How an $11 Billion Beauty Company Built a Suburban Empire
Ulta found success by acting more like Home Depot than like Sephora.
On a bright, chilly fall afternoon, the women streaming in and out of the Ulta Beauty store on Passaic Street in Garfield, New Jersey, are in a hurry. One had just popped in on her lunch break. Another left home a bit early to grab a bottle of shampoo on her way to work. A few had come to the shopping center to pick up kibble or cat toys at the PetSmart next door, and hey, why not sniff some perfumes? It only takes a second.
Itzel Alvarez, a student at nearby Felician University, says she came in after class to buy some Arctic Fox hair dye to touch up the purple streaks that frame her face. “But then I saw I had a coupon,” she says, which resulted in the rest of her haul—a MAC lip gloss and liner, an Anastasia Beverly Hills concealer, some extra eyelash glue for Halloween. A self-described former “Ulta hater,” Alvarez has come around in recent years. “I used to work at Sephora, and the rewards here are better,” she says, shrugging. “You can quote me. It’s a fact.”