After someone named Terri Nelson noted the trend on Twitter, another person shared a link from Yankee Candle’s online shop for the Sparkling Cinnamon fragrance. The link was from a one-star review, where the purchaser, under the headline of “Waste of money,” wrote “I purchased three of these. What a waste. There’s virtually NO scent to these at all!! If I wasn’t confined to my home because of covid I would return these for sure.”
While a Yankee Candle representative replied with a courteous note assuring the buyer that the company would be happy to exchange any order if a “100% Happiness Guarantee” was not met, other customers pointed out the obvious–it may not be the candle lacking scent but rather the infected person’s inability to smell it. As one person replied to the review on Yankee Candle’s site: “Uh…. has it occurred to you that you might not be able to smell them very well because you have covid?”
Over the course of several tweets, Petrova shared different graphs with a breakdown of what she gleaned from them.
As she anticipated, there was no change in the amount of complaints for unscented candles during that period.
A popular thread on Reddit sprung up in the wake of Petrova’s research. One Reddit user noted there: “It seems quite interesting the reviews specifically referencing “lack of scent” peaked in April (1st wave peak) saw a minor rise in August (2nd wave peak) and peaked again dramatically into October and November (solidly in the 3rd wave).”
After explaining her research over the course of several tweets, Petrova wrapped up her discussion (for the time being) on the subject with a sensible request. She asked that anyone with a sense of smell who is doing a little online shopping should “maybe buy a scented candle and leave a nice review. And no, I don’t work for a candle company. I just like looking at data.”
