Dept. Store Mind-Control Candles
Igniting the shopping instinct in Bergdorf’s basement.
When aromatherapy meets shopping therapy, things can get out of hand. Slatkin & Company, known for its potpourri and Kabbalah candles, was asked by Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman to devise a scented candle that would encourage customers to spend. It developed a vanilla-cinnamon-based product that contains pheromones. “They release sensors in the brain that encourage people to shop,” explains Harry Slatkin. Maybe it worked too well: So many counters on Bergdorf’s basement beauty level lit the candles that the store ended up banning them. “They said it was a fire hazard,” says a store insider.
—B.L.

EDITED BY CARL SWANSON

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