AdAge: New Laundry Formats are Helping

[jt1985]

The article talks about how new formats (Tide Stain Release Duopacs, Purex Complete) are profitable and talks about the Tablet debacle of the early 2000's.

It also mentions that Unilever's bet on laundry tablets may have led to the divestiture of the US detergent biz.

And it mentions about the possibility of Tide Actilift Gel or liquitabs, to counteract Method's 4x liquid.

http://adage.com/article?article_id=144033

 

[tomturbomatic]

They have it wrong about the dissolvability of the tablets in the 60s. They dissolved fine in our WH FL. I think we used them until they disappeared. The owner's manual for the 29" Kenmore combo said that the tablets were to be placed in the drum, not the dispenser.

The HE tablets of the 90s washed well, were low sudsing and rinsed well, but did not dissolve dependably when placed in the drum in the reduced water levels of the new FLs. In order to use one in a dispenser, it had to be smushed up before being added to the dispenser, eliminating the convenience of a tablet. If they had just made them into a powder it would have been cheaper.

 

[mixfinder]

Salvo and Vim

Grandma used Amway SA-8 but veered off course to try Salvo and Vim. Salvo was two tablets and Vim 3 - 4 depending on soil. Salvo was white and crystaline while Vim was blue and colored the water. Vim began with a few suds bubbles and then dissapeared. Salvo showed no soap in 1958 Whirlpool top loader. She always used hot water and was terrible for overloading the washer. She lined up Borax, Washing Soda, Mrs Wright Bluing, Fels Naptha and even Lye to add punch to cleaning power of her washer. Sadly she overloaded so badly everything was always a dingy gray.

 

[jt1985]

Evolution

In the AdAge Article, it was mentioning that powders will be concentrated, like the liquids. I remember reading an article in another website, that there will be a new generation of compact powders coming from P&G in the upcoming months. Eventually down the line, we might end up like Europe with gels, compact powders and liquitabs.

 

[tomturbomatic]

I was checking on my machine dishwashing detergent inventory downstairs and discovered boxes of Wisk HE tablets and Purex tablets, both HE and regular, as well as the Surf tablets I remembered seeing.