Whether it’s the technology device they keep in their pockets (Apple vs. Android), the colas they select at the convenience store (Coke vs. Pepsi), or the coffee house they choose to visit each morning (Starbucks vs. Dunkin’), consumers develop, maintain, and express strong preferences for their favorite brands. Such exhibitions of loyalty are as clear and obvious as the noses on our faces—which brings us to yet another powerful manifestation of brand preferences. For people determined to look their best, specific formulations of beauty and personal grooming products offered by certain brands are irreplaceable. 

Many consumers spend substantial time and effort to find just the right combination of moisturizer, foundation, serums, and pimple creams to keep their skin looking great. Having done so, they appear especially devastated when beauty brands discontinue some of the items that constitute their daily beauty routine. Therefore, when those brands issue announcements of changes to their product lines—including the discontinuation of some items—many buyers rush out to buy all the limited stock available in local stores or on the brand’s site. 

Big box retailers, including Target and Walmart, might take advantage of this situation to offer the last of the inventory at steep discounts, seeking to get rid of any stock they have remaining to make room for the new, replacement items that the manufacturer likely will be introducing. On social media sites, popular videos school buyers on how to take advantage, such as by making sure to check the endcap displays in stores, to score the best chance of finding the desired items, often at a steep discount. But if there is not any inventory remaining, desperate shoppers seek an alternative.

And that’s where third-party resellers enter the game. Recognizing the potentially lucrative market for soon-to-be-discontinued product, they purposefully stockpile popular products. Arguably, these opportunistic shoppers likely are the ones paying the most attention to the how-to videos and lurking the aisles of their local stores. Once alerted to the product line contraction, they grab everything they can, with the plan to resell it at higher prices. In a successful haul, they might snag products at a steep discount from Walmart, hold on to them for a few weeks or so, and then sell them at a steep price increase. Even if they pay regular prices, real-world examples indicate that items that originally retailed for less than $10 sometimes sell for as much as $40, because brand-loyal shoppers are determined—and willing to pay—to keep using their favorite products for as long as possible. 

Some recent and exemplary cases include a rosewater hair mask sold by Pantene, specific lipstick shades produced by NARS, a type of hand soap that Dial previously promoted, and a limited-edition aftershave by Crabtree & Evelyn. As the last example implies, companies can capitalize on this demand. By designing limited-edition product lines, they encourage people (both consumers and resellers) to stock up when they can, by offering the clear indication that they will not be able to find the items again in the future. 

Such a strategy appears foundational to the distribution of Bath & Body Works products. Some of its various scents and formulations are so sought after that they inspire dedicated sections of popular resale websites, devoted solely to selling these branded, discontinued products. Far from rejecting such alternative channels, the company appears to support them implicitly, considering that they represent a continuation of a tactic it started itself, when it began listing retired scents on its website. Even now, Bath & Body Works sometimes brings back really popular fragrances for limited-edition product drops, prompting substantial sales to customer fans and opportunistic resellers. 

Discussion Questions

1. What other types of products might inspire devoted brand loyalty, opportunistic buying, and active resale markets, were they to be discontinued?
2. Could other companies use a strategy similar to Bath & Body Works’s and bring back specific, retired products for a limited time?

Sources: Steven Kurutz, “When They Stop Selling Your Favorite Thing,” The New York Times, February 21, 2025; Amanda Krause, “You Can Still Buy Retired Bath & Body Works Products Online. Here’s How,” Business Insider, March 16, 2021; Israel Salas-Rodriguez, “Target and Walmart Keep Discontinued Products in a Part of the Store You Might Miss—Where to Look So You Can Stock Up,” U.S. Sun, May 24, 2022.