Thread by @BusinessInsider

Moon Juice has become an international wellness brand with their products — like the $38 “Sex Dust” — being sold everywhere from Sephora to Nordstrom. But ex-employees said founder Amanda Chantal Bacon put the brand’s image before their well-being.

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Since launching Moon Juice as a single juice shop in January 2012, Bacon has turned the Los Angeles-based company into a brand with upward of $20 million in annual sales.

But part of the allure isn’t just the products, it’s Bacon herself.

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Employees bought into Bacon’s dream of $12 cold-pressed juices and love and light.

But many of the 20 ex-employees interviewed said they soon realized the quirks that made her a wellness influencer could be frustrating to deal with in real life.

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Moon Juice was a “magical” place to work in its early days, according to some former staffers. Everyone looked up to Bacon who seemed perpetually clad in flowing white linen and oozed a Mother Earth-but-make-it-fashion vibe.

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But as the company grew and moved into a warehouse-like space in Culver City, the spirit of Moon Juice quickly lost its allure, former employees said.

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In all aspects of Moon Juice operations, image was paramount, according to former staffers. Store employees who made smoothies and juices were mandated by Bacon to wear all-white clothing that they had to purchase themselves.

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Bacon believed that “when you’re wearing all white, you’re forced to be more conscious in what you’re doing,” Kim Fuerth, a store manager in 2016-2017, said.

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When it came to COVID-19, executives seemed to prioritize store image. In the fall of 2020, Miguel Tenicela, a former store manager, said he was told to remove hand sanitizer from the sales floor while it was still a statewide requirement.

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In mid-March 2020, Bacon and Moon Juice president Elizabeth Ashum pressured a former regional manager to go into work even though she told them she was sick with what she said she believed to be COVID-19 (at that point, it was hard to get a test).

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In the spring of 2020, as #BlackLivesMatter protests swept Los Angeles and fringe groups looted businesses after nightfall, some Moon Juice retail employees expressed fear of returning to work, as many neighboring businesses remained closed for weeks.

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Staffers said Bacon tried to pacify her team by driving around Venice in her Tesla to assess the danger.

One day in early June, as a protest was set to pass by the Venice shop, the regional manager and a new staffer told Bacon they didn’t feel comfortable working.

This behavior stings more when it’s not just your boss, but a founder you admire and strive to emulate. When female founders don’t live up to the hype, it can be crushingly disappointing for those who believed in it.

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