Australian Laundry Detegent Supermarket Aisles as of 2010

[mattywashboy]

Hi Guys

Just a thread i thought i would start up for those who are interested.

I managed to snap a few photos of a typical laundry detergent aisle in the supermarket i work in here in western australia.

All the products are kept current and up to date so this is these are the very latest products from detergent suppliers. Everything went 2x Ultra recently here in Australia so packaging became smaller and we were able to stock more products.

I will be begin with powders
The way in which we stock this aisle is from least expensive to most expensive.
Down the far end you can see Spree, Duo, Fab and Surf. These are the least expensive on the market at the moment and do not have very high cleaning ratings.
Moving up you can Drive, Dynamo, Cold Power and BioZet Attack, and Omo, also some Eco friendly powders up top. These are the more expensive range with higher cleaning ratings and less of a focus on having a specific 'scent'. All these products have front loader variations which are mixed in. On the Dyanamo, the front loader varant is the box with the green band for example.

Feel free to ask questions...

Matt

 

[mattywashboy]

Liquids Next

Moving onto Liquids.

Next to the Omo you can see Radiant powder (red packets). This is also one of the most expensive detergents on the market, coming in about 30cents more expensive than Omo.

Not every powder has a liquid variant but you can see Cold Power, Dynamo, Radiant, Omo and Surf have liquid variants. Down on the bottom shelf you can see Hurricane which is a less expensive liquid, also the Earth Choice Eco Range and also some Green Care and Radiant Black Wash (for black clothing).

Up the top you can also see some random liquids that have appeared such as Sunlight, Activ, Purity (baby care sensitive) and Orange Power (uses orange oil).

The caps on the dynamo indicate different variants as is the same with COld Power:
Dynamo Blue: Regular Top Loader
Dynamo Turqouise: Regular Front Loader
Dynamo Green: Top Loader Eucalyptus
Dynamo White: Front and Top loader with a touch of Sard Stain Remover.
Cold Power Blue: Regular t/load
Cold Power Turqouise: F/load
Cold Power Yellow: T.load Lemon
Cold Power White Bottle: Pure Essentials White Lily and Baking Soda.

Phew lol

Next to conditioners...

 

[mattywashboy]

Conditioners

All our conditioners are currently being made into 2xUltra and some new scents are popping up. Pack sizes are constantly being renewed also.

Fluffy and Cuddly are the major softener brands here in Australia.
Cuddly have a range of scents including:
Blue : Sunshine Fresh
Purple : Lavender and Bergamont
Orange: Not sure what it is, smells almost like Vanilla.
Red: Wild Rose and Damiscus (or something...) not sure but it smells very nice.
White: Sensitive (Almond Milk)

Fluffy have some nice ones which i use a lot.
White: Jasmine Fresh (my favourite)
Purple: Wild Lavender (mums favourite)
Green: Apple Blossom (my second favourite)
Yellow: Summer Breeze (third favourite)
They also have some new Limited Edition scents such as Indulge, Excite, Oriental Nights and Breath of Nature, all smell really nice.

Mixed in are other brands such as Huggie, IGA Black and Gold, Purity and Earth Choice. Also there are some Lux Soap Flakes down the far right and Fluffy Tumble Dryer Sheets middle left of the photo.

On the top shelf are the Wool detergents such as Softly, Martha Gardeners and IGA Adore.

I hope this has been interesting for you guys. these are not all the products for sale in Australia, other supermarkets have their own brands and different variations of products that have been made exclusively for sale in certain Supermakets. We are only a small IGA store, so nothing except the basics, which you have seen above.

Have a good day
Matt
x

 

[powerfin64]

cold power powder

I haven't seen that since I was a kid!! I wonder if its the same as it was. That was great stuff. I'd love to try some of it someday!

Rich

 

[twinniefan]

Sunlight liquid

Hi Matt,
We have used the Sunlight liquid a while ago and it isn't too bad, reasonable cleaning with a light lemon fragrance.
Is the Black and Gold the local generic brand for I.G.A.?.
Today we bought some Radiant Micromax High Performance liquid to try out it wasn't a bad price either $4.00.
If I remember rightly over there in W.A. there used to be a company called Pascoe's who took over manufacturing the original Oz laundry liquid,it was called Aura.

 

[mattywashboy]

Hey
I have some Sunlight liquid in my cupboard that i use for handwashing. Its not bad, i have the Citrus Fresh version. We use Radiant MicroMax powder as our daily driver, does a great job and leaves a nice scent.
Black and Gold is the generic brand from IGA yeah, they have a whole range of stuff including laundry powder, liquid, softener and nappy soaker. Never brought myself to use any of it tho, apart from the softener once, not too bad, smells like disinfectant tho lol.

Matt

 

[kqkenmore]

thanks for posting this it is very interesting.I miss cold power I would like it if they brought it back to usa.can you post pictures of the rest of the cleaning selections like the dishwashing and household cleaners.Do you have procter and gamble brands over there? thanks again. Carl

 

[mattywashboy]

hey carl

i can try and take some photos yeah.
I don't think we do have any P+G brands no, most of ours are made by Colgate Palmolive, Cussons or Unilever.

 

[ronhic]

Hey Matty...

...well done for posting this...

Now, on the note of 'cheaper brands' and washing performance....those that contain enzymes will often wash better at 40c/warm than when Choice test them in cold water...

Duo is a case in point...

I have used it regularly since it first came out in 1997/1998 but only in 40c/warm washes with great results....in cold, it is a low(ish) scorer, but when Choice used to test in warm, it was one of the higher scorers and was often a best buy detergent...

 

[supersuds]

Thanks for the pictures. We are now deprived of all Colgate-Palmolive and Lever laundry products over here.

Do any of your detergent powders use phosphates or have they been banned?

 

[brisnat81]

I Use Drive that is Chock full of phosphates and terrible for the environment, but gosh it works well

I rarely was cooler than 40degC (Colours) and 50degC for whites.

Always bright without any other additives.

 

[ronhic]

I agree with Nathan...

...and am currently using Drivematic (old names die hard) and find it, Omomatic and Biozet my fav's

...though it isn't too bad on the phosphates when you look at the grams per wash...

 

[twinniefan]

Matic for front loaders

I agree with you Chris, the name Matic is synonomous for front loader powders for as long as I can remember,Omo-matic and Drive-matic ,Surf-matic.
Speaking of old powders, does anyone remember R.M. Gow's? wiht the full name of "R.M. Gow's laundry detergent,powerful, hardworking washing powder which gives you real value for money?" actually used to work pretty well too as I recall.
I just have too add my late mother was crushed when her beloved Rinso disappeared you know I don't think she ever really found another detergent she liked as much, perhpas the old Lemon Fab, but that's about it.

 

[ronhic]

Interesting that you mention....

...Rinso...

My mother used it too...and loved it. It was enzyme free (I gather) as she used to use 'Bio Ad' in addition to it, particularly for whites....and would 'suds save' that for my fathers builders clothes...

Mum moved to Omo and then Omomatic after Rinso departed...

 

[gorenje]

WOW

Oh God Matthew, thanks for posting this. As as detergent collector this is heaven to me. It would be nice to add pictures like this from other Countries of the World.
My Secret Santa gift was a DRIVE detergent from Australia. By the way, thank you once again Nathan for the wonderfull presents.
The Drive detergent have such a great scent!
Ingemar

 

[kqkenmore]

Matthew thanks for anwsering I look foward to see other pictures of household products.On another thing I love all of the selection that you have for detergent and laundry products it kinda makes me mad at the stores over here they are trying to get rid of our selection of products.I went to buy detergent tonight and the only thing that I could find over here was tide he powder and it was in the big size. This was in a American supermarket Kroger.

 

[supersuds]

Phosphates! Sigh.

I wonder how I can get some Drive....

 

[ronhic]

Phosphates..

....here are allowed to be up to an industry regulated maximum of 7.8grams (gms) per 'normal' dose per wash.

Drive has 1.3gms per dose.

To give you some idea how low this is, there are 454gms to a pound....

 

[mattywashboy]

i used to use Drive Liquid when it was in production. That was a great detergent.

I have read that Drive powder can really fade colours, has anyone found this? I have used Drive powder once, but on sheets and towels.

As you can see on the above pic, its on offer where i work so might pick some up to have in the cupboard. Currently working through a huge bucket of Radiant Micro Max lol

Matt

 

[brisnat81]

I havent had much experience with the new drive x2 formula, but the 50 boxes of regular drive I bought 12 months ago have never faded anything. I've been using Drive as my mainstay for almost 4 years now.

The only fading I've had is from line drying.

I'll be interested in the performance of the new drive as I've finally nearly used the 100kgs of original drive that I had, Its Phosphate content was more like 5.6g per normal does, so the new version is much lighter on.

Choice didnt test the new version because its not a volume seller, but the old version always rated very highly.

 

[ronhic]

Matt and Nathan

...I have been using the new Drive 2x alternating with other powders (old Omomatic 'big scoop', Persil tablets, Biozet and....old 1kg boxes, 1cup dose of Omomatic that I still have ---- I wish they would bring back that scent!) and have not noticed any significant fading at all.

As with Omomatic, it is a powerful powder and you, as you would know, can generally use less (much less) than you need and get perfectly clean results. With the exception of sheets, I regularly use 2/3 of a scoop with A1 results.

 

[dandureiko]

Same here, was surprised to see Cold Power, I remember that as a kid, (Though mom used Wisk)
Just like all of our new appliances, there are perhaps only what 3-5 companies making all these detergents right?
would be interesting to see who makes Cold Power.
I am surprised not to see Tide or Downy, I thought they were woldwide mega brands.?
(Let's not forget Fairy from the UK/Ireland.....
"Everyone should have a Fairy in their kitchen" something like that was on the bottles last I looked
Dan

 

[ronhic]

Here is the link...

...to Colgate Palmolive....

Dan...

You shouldn't be surprised to not see them at all....Tide is an American detergent and unless there is an American shop such as Costco (which there is in Melbourne) and/or they can bring it in cheaper, it is unlikely that it will appear.

Australians, like most nationalities, are generally very loyal to washing powders/fabric softeners. Most people find a product or 2 and stick with them. Many use a couple so that one is generally on special when they run low or they buy several when it is on special. Only a few, such as people on here, chop and change...

Tide, which was sold here for a short while by BigW, is, if I remember correctly, has an unusual scent to my nose compared to those detergents that we are used to here and may find it difficult to break into our loyal market....just as it would in the UK and Europe....

http://www.colgate.com.au/app/Colgate/AU/HomePage.cvsp

 

[twinniefan]

Tide

Hi Chris, hope you are well,
There is actually a version of Tide here which I have seen in the corner store shops usually owned by Asian or Arabic families, there are a couple around where I live and work.
They are usually very large buckets of Tide, also Omo and another one called Dux, however they are generally Vietnamese or Indonesian versions of the above mentioned powders,I do not know if they perform as well as the original versions.
Actually stay right away from Dux, it is absolutely terrible, my neighbour Geoff bought a bucket of it some months ago and found after each wash there was a huge amount of excess suds left and he only used the recommended amount, so I tried a little of it in my T.T. and found the same, after reading the instructions I discovered to my horror that the damn stuff recommends at least 5!!!!!! rinses to dissolve the suds as it is a very high foaming product, not very water or environmentally friendly when a city is on water restrictions,in fact the bloody stuff nearly blocked up my T.T.'s pump.

 

[twinniefan]

German Persil

Just on another note I was very fortunate about a year or so ago, the local Polish family delicatessen,(best german sausages you ever had,Yummmmmy,I wouldnt mind having a few now). used to stock the German Persil by Henkel, and it really was a terrific detergent, I LOVED!!!!!it just a little scoop or so in a full wash and presto! nice clean clothes and that was with just a quick 7 minute wash in the T.T.(we didn't own the L.G. Giant then.)but they stopped bringing it in a long time ago, more's the pity.
Cheers.
Steve.

 

[ronhic]

German Persil

...Sheesh...

You build me up with expectations.......

.......and then I'll be damned if you don't 'rip' the carpet out from under me....

Why oh why did they have to stop bringing it in........

 

[jamiel]

It's interesting...Australia is the last wealthy region of the world that P&G isn't a player in the laundry market...believe that Colgate has sold off their laundry detergent business nearly every place else.

 

[ronhic]

May it remain so....

 

[gyrafoam]

Hey Matt, in the photo with the fabric softeners, on the left below the blue bottle of Cuddly, there is what appears to be a large block of soap called Velvet. Is it really a large block, or is it divided into cakes? Is it specifically for laundry use? Just curious as it is so large it caught my attention. Also, up on another shelf I spy a large box of Lux. Is that still soap flakes? I sure wish there were some sort of soap flakes still sold here in the U.S. I miss plain old Ivory Snow!

It is kool to see the labels for Cold Power, Drive and Dynamo.
The powdered Cold Power has a label that looks very similar to how it appeared when it was first introduced here in the U.S. The liquid Cold Power bottle reminds me of the old liquid All we used to have. So many flavors of FAB! It is cheap stuff here in the States as well, however I have found it to be a good performer. It is fairly low sudzing, so I can use it in a f/l or 1-18 without a problem and I love some of the fragrances, especially "ocean breeze".

When it comes to phosphates, here in the U.S. you either have to buy detergents imported from Mexico, or buy a drum of Phosphates from a chemical manufacturer and make your own "cocktail".

I loved VIVA, so when they removed the phosphates last year it was a big dissapointment. My next favorite is FOCA which is very reminicent of our old Rinso Blue. I like the bluing in it and it is not as high sudzing as the Viva is. I use FOCA most of the time now and really like it's performance and fresh light scent. I tend to "hoard" it out of fear they will drop the phosphates in it, too!

Old Tide ain't what she used to be. Not only are the phosphates long gone, but the "original" fragrance----isn't----AND I have caught P&G adding "fillers" to it lately (powdered version). My solid-tub machines are left with a white powder in the tub. It really shows-up in the WO-65-2 because the tub is such a dark blue. That pissed me off as it is America's most expensive detergent and I sure as hell resent paying a premium price for fillers!
I called their customer service line and raised hell with them. but you know they couldn't care less. There are so many "sheeple" in America, they will just keep right on paying high prices for the filler, although in all fairness, most of the newer machines have light or white tubs----so the filler doesn't show------VERY sneaky! I won't buy any more.

Thanks for the interesing picture into what it is like going shopping for laundry aids in Australia!

 

[ronhic]

It's a multi-bar pack...

...and yes, LUX are pure soap flakes from the same manufacturer

http://www.pental.com.au/our-brands/laundry-care/sunlight-velvet-laundry-soap