Crisis Strategy Brief: Burlington Caught Allegedly Selling Expired Jeffree Star Cosmetics

Description Of The Issue

Recently, Burlington (formerly known as Burlington Coat Factory), was caught allegedly selling expired and stolen Jeffree Star cosmetics. It all started on Twitter where a girl posted a picture of a Jeffree Star lipstick she said was found in Burlington, tagging Jeffree Star himself. Star responded that the product was expired and stolen. He later went to Snapchat and Instagram to talk about the scandal with his followers, reiterating that his products are not sold in discount stores like Burlington or TJ Maxx. Jeffree Star then alluded on Twitter that Burlington might have a lawsuit coming their way from his team (yikes!).

Read this post for more details: Jeffree Star calls out retailer for stolen makeup sales.

My Opinion

This is a very crazy situation and I definitely agree with Jeffree Star when he questions how Burlington could allow this. If the products are in fact expired and stolen, that’s a major violation. Further, if Burlington really did sell these products in their stores, that’s also very serious. The whole issue has consumers questioning if other makeup brands in stores are either stolen or expired. Although I believe makeup doesn’t make up the majority of sales for Burlington, it’s still a place where they don’t want to have scandals popping up.

My Recommendations

Burlington really needs to issue a statement as soon as they can. Additionally, they need to launch their own separate and independent investigation on what happened. Burlington also needs to take a look at their policies when it comes to sourcing and reselling products. Even though customers love a bargain, the customers health is still in jeopardy if expired products are being sold in stores.

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Photo by kevin laminto on Unsplash