was lamenting the lack of the piney candle I wanted, the salesperson recommended that I buy another scent and come back in at a later date to exchange it for the one I wanted once it was restocked.
Using discounting is tricky in retail. If brands do it too often — as has been the case at struggling stores like The Gap and J. Crew — it can be a sign of desperation and can lead to a degraded or cheapened perception of a brand’s image. It also makes customers never want to pay full price if they know that eventually it will be 40 percent off. The flip side of this, as Khan pointed out, is what JC Penney did a few years ago. It took away sales and implemented an “everyday low price strategy. The mistake is they didn’t give people a reason to come into the store.” She explains that you “need a trigger to initiate the shopping trip.”
Bath & Body Works walks this line perfectly. Alvarez says she’s never paid full price for a candle. The store discounts a lot, but in a way that allows people to gamify it. It’s never just only flat sales. It’s Candle Day, or a free lotion with a purchase, or a “Buy 3, Get 2 Free” deal. It brings people in, and they inevitably buy more than what the promotion is offering. Tran said he made sure to buy at least five candles so that the discount would kick in. He says of Bath & Body Works’ appeal, “The coupons definitely play a factor.”
How long can Bath & Body Works reign?
There are plenty of places that sell inexpensive candles and lotions. But none of them do it quite like Bath & Body Works does, and in as many places as it does. Khiem says he tried Yankee Candle, a similar price point, but wasn’t impressed. Alvarez tried to support some smaller brands but says the scents weren’t consistent.
“[Bath & Body Works] are working on a strategy of accessibility and low price,” says Kahn. “It’s kind of like a candy shop. Scent is a dimension that people relate to on a sensual level. So it’s fun. It’s pleasurable. And that’s where you get fierce loyalty.”
But this is not guaranteed forever. The majority of Bath & Body Works stores are in malls. Department stores are dying, taking malls along with them. By some estimates, 25 percent could close by 2025. If the malls that house its stores start closing, Bath & Body Works is going to have to invest in real estate elsewhere.
Then there’s e-commerce. During this year, Bath & Body Works’ online sales increased by 138 percent due to the pandemic. It takes different skills, warehousing, tech, transportation, and fulfillment capabilities to be a good and efficient e-tailer. Candle Day did not go smoothly online. The site crashed multiple times, and there have been complaints on forums like Reddit’s r/bathandbodyworks from customers with confirmed orders getting messages that they weren’t going to be fulfilled due to products selling out. Plus, selling scents through a computer is a different proposition. It’s one thing to read a description of the abstract fragrance “Party Dress” and another to stick your nose in and really experience it.
But for now, Bath & Body Works keeps collecting fans. Alvarez says she convinced a friend to get up early to hit up Candle Day with her. “She told me, ‘I want to experience a Candle Day in all of its glory with you, but I’m only going to get maybe five or six.’ She walked out with 16.”