Amazing TIDE bargains, etc

[kenmoreguy64]

Since I've seen discussion here lately about the prices of Tide, and about the availability of Tide w/Bleach powder, etc. I thought I'd make a brief post about some bargains that I've seen here in Charlotte.

We have a Big-Lots like chain of stores here called Ollie's. They have close-outs, discontinued products, and overruns, all at decent to amazing discounts.

Last year they had Sun Products made private label detergents for $1.99 for 50 ounce bottles. The most fascinating part was all the various labels - Walgreen's, American Fare, Eckerd, Solo, Safeway, Kroger, the list was almost endless. Apparently, some large unsold lots of product came up for bid at Sun or one of Sun's distributors, and Ollie's was the buyer.

This year, the focus seems to be on P&G brands. Back in March they had this HUGE display of liguids and powders from P&G Puerto Rico. They don't call Tide "Tide" in PR, they call it ACE. So, when P&G wanted to clearance a bunch of ACE in the states, they had to sell it cheap because few know the name.

We had several ACE powders, and ACE liguids in 50 and 100 oz. sizes. The product looks and smells EXACTLY like the U.S. Tide counterpart, but Ollie's prices were about 1/3 of the U.S. regular shelf price. I got several 50 oz. bottles ACE with Downy for $2.99 each. Yes, $2.99.

Here's a pic of an ACE powder 55 load box. Look at the 'sameness', cool eh? $4.62 is a bargain for a large box of Tide. This is from Tuesday of this week.

There are also LOTS of Tide w/Bleach powder right now, all $9.99 or $10.99 for 53 to 63 load sizes. Another good deal. These were produced for the Canadian market, as they have the TIDE.ca website shown on them, and one side of the box is all in Francais. Too fun...

The ACE was a fun find that I had a hard time resisting.

IF anyone wants some of this, let me know. I could have my arm twisted easily to do some detergent shopping.

Gordon

 

[kenmoreguy64]

ACE - would the average consumer realize this was Tide in disguise? I hope so...

 

[kenmoreguy64]

Misc Tide. Beaucoup de Tide avec Bleach from Canada.

 

[kenmoreguy64]

There was even a 120 load box of Ariel powder, some Ariel with bleach liquid which smells exactly like Mountain Spring Tide, and a bunch of powdered Cheer 120 load boxes of that were $12.99 I think. Cheap.

There are a lot of Ollie's out there, at least in the eastern U.S. Their website is www.Olliesbargainoutlet.com

 

[chuffle]

Stocked up...

...on Ace and Tide at the Ollie's here in western Pennsylvania about a month ago - powder and liquid. It's going to be quite some time before I need to purchase detergent!

The prices sure were good on some good products with no horrid "scents."

Joe

 

[DADoES]

 
A regional-area grocery here has carried Ace for several years.

 

[frigilux]

I believe "Ace" translates as "Tide". And it's pronounced "AH-chay". Right?

Venus (the late Austin Wilder's mom) sent me a few bags of Ace years ago. Great detergent!

 

[jamiel]

Ollie's just opened here in Detroit. Not worth driving past 3 or 4 Big Lots to get there, although not a bad place.

 

[DADoES]

 
Been a while since I 'scoped-out the detergent @ the grocery ... but Ace was available in several flavors on previous occasions, including lime-scented (Ace Limón).

 

[joelippard]

We had the ACE brand here at our store in Hickory and I think I bought enough to last a year!

 

[retropia]

Are any of these detergents HE? We have an Ollie's on the opposite side of town from us, so I don't get there very often. This might be an excuse to go visit.

 

[frigilux]

Glenn--OK, so it was Ace that came in a lime-scented version. Venus sent about six different brands of detergent to me, and I couldn't remember which had the lime scent. You're correct: It's awesome.

 

[kenmoreguy64]

Doug -

Yes, some of the detergents were indeed HE. There's some Tide HE with Downy in my first picture. I don't pay much attention to HE so I can't say for sure, but I know there was powder and liquid Ace/Tide.

Its fun to look at their whole display. I went to the Big Lots next after my Ollie's visit, and there was nothing of anything close either in value or price in comparison. The majority of what they had was a bunch of Sun detergents. I haven't seen much P&G at Big Lots lately though. This probably varies by location, but my Ollie's has been fun. $2.99 for 50 oz bottles of Ace as compared to a U.S. labeled Tide at $8 in the grocery to me is quite a bargain. There was also a variety of Tide 100 oz liquids for $7.99 or $8.99, which I think is great too.

One thing I wanted, and got, was Tide Coldwater powder. Not sure I've ever seen that anywhere in the last few years, but I like to use it in the summer when I use a spare washer in the garage on cool-ish tap water. Our tap water gets quite warm in the summer, but I like to use a detergent best intended for cooler temps when I do this.

I think I'm going to try an Ace powder this weekend.

Gordon

 

[retropia]

Thanks, Gordon, now I see the HE symbol on one of the boxes.

Big Lots started out as a close-out store, but they have morphed into primarily a dollar store. Ollie's is more like a real close-out store; their merchandise changes all the time, so you never know what you will find there.

 

[launderess]

Had One Known P&G Was Getting Shot of Tide Coldwater

Free/HE liquid, would have stocked up.

That product along with Tide "Free & Gentle" liquid are the only two versions one truly likes form that product line.

On an other note a neighbor moving house gave us two bottles of Tide liquid instead of chucking them into the rubbish. Tide with Downy actually smells like vintage "April Fresh" FS of old. The "Spring Renewal" sent one rushing for fresh air! *LOL*

One problem with all versions of Tide is you really have to watch dosage otherwise rinsing is compromised. If our Miele with it's five deep (10 gallon) rinses cannot cope one shudders to think how today's modern water stingy washers manage. This goes along way to explaining the strongly scented clothing persons wear nowadays. I mean you have a highly scented detergent that is poorly rinsed, add an equally highly fragranced fabric softener and the sum is a powerful blast of scent that bowls one over.

 

[launderess]

Tide & Other P&G Products At Closeout Shops

P&G long has had a policy of shifting products that haven't sold and or surplus stock to "off" area discounters. That is whilst such places are rare say in Manhattan you can find them elsewhere. Reason is obvious, P&G along with it's distributors do not want to cannibalize sales from full price dealers. There used to be a Nationwide Warehouse down in Tribeca, but its been ages since one has been that way to see if they are still around. There one could find various "off" P&G along with other laundry products. Saw my first boxes of Tide printed in French (Canadian version) there along with Sun detergents.

ACE is a stepchild of Tide or Ariel usually sold in Mexico and or Canada, but have never seen it say in Manhattan or major Northeast markets. If you look at certain MSDS for Ariel or Tide you will also see they cover Ace as well.

One had wondered where all the powdered versions of Tide had gone, and now one knows. Here in NYC most shops/supermarkets have long dropped their powdered laundry detergent shelf space down to one or two boxes of Tide, if that.

 

[DigAPony]

That is whilst such places are rare say in Manhattan you can

Right, there isn't an Ollies with 50 miles of my neck of the woods, typically found in middle to lower income areas.

A few Big Lots around, however the name should change to Big Disappointment, their merchandise consists of mostly Chinese knockoffs these days, sort of a slightly upmarket dollar store I'd say.

 

[yogitunes]

although not as cheap as Ollie's, but certainly a lot cheaper than the grocery stores and Walmart, I shop at Dollar General for a lot of detergents about 1/3 cheaper than Walmarts sale price.......they change some areas alot, so you can find a lot of stuff in the clearance section, and they take coupons as well, some are even in those little auto feed shelf clips....

they carry generics as well as name brand.....

it pays to shop and compare!

 

[stainfighter]

WOW, Thanks!

Thanks Gordon, will make a stop there this weekend. One just down road from VA hospital here. I concur with comments about Big Lots, no longer much fun to shop there. Have found good shopping @Dollar General selling small boxes of Tide...

 

[kenmoreguy64]

Most markets have dropped their powder shelf space

Agreed! Launderess is absolutely correct (as usual) in that most supermarkets seem to have a very limited powdered detergent line. A local large chain based right here in Charlotte, Harris Teeter, has about four powder options for customers, a Gain HE in regular scent, a type of Tide, one Arm & Hammer I think, and one selection of powdered Surf. That's it. They are hard to find in fact and you have to look for them at the end of the section. On the other hand, my local BI LO has a huge powder section. I took a couple pics yesterday.

Two things I forgot to mention in my discussion of Ollie's ---

Launderess is also on the right track I think as to why Ollie's has these particular products. Most of them are not labeled exactly as they would be if they were intended to be sold here. Many are Canadian. The ACE, in all varieties, are labeled for Puerto Rico. They have P&G's Puerto Rican address, and all the writing on the package is in Spanish except for an English caution comment.

P&G once told me that their detergents are most effective if used within the first year of manufacture, then they told me how to decode the manufacture date code. Most of these products at Ollie's were made late last summer or early fall. They aren't a year old but they're getting there.

I forgot to mention also that Ollie's had the Industrial Tide in the 170 load boxes (or was it 140?...whatever it was the box was huge) and they had Bold Plus, which has been in limited release/manufacture for some time. The only place I've ever seen that in the last few years was at Lowe's. I got a box of that too.

More pictures to come.

Gordon

 

[kenmoreguy64]

My local Bi-Lo

 

[kenmoreguy64]

Tip shelf that would not fit in the first pic

 

[kenmoreguy64]

Here's the Bold Plus. It was $2.99

 

[kenmoreguy64]

I wanted to try this Tide powder for $5.99

 

[kenmoreguy64]

This cute one was $3.99

 

[kenmoreguy64]

Saving my favorite comment for last...

Taking five years of French made me really appreciate one lady's comment on this one. She said "Well! I don't know what 'Ew Froid' is but we ain't gettin' 'at stuff, who'd buy somethin wifh a name like 'at anyway!!!"

 

[kenmoreguy64]

The English side...

Quietly when Miss Monroe NC 1984 moved on, I turned the boxes around so their Anglais sides were facing all the red necks.

 

[revvinkevin]

 

 

Very cool Gordon!

 

I'm guessing the Tide with French on one side and English the other is probably for the Canadian market.

 

Kevin

 

[mich]

Be Careful. Any time I've ever used Tide Coldwater (HE Liquid) it's been a pain in the A## to get any of it rinsed out. It really is a suds-maker..

Never have tried the powder so I don't know what to expect.

 

[kenmoreguy64]

Mich -

Thanks for your concern. I have used both powder and liquid Tide Coldwater before. You are correct, the liquid can be very sudsy, but the powder wasn't as bad, in fact overall I really liked it. I liked it enough that I used a good bit of it in non-cold washloads.

I never wash in true cold, but I do at times use the summertime coolish water of our tap to hook up an extra washer via a garden hose.

Gordon