Review: Detergent aisles of American supermarkets

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Another powder user here, but also add a bit of liquid for a "boost" to help get the oily stuff out of my laundry and a bit cleaner.

Tomorrow is laundry day for me. I'm going to try and head out either early in the morning or somewhat later in the afternoon. When I went a few weeks ago (on of all times, a Monday afternoon), there was NO HOT WATER! I was one angry customer, but I was told by the attendant there had been a rush that died down about 20 or so minutes before I got there.

Vern, I agree with you 100%! And while P&G is working on bringing back Dash, Unilever can bring back their old "All" formula. That's another one I miss.
 
No Need To Travel Around The Country

As my statements were gleaned from reading research from detergen marketing services and from the likes of P&G as to why liquid detergents tend to dominate many local market offerings.

Of course local sales may vary but you'd be hard pressed to find powdered detergents in quite allot of areas and you don't hear many consumers complaining.

On another note this isn't the first time you've made a crack about one living in "the city" as some sort of splendid isolation. Didn't think much of those remarks at the time so held my fire, but just so you know do travel quite a bit around this country and world and while don't go poking my nose into people's laundry areas do often get to see what is on store shelves.

http://www.happi.com/articles/2000/01/detergent-market-update
 
Of the cities Flo mentioned he might visit, I can only comment on Miami, having just been there. I checked a Publix supermarket, the most popular chain in Florida, and found nothing at all of interest. I was told later that the store I went to is older and smaller than many, though.

A Winn Dixie on SW 22 Street/Coral Way had some Mexican Ariel, but the smell practically knocked me down and I couldn't imagine wanting to use it. I don't suppose it would be suitable for a Euro frontloader, anyway.
 
With respect to m'lady and all else, there is a HUGE extent to which marketing drives not only what is purchased but also what is available. And these parameters cannot logically be discerned remotely. It's logical to the marketing conspirators, but never to the customers. And it varies by neighborhood.

IOW, for example, if a store's primary demographic is led by marketing and marketing is pushing liquids, that's what the store will have and that's what the customers will buy. Whether it's good for them or not, they will BELIEVE it is.

OTOH, if marketing is pushing liquids but the primary demographic still doesn't like them, the store will stock powders because that's what sells. And again, none of this can logically be predicted from one neighborhood to the next.

Yes, it most assuredly was a great deal simpler a generation (20yr) ago. Before marketers adopted the "divide and conquer" method. If you want an in-your-face presentation of D&Q, watch politics. The exact same marketers who sell you detergent sell you national "leaders", using the exact same methods.
 
Bill it's kind of funny you mentioned that. My Grandma was an avid Dash user since it was introduced. And after it went off the market she switched to "All" and had used it ever since. I loved the scent of Dash and the old scent of All. I wish these companies would leave the scents alone!
 
Lawrence, don't worry, everything is ok. I did not take it the wrong way :)

Launderess, I have not checked that K-Mart but thanks, I will keep that one in mind and have a look at google maps, if it is not too far away. The hotel I use to stay is near Brooklyn Bridge (Brooklyn side).

jerod6, I stay at the Market Street in the Marriott Hotel when I am in Philly.

Supersuds, in Miami we I do stay at a Hotel at South Ocean Drive in Hollywood. There is a Publix and a Walmart near the Hotel. I have seen both. Walmart has a very poor detergent aisle and by the way they are rebuilding the store but not for a few months. They are already doing this for over a year and they don't come to an end !!! I actually do not remember the Publix's detergent aisle, but doesn't seem to be something special, otherwise I would remember.

Thanks to everyone taking part in the discussion and helping me out. I do appreciate a lot !!
 
K-Mart On Astor Place

Is right in The Village near Saint Mark's Place and NYU.

Many subways stop right there or on Broadway. The IRT line subway #6 stops at Astor place and the store is right there. Or, you can take any train that goes to Union Square (14th Street) and walk downtown/South to reach the store. The areas is wonderful and quite "hip" these days, especially Union Square south to the Village, so it would make a nice walkabout.
 
First Article Statement:

"Unilever, second in the category, has been shifting its marketing efforts to grow its share. The results? All Ultra posted a 117% gain in dollar sales and a 107% rise in unit sales for the 52 weeks ended Oct. 10. Liquid Wisk, its largest brand, fell 1.3% in dollar and 12.1% in unit sales. On the powder side, Surf and Wisk each posted double-digit losses in dollar and unit sales, but Ultra Surf is up 123% in dollar sales and 72% in unit sales. Among top brands, the company had the fastest growing brands in both powder and liquids Peter Ryan, Unilever's vice president of laundry categories, said the company's marketing plan was to shift sales among its products. "That was right on with our plan," Mr. Ryan reflected on the results."

I take it the author of this article hasn't looked at the back of the packaging and noticed the Unilever products are now made and distributed by the same company affiliated with Sun products?
 
The first article....

sites empirical data from the third quarter of 1999. It appears to be an old article.

Huish Detergents, which used to manufacture a great deal of private label brands as well as their own line called Sun, renamed their company Sun Products when they acquired the All, Wisk, and Surf brands from Unilever.
 
Around here is S.W. Pennsylvania, we havent had a Kroger for a good 25+ years, Our main chains here are Giant Eagle and Shop N Save, both are Pittsburgh based, Giant Eagle being larger and having spread through alot of Ohio. There is also FoodLand which is smaller and not as common. We also have Wal Mart and Target with a few K Marts about.
I personally am a Shop N Save person, but in my local stores Shop N Save and Giant Eagle are fairly equal in selection of detergent, both have an overwhelming array of Tide(I skip past as I am not a Tide fan)as well as Gain, Purex, Wisk, Arm and Hammer, and Xtra, and I believe All too. There is powder Surf, Tide and Gain in those stores, and a long line of nauseatingly scented fabric softners. In the bleach department there is always Clorox brand as well as a generic store brand, but Shop N Save carries my bleach of prefrence whih is Austins A-1 bleach which is still a full gallon and is unconcentrated bleach for a lower price, often on sale for 4 for $5

For years our household used strictly Sears UltraPlus powder but over the last year or so we have been switching to liquid mostly because it is better for the septic tank, My prefrence is Wisk and always has been for liquid, but we use alot of Arm and hammer liquid as well, it seems to perform well and has a pleasant clean scent.
 
here in Denver...

Here in Denver, we have King Soopers (which is Kroger), Safeway, Super Target, Super Walmart, Albertsons, and no doubt other smaller ones.

My observation is as follows:
1. The Super Walmarts here are clean and usually well stocked. I tend to shop there for canned and bottled stuff, as well as sugar and flour, as the prices are in some cases 50% less than Kroger/Safeway. Cleaning products are by far the cheapest. Never, ever, ever buy meat there in my opinion, and the quality of their produce is often mediocre.
2. Safeway is a great supermarket, but the selection is often poor (the only large Safeway I have been in is in Boulder, CO, and none are near where I live). Their prices are often 10-20% higher than King Soopers. [They have the best meat selection in my opinion though].
3. King Soopers is where I do my weekly shop. I disagree that the Kroger store, here, has the best prices. There are many things that are shockingly expensive in the store, mostly cleaning products.
4. Albertsons has only a small and seemingly getting smaller number of stores and none are convenient to me.
5. The Super Target stores are okay, but nothing to write home about.

NONE OF THEM have the selection of cleaning products that I remember from large supermarkets in the NYC metro area. MAYBE this is nation wide. As for laundry detergents, I can't say that either.

As for Denver, a big King Soopers will probably give you the best detergent selection of any store in the metro area. If I find out more I'll post it here :)
 
of course pods will change it...

...because you're paying many times the price per dose that you are with a bottle or a box :)
 
An aside here...

Along with xraytech, I too, use Austin's A-1 Bleach. I can remember seeing my mother use it way back in the early 1960s. It's from a Pittsburgh area company, and I like to support local business as much as possible.

Here in the boonies, the three supermarkets pretty much march arm in arm when it comes to stocking the detergent aisle, with the two independent markets following WalMart's stocking habits. Mostly Tide liquid in its myriad forms, then the other liquid brands. Powdered detergent tends to be Tide and Gain, plus Arm & Hammer. Powders at WalMart take up a segment of shelving about four feet in length. The only HE powder is one smaller box of Tide and one of Gain.

Liquid fabric softener selection is the many flavors of Tide and Gain, followed by a few in the Snuggle line and the store brands.

I remember 'way back when I was a kid, the detergent aisle was (of course) made up of powders, and every time that my mother would walk down the aisle, she would sneeze from the scents. I can only guess how she would sneeze if she were still alive, and if the aisle still contained as much powder...especially with today's plethora of intense scents!

Joe
 
Hunter -

I think you may be on to something about Denver's (or that of the West in general) detergent selection.

My family moved to what is now Centennial in 1977 (we were south Denver "pioneers" of sorts back then) and our grocery store choices were Safeway and King Soopers, just like you said.

Now that you mention it, I remember thinking the detergent aisle at Safeway was nothing like those we had in the Detroit suburb we moved from. I don't think it was even a half an aisle, where the Kroger in Michigan had nearly a full aisle of detergents, bleach, softener, etc. I think Soopers had more, but as a teenager and I was dispatched to the grocery store, I had to go to the closest place...

Albertson's came to Denver with big fanfare around 1980 I think. Sounds like that is finally fizzling out?

Gordon
 
Albertson's

The prices in Albertson's are...shall we say...quite shocking.

So I don't think a lot of folks shop there, unless they have no other alternative.

South Denver is VERY different now, with Highlands Ranch being so big! And it is very, very, very wealthy.
 
I don't know what Albertsons is like elsewhere, but they consistently seem pretty expensive here. At times, of the stores available, I've felt they are the most expensive. They are now owned by SuperValu, but at the prices I see, they aren't any sort of value, let alone a "super" value. Although, others may disagree. During busy times, the stores have plenty of shoppers. And I know someone who did shop there heavily, although her shopping tends to be heavily influenced by sales which, she felt, could be quite good.
 
Flo

is there any specific detergents here in the States that you are looking for?

Perhaps we can help you find, or direct you to a specific store, if we know what you may be looking for. Such as detergents here, that do, or do not contain enzymes, do, or do not contain oxygen bleaches, do or do not contain optical brighteners, or are considered "Echo friendly" ect ect

The list of cities you gave helps, as members that live there may be able to point you in the right direction.

HTH
 
Hello,

I am not looking for anything specific. Maybe for Gain Apple Mango Tango HE. That was one detergent no one seems to carry.

You know, as German people coming home from the last vacation in the US they always were thrilled and said, the stores over there were so big and no German store would be so big like in the US.

Now that I have seen different stores in different states I am quite a bit...well...back down to earth. Most of the stores, are just a little bigger but we have even bigger stores over here. Even the detergent selection is better in some of the German supermarkets. Thats why I came to speak of that kind of theme. I am still looking for the one supermarket that is so big that I will stand in front and say "wow". And I measure the size of a store at its detergent aisle. Thats why I opened that thread.

By the way, I forgot Detroit in the list of cities above. I think Miami had the best shops so far despite that Walmart that is rebuilding that store like forever.

Maybe someone can recommend a good store in the Bay Area. Will be in SFO within the next months.

Thanks to you all for your great participation in this discussion.
 
Strange, isn't it? It never came across me neither. And I have seen dozens of supermarkets AND drug stores like Walgreens, Rite Aid etc.
 
Interesting read

Thanks for posting that link laundress.  Interesting.  I wonder who they surveyed when asking the questions about Tide pods. A " 25%  increase in satisfaction on provides deep down clean."  How does any consumer know whether anything is deep down clean,  and what is deep down clean?  

 

Also of note was the sentence that said that manufacturers see liquids as cheaper to produce than powders. So there we the reason the shelves are full of liquids and powders are missing.
 
Walgreen's Now Own's Duane Read Stores

So you'll be seeing more and more of one and less of the other as years go by.

All started pretty much as pharmacy/drug stores but have expanded over the past few years to become almost like "Stop and Shop" type stores, offering everything from housewares, hardware, cosmetics/beauty products, groceries and of course pharmacy services.

One good thing is that quite allot of these stores are open 24/7, so if needs something overnight from rodent poison to snacks/beverages, they are there.

On the downside the growth of such stores have pretty much killed off small local "mom and pop" grocery and drug shops in many areas of NYC.
 
I am still looking for the one supermarket that is so big th

Are you an airline man, Flo?

 

If you get anywhere near a Wegman's, maybe your desire will be realized. The newer ones are so big, and sell so many fresh and prepared foods, it's mind-boggling. They are like European villages with cheese shops, olive bars, breweries, bakeries, regular and dessert gourmet, dinner bars where for 6, 8 or 10 dollars, depending on the entree, the clerk selects your choices, "Charlie the Butcher" hot meat high end sandwiches, (breathe).........

 

any vegetable or combination you can imagine chopped for you at the veggie bar, Chinese food by Chinese chefs, Vegetarian bars, Middle Eastern bars, pizzeria, a coffee & breakfast sandwich or pastry bar, and a submarine shop for you or a whole party platter of goodies. On and on. Indeed, I know some older folk who won't go to the newer Weggies because, overwhelmed, they actually get lost in the store.

 

Flo, you must see one of these Weggies to believe it. I have not seen the likes of it anywhere else, but I am not sure of extent of their territory beyond Western New York, but now I'm curious, so I'll google it.

 

As for detergents, a definite diminution from days gone by as has been noted, but still a ton of it; however, Wegman's has their own store brand of soap & softeners & bleach in almost as many flavors as Tide, but not, alas, in Apple Mango Tango HE, lol.

 

Launderess & Frigilux, and following: Pitch perfect Hyacinth Bouquet dialogue. Loved it. Made my night.
 
mickeyd: Yes I am an airliner and happy about the fact to be able to browse through all detergent aisles of many countries *lol*.

I already thought if Apple Mango Tange HE is just a myth? :D

I will google for Weggies, too. Maybe one store is in an acceptable distance. We'll see.
 
Having had a Wegman's for 20+ years in my area, and love every bit of it, I do find the laundry detergent selection somewhat limited, (could just be this area Wegman's). I find Kmart or PriceChopper has the largest and most varied laundry detergent selections. Best of luck!
 
Target has a really small selection of many products and only carries big volume items - a friend in market research says products with high sales and fast rotations and they have a limited vendor list, like many stores. I've heard that many big chains also stop small stores from carrying big brands, which hurts them too. My friend says that "Barf" (from other post) will NEVER be at Target, alas....
 

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