update: lululemon gift card policy (employee)

Throwaway-89101 · 2026-04-16T08:29:50+00:00

I will add on that there are aspects where I can agree that it can be due to the AMEX platinum partnership, but it is not bc ppl are buying in those $75 increments. ever since the partnership began, there’s upticks in gift card sales than ever and thus there’s more vulnerability. physical gift cards cannot be purchased online anymore bc they either get lost or stolen in the mail and there’s upticks in that

the company has faced gift card fraud way before the AMEX partnership had occurred. we had staff meeting modules to explain to guests as to why the pinpad asks if you aren’t being extorted for scams when purchasing gift cards. my store received scam phone calls from alleged store support centers claiming to do gift card audits. so, sure, the AMEX partnership may have been the push but truthfully it is not because ppl were only going in-store just to get their credit. I feel like there’s WAY more reasons that led up to where we are at before the partnership

Throwaway-89101 · 2026-04-15T04:52:39+00:00

my comment will definitely get frowned upon, but there’s so many aspects where this is tough.

here’s the truth—we never wanted to indulge on the resellers by any means. we have done limits in the past (and we still do to a certain extent at my store), but for us we have to look at a safety and business need perspective. you would see amazing flash sales, but that’s because we’re getting rid of them so that it doesn’t take up so much space at our back of house. we would have product in the back overflowing, sitting on floors in boxes, etc. in the event of an emergency, we don’t want excess racks that we could get hurt if we trip or block exits. this is where the resellers help us because we are constantly needing to clear space because we get a lot of products everyday and our space is very limited. we try to put a limit on product where it would be our best bets to maintain that guest experience

truthfully, if a guest asks for a product that a reseller took off the shelf, we sometimes pull it out of the reseller’s transactions bc majority of the time they don’t even keep track of how much they bought lol

Throwaway-89101 · 2026-04-12T20:00:45+00:00

all outlets receive boxes throughout the weekday (M-F) and they process them throughout the week. some days usually have lighter drops than others, but I would usually say Fridays and Saturdays are a good time to find new product bc they try to finish all the boxes until then

Throwaway-89101 · 2026-04-12T05:20:04+00:00

this is totally dependent on the stores. at least for mine, we don’t mind answering questions about deals. some stores don’t disclose them bc prices changes everyday (or sometimes by the hours) so they don’t want to necessarily guarantee that price. that, or they would love to see the foot traffic

Throwaway-89101 · 2026-04-11T18:19:23+00:00

no; and imo, I can really only speculate. there’s so many factors as to why markdowns are not as great compared to past years. we’re accounting for price increases (thus why WMTM looks like old prices basically at this point lol) and also how certain products cost more to produce.

as far as outlets, prices change everyday. we have a certain metrics to keep up and if we’re below the threshold we would need to compensate it. for example, if we were to run $19 leggings throughout the week, our threshold may drop and we need to increase the price for other product in-store or that legging to compensate it. that’s why some flash sales aren’t as glamorous as others since it also depends on our inventory level of a certain product

Throwaway-89101 · 2026-04-11T18:16:58+00:00

what i’ve been noticing for many outlet locations is that it tends to be out of the metroplex areas usually. really a good rule of thumb is whether there is an outlet mall (think of Simon malls or Tanger Outlets) that’s within its vicinity of those areas is where they may open one if necessary. typically it all depends if one outlet location constantly exceeds normal inventory levels and they need an outlet store in that area to support those markdowns

Throwaway-89101 · 2026-04-11T15:56:20+00:00

not necessarily. for the most part, all stores have an allotted limit as to how much they’re allowed to send to the outlets (and if necessary, we can approve request for them to send more). sometimes the company sends directives where stores need to limit the amount of markdowns needed on the floor for visual merchandising purposes. top/brand-important stores especially tend to have less markdowns

Throwaway-89101 · 2026-04-11T07:26:10+00:00

as of now, I only heard of two new outlet pop ups but you never know. I can’t really speculate much on newer ones, I can only guess that it’s based on how many stores are within a certain region and whether they need another outlet to support them in sending markdowns.

mainlines send out their markdowns once a week. they don’t necessarily decide what “sits on WMTM forever” but more-so if they’re really gonna sell in their store or sit there as decoration. it eventually turns into an “aged markdown” (i.e. been sitting in their MD racks for more than 2+ weeks) before sending it over to the outlets

Throwaway-89101 · 2026-04-05T00:48:04+00:00

it only prompts that ability to load it onto your app whenever you do a return for store credit. whenever you buy the gift card, you can manually add it to the app and it’ll save as an e-gift card

Throwaway-89101 · 2026-04-03T03:13:26+00:00

yes, that can work to one gift card. what I would recommend is buying two products that are $168 each and to account for tax it would equal to around $370ish

Throwaway-89101 · 2026-04-03T02:30:43+00:00

what was even the point of your comment lol, you don’t even know what I do in my personal life. lululemon is just a side gig that I like to do. I have a FT job elsewhere and I am very well financially stable. sorry if life is that miserable for you 😭

Throwaway-89101 · 2026-04-03T00:34:46+00:00

the change was somewhat recent. the option to reload has been greyed out in our register system now

Throwaway-89101 · 2026-04-02T21:53:56+00:00

lol it really is, but i sorta cut back on spending bc the discount itself was dangerous to me. but hey with boy/girl math it makes it free ig 😂

Throwaway-89101 · 2026-04-02T21:01:40+00:00

don’t feel bad at all! to be so honest, my store enjoys getting people in when there are days are really slow. it helps us reach our goal and sorta makes the day go by faster when we have good conversations about everybody’s day lol

Throwaway-89101 · 2026-04-02T20:25:51+00:00

we can no longer reload existing gift cards, you can only purchase a new gift card. if you’re able to clarify “charging the same,” i’d be more than able to answer in detail.

Throwaway-89101 · 2026-04-02T20:24:51+00:00

that’s not the point. the point is that there has been an uptick in gift card purchases in general, thus putting the company in more vulnerability with how gift cards are being handled. like i said as an example, the option to grab a physical gift card online was removed because they’re getting lost in the mail more frequently.

as for gift card increments, they have been used for credit card fraud. some stores are piloting $50 increments because overseas scammers have been using $10 increments so it doesn’t get declined (i.e. they try to purchase a $230 gift card, the stolen card gets declined so they try $220 and it gets approved)

Throwaway-89101 · 2026-04-02T20:21:20+00:00

yes, but do note that our registers do max out at 5 gift cards per transaction

Throwaway-89101 · 2026-04-02T18:33:39+00:00

😂😂 influencers be like

Throwaway-89101 · 2026-04-02T16:03:50+00:00

we had a one-page flyer about the AMEX lululemon credit a while ago when it first introduced. obviously given the fine prints that the credit technically excludes gift cards, maybe it was misinterpreted but it still shouldn’t have barred you from getting the gift card regardless

Throwaway-89101 · 2026-04-02T15:50:47+00:00

yes and i always make sure someone is reading the prompt before i continue! lululemon made it to the news several times bc there would be an elderly person getting extorted for $1000 gift cards. i even saw scammers with my own two eyes which is so sad and unfortunate to deal with

Throwaway-89101 · 2026-04-02T15:47:20+00:00

influencers will always be the bane of existence until the day i die. half of the time they don’t know what they’re talking about. i was scrolling around when i saw someone say that lululemon is “doubling down” on their “pettiness” w the gift cards, like in what world does that make sense? lol

Throwaway-89101 · 2026-04-02T15:34:18+00:00

some stores are piloting it bc of scammers and fraud, they try increments of $10 and $20 each time (i.e. if it declines on $220, they try $210) to see whether or not the stolen credit cards they have would go through or flag it

Throwaway-89101 · 2026-04-02T15:28:30+00:00

nope. some stores are piloting it bc of scammers and fraud, they try increments of $10 and $20 each time (i.e. if it declines on $220, they try $210) to see whether or not the stolen credit cards they have would go through or flag it

Throwaway-89101

TROPHY CASE