PEABODY — A beauty and skincare store at the Northshore Mall in Peabody is being sued for allegedly scamming an elderly woman out of more than $40,000 after other customers
Anti-aging beauty products and services have become a multi-billion-dollar industry in the United States. But it's how those serums and creams can be sold that has one Valley senior saying she was targeted, pressured to buy, and now is thousands of dollars in debt.
Skin treatment rubs some the wrong way
An 80-year-old Everett woman regrets her $9,000 impulse purchase of an anti-wrinkle device, but the seller denies her a full refund.
By Sean P. Murphy Globe Staff,Updated March 1, 2021, 4:39 p.m.
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Patricia DeGeorge, 80, with the $9,000 worth of skin care products she was sold by Forever Flawless.Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff
Not long after her 80th birthday last March, Patricia DeGeorge, feeling a bit old and depressed, tried to cheer herself up by window shopping at the Northshore Mall in Peabody.
As the Everett woman walked along, a young man stepped in front of her, flashed a big smile, and offered a free sample of skin cream. He said it would help erase her wrinkles.
An hour after entering Forever Flawless at Northshore Mall, Patricia DeGeorge emerged with a hand-held infrared light for at-home skin care, plus about a dozen boxes of complimentary creams and lotions. And a receipt for a whopping $9,031.25.
As major components of the redevelopment of the shopping centre are being completed, some will be ready prior to the lucrative Christmas season while others such as Target and Marshalls, part of the U.S. retailing wave arriving in Canada, are opening in 2014. “Through the summer, you’re going to have a bunch of new stores that are going to open up,” Burton said from Toronto on Friday. Once completed, the entire centre, including Thrifty Foods and a new, two-storey Target, will measure 590,000 square feet, Burton said. All but 20,000 square feet has been leased and committed. Milestones in the construction work are being unveiled next month.