Blueberry Sugar Pancakes. One Storyteller’s Déjà Vu Encounter with a 90’s Icon.

As the mother of three girls (10, 9, and 6), I find myself spending a lot of time at the nearby mall. It’s a pretty awesome mall. Open air and spacious, it’s fun to simply wander around and pop into stores unplanned.

On a recent Saturday, my girls, a few of their friends, and I were wandering the mall when one friend asked to stop by a certain store. I was surprised by the choice, and equally as surprised by the palpable excitement that passed through the group. “Really?” I thought, “that store is still around?” As we entered, I was hit with an immense sensory assault—it was loud; darkly lit; stuffed with people; and stuffed with product. Shelves, buckets, and bins were incongruously packed with various sizes and shapes of bottles, jars, and tubes. Yet of all the assaults on my senses, the smell had the greatest punch. It was an olfactory overload! The girls wandered the aisles like fiends—trying different scents and counting their precious money to discern just how much stuff they could buy. I had no idea this store had made such a comeback! I got so overwhelmed that I had to excuse myself and wait outside.

The store was Bath & Body Works.

Just standing in the store, I was taken WAY back to my high school days. As a GenXer, the wave of nostalgia was fierce. When I was in high school, a Bath & Body Works (BBW for now) opened in the mall the next town over. Filled with reasonably priced lotions and candles, it stood adjacent to my favorite clothing retailer at the time, Express. BBW served a niche in a market where no one allowed people to test products before buying. But BBW encouraged it by putting out a welcoming “try me!” bottles of every lotion, soap, candle, and spritz. They were also masters of the “Buy Two, Get One Free” promotion that gobbled up all my babysitting money each week.

Back then, Country Apple, Plumeria, Sweet Pea, and Freesia were easily the top scents being shared amongst myself and my friends. Today, the sheer variety of scents is astounding—BBW claims to have nearly 140 various scents available in a store at any given time. These scents are coveted, as people passionately await the re-release of seasonal varieties. In fact, some original scents are still so popular that BBW will announce limited releases of retired favorites, like Oahu Coconut Sunset, Love & Sunshine, even Plumeria.

*Vintage Images from the year BBW opened.

So just how successful is BBW?

BBW By the Numbers

Starting in 1990, BBW steadily grew to a size of more than 1,600 stores across the U.S. and 80 stores all over the world, including locations in Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, and Thailand. BBW generated net sales of $7.88 billion in 2021, up from $6.43 billion the previous year.

But, like most other businesses, 2020 proved an incredibly challenging year.

The year of the pandemic and people’s inability to shop in person hit BBW hard. In fact, the company was forced to close 50 stores over the summer of 2020. Yet interestingly, once restrictions were lifted, BBW soared. The company racked up $3.7 billion in sales by October, up nearly 20 percent from October 2019. (For context, Ulta was down 20 percent in that same timeframe).

So what drove their popularity? Besides people generally seeking creature comforts, sales of their soaps and hand sanitizers skyrocketed (makes sense, right?). In fact, web sales saw an increase of 85 percent to become a $300 million business in 2020 from just $100 million in 2019.

After all, who wouldn’t opt for smelling like Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin or Crisp Morning Air over more pedestrian hand sanitizers?

The Other Kate

A really interesting fact that I learned as I researched this blog—the company created a fictional founder, named “Kate,” to better reflect BBW’s “downhome” style. Though most customers never heard of her, Kate’s story was told to employees so they could always stay on brand. Each BBW store was seen as “Kate’s home,” and employees were asked to treat customers as guests. They were greeted with a smile, encouraged to stay as long as they wanted, and pampered with the latest BBW products.

There are probably several variations of the “Kate” story, but here is one version I found online:

Kate grew up on a farm in the Midwest and loved to make her own beauty products using the natural ingredients she found around the farm. She went to college and majored in biology so she could learn more about the beneficial properties of these natural ingredients. When she graduated, she decided to open up her own store to sell her homemade, natural beauty products. Thus BBW was born!

About the Scents

So what would this fictional Kate try to sell you? With new scents being launched every month, the rotating inventory is impressive. In fact, the brand created America's #1 Fragrance collection—Japanese Cherry Blossom—in 2006 and sells more than 30 million products each year. But what does it smell like?

According to their website:

The fragrance equivalent of your little black dress—beautiful, timeless and undeniably feminine. Fragrance notes: Japanese cherry blossom, Asian pear, fresh mimosa petals, white jasmine, and blushing sandalwood.

Blueberry Sugar Pancakes

In the car returning home from the mall that day, the assault to my nostrils continued as all the girls took turns spritzing themselves, each other—and invariably me—with their newly acquired scents.

Yet, as the day came to a close, I cuddled with my oldest, Everleigh, and our dog, Sunny. Funnily enough, Everleigh and the dog both smelled delicious. “Why in the world do you smell so good right now?” I asked her in earnest. She laughed, “It’s my new BBW scent: Blueberry Sugar Pancakes.” I couldn’t believe it. She smelled like heaven (and not at all edible).

So how does BBW describe Blueberry Sugar Pancakes?

Fruity, sweet, decadent hotcakes. Fragrance notes: sugared blueberries, fresh pancakes, and caramel cream drizzle.

After that day, my perspective on BBW changed completely. I was converted. I’ve now dabbled in my own scent exploration, but have centered my search on more home fragrance elements—air fresheners and soaps. And what is my favorite scent, currently? Sweater Weather. So, what does it smell like?

A cool fall day in your favorite knit. Fragrance notes: sun-crisped apple, autumn leaves, and orchard woods.

Obviously I can anticipate my precious Sweater Weather lasting only as long as the fall season. I wonder what my new favorite winter scent will be? Probably something with a crisp pine scent…