I recently saw a photo on Facebook that I thought might be important to address. (See the photo here.) It's all about diversion, a huge topic in the beauty community. In case you had never heard of the term, diversion occurs when a beauty product is purchased at a professional distributor and then resold or "diverted" to an unauthorized retailer. This can be referred to as the "gray market". You might be wondering, is this legal? In so many words, there are no laws specifically against it, but there can be serious consequences to individuals who divert the products.
When I was traveling to Mexico, I was seated next to the owners of the salon, Mane Gallery, in Omaha, NE. We got into quite the discussion about it, as more products are appearing on the shelves of Walgreens, Target, Walmart, and the like. From my discussions with them, many nail care companies including, Essie, OPI, and Nicole polishes have developed contracts with these retailers... it increases the market for these products. However, you need to be very weary of purchasing other beauty products from these retailers!
The big question is why? There are so many reasons...
- Products may be counterfeit. I know that this occurred several years ago with TIGI products when I was working in the industry.
- Many of the products do not contain all of the product. You could be buying a bottle of shampoo that is a fourth empty!
- Products might be altered... Sometimes individuals who divert products will replace missing product with water so that the product appears to be full.
- Check the expiration date. Many of these products are expired.
- The effects of diversion can be felt by stylists, distributors, and manufactures.
No comments:
Post a Comment