LUSH reposted this
Today was a very different kind of shop visit - a visit to our closed, vandalised, looted and boarded up shop in Hull. It’s easy to be angry and sad, and don’t get me wrong I am both. I’m angry with the small number of people senselessly attacking minority groups and I’m sad for the communities that are being targeted and the harm that’s being caused. This weekend was overtaken with this - watching what was happening up and down the country, but today I was reminded of the resilience and kindness of the wonderful people within the business and outside of it. Just yesterday our store team showed up to a store that was beyond recognition to the one they left on Saturday - and within the space of 8 hours they, and their partners and friends who volunteered their support, did an amazing job of coordinating contractors, assessing the damage, cleaning up the mess caused and getting a stock order ready for our warehouse in Poole to start picking first thing this morning so that we’re up and running again as soon as possible. Today was more of the same - assessing damage, counting and double counting the stock that was left, and endless cleaning. It could have been a frustrating and thankless task, but it wasn’t. Team members rearranged shifts to be available to help. Everyone brought the same positive energy, possibly even more, that they do to work every day and it was a pleasure to work alongside them. During the day customers have been in touch with the shop and our customer care team offering to come and help, nearby businesses have offered food, coffee and support, and my personal highlight was a local person who saw us working in the store popping by with chocolate. They weren’t a regular customer of ours, they’d never met the team before, they just saw what had happened and were saddened by it and wanted to do something to help. Across the rest of the business teams have continued to rally behind our statement that All Are Welcome, Always. Our stores, warehouses and offices will be a safe space for everyone. We’re proud to be a diverse company, united against hate. There is more that unites us than divides us. To all other retailers out there who have been impacted by the riots, let us know if there’s anything we can do to help. Thank you to the wonderful people who have supported us, all of team Lush Hull for the amazing work they’ve done, Sarah Scott and Rebecca Meara, our H&S and Maintenance managers who pulled out all the stops to do everything possible to support over the weekend and to be on site today and Kasey Swithenbank, Head of Retail who supported and coordinated the retail recovery over the weekend and from store today and Abi Herbert our Wellbeing PR specialist for being on site today with press and getting involved in the clean up. Our thanks also to Simply Solutions (Europe) and Nicole in particular. There are so many others who have done so much to support directly and to check in and offer kindness - thank you.
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