An Australian Supermarket Detergent Aisle- Pics

[mattywashboy]

I think Aura is sold in IGA, in fact i'm sure of it, will have a look closer next time and get back to ya. Spree liquid came out in about September of 2005, for a while it was only available in Lemon (a yellow bottle), but now its available in both Lemon and Lavender (the purple bottle you see down there). Recently however i have not seen much of the lemon one. Its a good detergent, not one of those horrid white ones that is just powder in suspension but a very nice gel, the lemon one is described by my freind Nat as 'Laundry Honey' because it looks a lil bit like honey lol. Scotts laundry liquid seems to be a no name product, i've never given it a second glance and never seen anyone use it. The IGA homebrand one is the one called Swift.

Matt

 

[hoover1060]

so Matt, are you taking orders?

I'd love a box of DRIVE-matic!

Thats a catchy name for soap!

 

[peterh770]

The woman and baby on the Cuddly softener are the same as on Suavitel over here...

Do you have a list of which manufacturers make which detergents and softeners?

 

[veg-o-matic]

Didn't the '64 Fords have Drive Matic?

veg

 

[kirk280980]

From the pics above, and by looking on the Woolworths Homeshop website, I see that liquid refills are widely available in Australia. We used to have them in the UK, although at one stage it all went ass-backwards and the original bottles of detergent became harder and harder to find in the shops, which in effect left you with nothing to refill in the first place. Sadly refills disappeared from the shelves here a couple of years ago, but will no doubt be brought back again in the future as a "new" idea.

Ditto those little pouches of concentrated fabric softener, come to think of it. Remember my mother using those, but can't for the life of me recall the brand or country of origin. Again, nowhere to be found now.

Interesting to hear that the choice of liquids is expanding though; while visiting Adelaide in March '05, the only ones I could find in supermarkets were Omo, Cold Powder and Dynamo. Everything else was powder only, although maybe that was a regional thing. I tried out the Cold Power liquid and found it to be good, very thick and gloopy and it contains phosphates! Actually smells like real laundry detergent too, and not like something you would give kids to drink. Would easily rank it up there with my all-time favourite, but sorely missed, Persil Liquid.

Matt, do you have tablets or liquid capsules in Australia? Have spotted Radiant sachets but that's the closest thing I can see to the pre-measured detergents that are currently so popular over here.

Cheers,

Kirk

 

[westytoploader]

Very cool display, thanks for posting! Refreshing to see a larger selection of powders as well; they've all but been phased out here, unfortunately...not good for owners of early Frigidaires! Is the Surf down there the powder or tab version? Greg sent me a couple of Surf tabs last Spring (the kind in the yellow box) that we tried during the mini wash-in, and they weren't bad...had a pleasant scent to them.

The liquid capsules are always fun...I'm quickly running out of my current stash of Persil non-bio Liquigels, so I think I'll be ordering more of those.

--Austin

 

[washboy2005]

I see you have Surf!!

The Yellow Is sunshine like here im presuming?
The Deep Pink is Tropical like in UK?
and what's the light pink one ?

BTW those bottles of Surf Liquid look rather nice LOL

Thanks for the pics!!

 

[Maytagmom]

Great pix Matt!

I've thought about doing that here in the mexican stores.

 

[nickuk]

Thanks Matt, what a great concept!

Yes, I like the sound and look of Drive-matic, very manly testosterone filled product name me thinks !

Which ones are your all time favourites, Matt?

 

[intuitive]

Detergents is Aust..... my thoughts

Hey All...

Bio Zet is made by Keo, originally in Japan, then Korea, now made in China... great product & lasts for AGES, they now have a pink variation that have built in fabric softner, smells like pink toilet cleaner & does NOT soften much....

"Matic" is the common variant name for all Front Loader detergents, it seems to come from the original Australian FL powder OmoMatic.

I've noticed laundry (and dishwasher & dish)detergent purchasing in Sydney is a very socio/economic thing too different demographics/ suburban regions buy different detergents
Upper middle class buy premimum i.e. Omo or Drive or Radiant or BioZet
Working /busy mums buy "Whatever is on special" OR Surf or Spree or FAB or Radiant and the new "Premimum" House Brands eg Woolworths Select or You Love Coles
Students etc buy BOL HomeBrand/No Frills/Black & Gold or "Whats on special"

Powders are still HUGE is Aust, Liquids are still perceved to be a. EXPENSIVE, b. Not as long lasting/packet c. Not as good as powder.

I have also noticed a lot of known brand powders are now comming out in "High Performance", I suspect it is their version of the US High Efficiency detergents

we are also getting a lot of imports from Asia since the govt now allows parralel imports IE Omo from Unilever Indonsia or Morning Fresh dish liquid from Cousins Hong Kong/China

Love to swap some with any one O/S Would love to try Persil or one of the new US contact me if you wanna organise something ) Jon

 

[hoovermatic]

Can you still buy Hurricaine detergent in Oz? I used it quite often and although I remember it being really cheap, it was very good stuff.

 

[arrrooohhh]

Duo is not bad.

Dont knock it till you try it folks. Duo is quite good. Its cheep but does a good job and doesnt smell awful or look like a box of bicarb. Spree is just the most awful stuff you can buy. Fab is pretty yuk too.

Drive is good, Radiant is good. Omo is expensive.

I never use fabric softener.

 

[gansky1]

A box of Drive, Dynamo, Cold Power and of course, several of Omo!

Great pics - thanks for doing that. Powders are vanishing here as well, I guess there's no hope left for blue Cheer...

 

[vintagesearch]

wow what a selection im still scratching my head LOL! So i'll take some dynamo and some cuddly to go LOL. at least you have lots of choices.

Cool pics thanks

 

[mattywashboy]

okay, answers to queries
The pink box of Surf is Surf Matic, the Surf they have here is high sudsing and they brought out a Matic low suds version.

Hurricane is available, you can see a blue bottle of the liquid on the bottom left hand corner of one of the pictures. I have never tried Hurricane as i had the impression is was an elcheapo one.

My personal favourites are Bio Zet, Drive, Radiant and Dynamo. My mum uses Bio Zet religuously where i used to have three packets in my cupboard, one bottle of Drive Matic liquid, one box of Radiant Matic powder and a big box of Dynamo Matic (which i used the most). When i had a top loader i used either Cold Power liquid or Spree Fresh breeze ( was poor back then).

I am happy to send anyone detergent but to reduce costs i can only send 1kg boxes of powder, i have not attemtped to send liquids yet as the postmaster discouraged me saying the bottle could be 'popped'.
Email me any requests and we will talk.
Matt

 

[~sudsshane]

I think all of us powder lovers should bombard P&G, "Profit and Gain" <hehe> with letters,emails or calls regarding the phasing out of powder detergent. My prediction is by the end of the decade, we may just have Tide powder left which is sad.
Powder by far exceeds liquids in cleaning ability of dirt and mud. It is also longer lasting than liquid and a whole lot less messy. Liquid is good for body oils and sweat odors.
I use Tide with bleach powder for white clothes and Gain HE liquid, original scent for colors and sheets..and of course can't forget Final Touch fabric softener for both =)

 

[aquarius1984]

Matt you TEase!!!!!

Im back online now so its only a matter if time til I open something!

Nick, Drive Matic, guessing youd like a box?!!!!!! hehehehehehe a little birdy tells me Persil might be off my shopping list for a little while!

well heres a turn for you all.......

Last night at work I decided to tidy up my aisle at work as the PandG tabs were a bit messy and considering ive been working on the household aisle permanently since I came out about the weasher thing 6 months ago I found 10 packs or so if these at the back, I never knew we had!

Been shoving the new ones in front of the old ones for the past 18 months I see.
Bought a pack as a future antique......

 

[aquarius1984]

And another Washing detergent antique of the future I will show you tommorow...... 2 in 1 week must be good eh?

anyone like to take a guess to what I also have?

Nick

 

[pulsatron]

Hurricane

Hurricane detergent and Fluffy fabric softener used to be made by an Australian owned company called Campbell Bros, hiowever they sold their detergent business to Colgate-Palmolive a few years ago so both brands are now made by C.P it is not a premium brand and personally I would rank it a bit below Surf and Spree and would not buy it really, just a personal choice.
Arrrooohhh, is it the normal Spree you are using or the Spreematic?, I havn'e used the matic one but at the moment I am using the standard concentrate in fresh breeze and I find it is not too bad,seems to clean okay and has a nice clean fragrance,although I must admit I don't think I would make it my 1st choice.
Bongobro,
The dirt is good campaign was run by Omo here in Australia,and funnily enough I e-mailed Unilever Australia some time ago and asked them about Persil and they informed me that Omo is indeed Persil here and in New Zealand,the same Omo packets are called Persil, so I guess you could also say one man's Omo is another's Persil.
P.S. Arrrooohhh, I totally agree with you about fabric softener yeecchhh!.

 

[agiflow]

sudsshane..i second that motion for powders. Liquids do the job well enough, but cleaning is far better with powders, and a whole lot less messy to boot. If only detergents today could smell like the old powdered Ajax; for me that was one of the best smelling detergents ever made.