Several years ago, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex attended a bookstore opening in Santa Barbara. The bookstore, Godmothers, was founded by Prince Harry and Meghan’s friends and neighbors, and it turned out that Harry was the one who suggested the name. Meghan even filmed some stuff in Godmothers for With Love, Meghan, and she’s gone to a few events at the shop as well. It’s literally her neighborhood bookstore. Well, last year, Meghan set up As Ever’s first ever “pop-up shop” within Godmothers. There was a large table display with honey, tea, jam, etc, and it the display was quite prominent in the shop. Well, it sounds like the Daily Mail sent some freelancer to Godmothers again, and that freelancer dutifully reports that the As Ever display has been downgraded! Oh, no, that must mean that As Ever is struggling, right??
Meghan Markle’s first ‘pop-up store’ in a wealthy friend’s bookshop close to her Montecito mansion appears to have been downgraded. The Duchess of Sussex filmed herself personally setting up her candles, wine, jam, tea and flower sprinkles in the Godmothers bookshop in California last year. The grand display occupied a large area on an upper floor of the bougie shop, a short distance from Harry and Meghan’s $14.7million home.
But a shopper who visited in the past week claimed the As Ever pop-up appeared to have been ‘downscaled’ over the past two months, with no jam to be seen. She claimed that staff at the shop, loved by local celebrities including Meghan herself, confirmed it had not been reduced in size because the products had sold out.
Writing on social media, the unnamed shopper said: ‘I went into the room upstairs, and there was no sign of the stuff on the three-tier wall display.’
Sharing pictures of the new, smaller pop-up, she added there was ‘no signage or banner’ to alert customers to the As Ever products, which were now displayed on a small table. There were no jars of Meghan’s now-famous jams, including her blackberry fruit spread, released this month.
Instead, the smaller display, on a table the size of a small school desk, featured three boxes of As Ever chocolates made with high-end LA chocolatier Compartés, seven candles, a single honey set, and a large glass bowl filled with tins of her edible dried-flower sprinkles. There was also a publicity photo of Meghan for her brand.
‘No spreads, bookmarks, variety honey… No way they sold all this. The salespeople confirmed it when I asked discreetly. All they said was, “They refresh merchandise on a regular basis”, when I asked if they had any jam or more offerings,’ the whistleblower said.
Godmothers is run by Meghan and Harry’s wealthy neighbours, Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, literary agent to Oprah Winfrey and Brené Brown, and cosmetics mogul Victoria Jackson. Meghan and Oprah attended the store’s grand opening in 2024 to support their friends.
I love the subtle class warfare involved with any story about Meghan, like these same people don’t slavishly defend a bunch of lazy, do-nothing “royals” who live in castles and palaces. But Meghan’s $14.7 million home and her bougie bookshop!! Anyway, the Mail’s cracked-out team might want to remember what “pop-up shop” actually means – it’s not a permanent fixture, by its very nature. It sounds like As Ever’s products are either selling out consistently to the point where the team can’t keep restocking on a steady schedule, OR the As Ever pop-up experiment is merely winding down. “But surely, this means that Meghan is broke!” These people haven’t realized in seven years that every time they wish harm on Meghan, it comes back onto them tenfold.
Photos courtesy of Netflix, As Ever’s Instagram. Screencaps courtesy of Bloomberg’s YouTube video.
I feel for her and all her friends so much. To have weird people from the daily mail harassing your friends or even acquaintances on a daily basis, making up fake stories, or misinterpreting everything you say. I’m sure the things are selling fine, but they were never going to have it be a permanent spot in the bookstore. I hope one day that they can have some peace.
They continue to help market her products with their asinine shenanigans. They keep her in the news and keep reminding people about all of her newest drops. They sound like haters but they are also her biggest fans. They test her products and tell EVERYONE that she has a big fancy house to pay for. I’d forgotten the name of the bookshop (and about the pop up, honestly). This just reminded me.
Beyoncé said it best “You know you’re that bitch when you cause all this conversation.”
Do people get paid to write such drivel? I didn’t read the whole thing only read Kaiser’s write up…. I can’t only say one thing: I have never seen a country this driven by gossips! The true purpose of the royal family is to be a gossip fodder for some folks in the UK
If I remember correctly, this was a holiday pop up as well as a method to give her larger community a way to see her offerings. Would not surprise me if as mentioned the goods were sold out and have yet to be replenished or their is no need to do so because the products are able to sell without the need of the pop up space.
I work in a bookstore. Displays change and refresh constantly. When your stock sells down, you switch it out. Keeping the same display for a year makes no sense, especially if it’s very large. The store is probably gearing up for holiday displays right now.
Very likely re: the holiday displays. WS near me has had their pumpkin themed items out for at least two weeks, Lowe’s set up its 10 foot tall Halloween goblin just after July 4. I always notice because it’s a little depressing to rush the year along preparing for the next holiday, especially in the summer! The local B&N is always changing displays, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, etc.
It’s a little iffy concluding “no way they sold all this” from the salesperson’s remark that things are refreshed on a regular basis. Last year was As ever’s launch; now people are aware they can order honey and jam without going to the bookstore. It was called a pop up for a reason.
right, the pop up was for promotion, to get to the people who maybe dont want to order online, and also just because Meghan has a relationship with owner.
And I had the same thought – the salesperson didn’t say “of course we didnt sell it, everyone in Montecito hates Meghan” – they said “things are refreshed on a regular basis” which is a perfectly logical and reasonable remark, unfortunately for the Mail.
It sounds like they are quoting a social media post. Which deranged freak went there for this purpose and to harass the staff?
Montecito PoP-UpGate 2026 folks drop everything a temporary point of sale display in a local bookstore made some changes.
Daily fail propaganda “reporter” needs to touch grass and not harrass nice people working at independent bookstores.
But the bigger issue is that people’s brains get actively cooked when they’re fed a steady stream of this sensationalized propaganda. That combined with post-COVID cognitive damage in some folks seems to be a bad combination for us engaging in shared society, built on a foundation of objective reality.
WhiSTLeBloweR.
Thank goodness someone with the courage exists to expose … a normal retail situation.
” The salespeople confirmed it when I asked discreetly. All they said was, “They refresh merchandise on a regular basis” ”
SOOOO, the salespeople confirmed exactly what? Such a bs story as usual.
If it’s a pop-up why is the DM expecting there still be a grand display? Plus in the middle of the piece it says that the items have sold out.
Soooo lot’s of products available, failure. Not a lot of product available, failure? So literally heads I win, tails you lose? I don’t even understand why this is something worthy of reporting on. Do they go into Sephora or Ulta to see how much Rare Beauty or Fenty is on the shelves? If As Ever was a total flop…. And??? This means this private citizen is going to have to do something else to earn money?
I hope they just paid one of their stalkers that live in California to go up there because if they legitimately paid for someone to come from England for this report ridiculous.