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Women & Business

Employee Claims That Working At Lululemon Is Like Being In A Cult

2:30 pm, February 19th | by Meredith Lepore


There has always been an air of mystery around Lululemon. The company hasn’t been around for that long (it launched with one store in Vancouver in 1998) and yet it has become a sales powerhouse and part of the cultural lexicon. As of March 2012, Lululemon posted a quarterly profit of $74 million. People worship Lululemon, especially upper middle class women (a recession-proof customer base). The brand has inspired blogs such as “Lululemon Addict” and hundreds of Facebook groups devoted to celebrating the company. It also encourages its customers to embody the Lululemon lifestyle and chooses “ambassadors” in the community who can show others this better way of life. And by “better way of life,” we mean doing a lot of yoga and wearing a sweatshirt with a weirdly shaped saddle shoe on it (does that scare anyone else?).

I went to the store in Princeton, New Jersey recently and all of the girls had on dark-rimmed glasses and beanies. I found it hard to believe that it was a coincidence. So is working for Lulu like being part of a cult? According to Business Insider, indeed it is. They spoke with an entry level employee about working there. Here are some of the weirder tidbits:

1) Your interview process includes sitting on pillows and not being asked formal questions. I am pretty sure that is how Charles Manson found his group too.

2) They give you books to read and CDs to listen to when you start working there.

3) The company pays for you to take fitness classes (but there is a limit).

4) The word “sale” is forbidden.

5) You have to wear Lululemon clothes. Okay, that’s not that weird for a retailer.

6) She admitted, “You have to drink the Kool-Aid a bit, and if you’re not going to drink it, you won’t do well and you probably won’t like it. Most people do like working there.”

Okay, so we aren’t really in Martha, Marcy, May, Marlene territory but this definitely sounds more intense than working at The Gap. Whatever is happening over there, though, it’s working. Omar Saad of Credit Suisse said the company is successful because of its ability to look into the female psyche and figure out what women want to wear and how they want to buy it. “The brand captivates the female consumer through the combination of a pleasurable in-store experience and high-quality, stylish and flattering designs,” said Saad to the Financial Post.
So maybe it is a cult, but I’m fine with any cult that makes my butt look good in stretch pants.

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