I have gotten a few e-mails since I posted yesterday about spotting Bare Escentuals at Target. One of the e-mails I received was from one of Bare Escentual's PR reps, and Bare Escentuals is saying that this is definitely some sort of illegal diversion.

Illegal diversion is when someone who is legally able to sell a product, like a distributor, unknowingly (or perhaps, knowingly) sells said product to a consolidator or retailer in which they do not have a legal contract to do so. It is like a black market product being right there on the shelves of our favorite retailers, such as Target or supermarkets and drugstores. When you see a professional hair care product on your supermarket shelf, you can pretty much know that it has been illegally diverted.

This is what is happening with Bare Escentuals. They do not know how the product was distributed to Target, but they were alerted to them selling it last Fall. They were also alerted to the fact that Bare Escentuals was being sold discounted at Costco as well. The Bare Escentuals legal team is looking into it.

Supporting the sales of Bare Escentuals at Target is just one way to make this ongoing problem grow.