The Range has dropped countdown coin savers in the form of a bikini and weight-loss wedding dress after complaints of sexist body shaming.
The wall plaques include slots to store 1lb for every pound of weight lost – up to 18kg (40lb) on the bridal version.
Emma Conway saw the items and asked if there were any for men. There weren’t.
She said: “I left the store shaking. In 2022, a major chain is feeding the narrative that women have to be smaller to drop a dress size.”
The retailer told the BBC it had no intention of offending customers and would not be restocking either product.
Ms Conway, a digital creator known on social media as Brummie Mummy of 2, told her 147,000 Instagram followers that she has no problem with people wanting to lose weight for a variety of reasons.
“But I asked if there was one for men. Maybe a ‘Lose Chunks To Fit In Your Trunks’. There wasn’t,” she posted.
“It was only for women. To get a bikini body. And to fit into a smaller wedding dress… To put up a sign in their homes that they would look at every day,” she said.
“To help them get ready for the beach. The motivation is not to get fit and healthy. But to downsize. Remember, ladies, we must be small.”
She added, “Everyone reading this thinks how to get a bikini body is… to buy a bikini. And to pull it onto his body.”
The Range told the BBC in a statement: “We appreciate everyone’s ‘body’ being ‘bikini ready’ all the time, but some of our customers have found this to be a fun way of helping them achieve a goal to reach. has now been discontinued and we will not be stocking it again.”
Brummie Mummy of 2’s post received more than 10,000 likes and hundreds of replies.
Among them was author, writer and podcast host Alison Perry, who wrote, “This makes me so angry!”
“The Range, this may seem harmless to you, but it really isn’t!” she added.
“You understand the belief that women have to fit a narrow ideal of beauty in order to be acceptable. This is dangerous.
“If you walk past it in one of your stores, it could trigger someone and put them on a diet or an eating disorder. Not ok.”
Instagram user pushapianoupahilloftreacle wrote: “I saw them the other day, I couldn’t believe it! Totally amazed that they are allowed to sell this junk! I will be proud to wear my beautiful size 18 bikinis this year!”
There were also responses from women who said they had no problem with the idea of the blackboard as a motivational tool.
But they said they would prefer it to be gender neutral and not tied to events like holidays or weddings.
The Range had advertised its pink spotted bikini wall plaque on its website as “a fun and unique way to save money and get fit” and suggested, “You can spoil yourself with the money when you reach your goal.”
A similar plaque in the shape of a wedding dress had the words “Weight Loss Journey” at the top.
According to The Range’s website, “Keep off the pounds as you shed the pounds as you tack to your target weight for the big day with this dress size pound countdown plaque.
“Shaped like a wedding dress with 40 coin-shaped slits, you can fit a pound in each one as you lose weight for your special occasion, meaning you’ll spend more money on your honeymoon!”
This isn’t the first time The Range’s weight loss countdowns have drawn criticism.
In October, The Independent reported that eating disorder charities said the articles “glorified weight loss.”
And in 2019, The Sun reported that they “made women feel unworthy.”
When the BBC provided Ms Conway’s comments to The Range, it said: “Occasionally we inadvertently offend customers, although we never intended to.”
The retailer said it decided to stop selling the items, although both were still available on its website at the time of publication.
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