Stolen Beauty Victory: Costco Feels the Love
In mid-December Rula Borelli, prompted by a friend who brought her attention to the fact that AHAVA products were on sale at Costco, sent a letter to the company asking them to remove AHAVA from their shelves, explaining about AHAVA’s illegal practices and the Stolen Beauty boycott campaign against them. Borelli then started a Facebook group called “Ask Costco to remove AHAVA from their shelves,” thinking that she could mobilize more people to contact Costco via the social networking site.
Borelli, who lives in Seattle, used the group, which soon grew to over 200 members, to bombard Costco with messages about AHAVA. She also encouraged the group’s members to join Costco’s fan page on Facebook where they posted messages about AHAVA to be read by Costco fans.
Borelli and others received non-committal formal replies from Costco representatives for almost a month. They were undaunted and continued sending messages to the company, until finally, in the second week of January, Borelli received a reply from a company representative saying:
“These items are pending delete in our system and once they have sold they are no longer available. Your concerns have been forwarded to our corporate offices.”
A search of the Costco online store for AHAVA turns up no results. But Borelli and her team of online organizers have turned up great results for the Stolen Beauty boycott campaign with their group efforts. No more AHAVA at Costco!
Join Rula’s “Ask Costco to remove AHAVA from their shelves” group and join the “Stolen Beauty AHAVA Boycott” Facebook group. You can follow The Stolen Beauty campaign on Twitter. Or go to Stolen Beauty for more information on our work towards a just and sustainable peace for Israelis and Palestinians.
Tags: Ahava, Israel, Palestine, Stolen Beauty
January 21st, 2010 at 10:36 pm
Costco carried these items as part of a holiday promotion- they aren’t carrying Christmas wreaths anymore, but that isn’t a political decison either.
Its kind of silly to take credit for this- if you speak to Costco management, they say certain items are just seasonal.
I really liked the Ahava hand cream, btw, and it was cheaper at Costco then anywhere else. Now I need to get it on line. Next Christmas, I’ll have to stock up.
February 20th, 2010 at 9:27 pm
I have been a Costco member for 13 years. I was in my local Costco today (Waltham, MA) and saw dried dates from Israel (they have been there for months and I just noticed the label today) and a new specialty orange also from Israel. That caused me to google it and I have found reports of them also selling Israeli makeup, tangerines, and peppers. Apparently Costco specializes in Israeli products.
I am going to go there tomorrow and terminate my membership explaining exactly why. I will bring a picture of one of the children that Israel split open in Gaza to make my point crystal clear. I will also send a letter to corporate headquarters. That’s $100 per year in membership and $3700 in purchases I spent last year that they will not see from me. I don’t expect them to care about me, but if others join we CAN make a difference. Please help. Thank you.