danemodsandy
Well-known member
Well, Colgate-Palmolive has done it again. Those of you who use their laundry products know the drill - one day, you go into the store to pick up your favourite, and somehow, the bottle looks skinnier or something....
And when you get it home and compare it to the old one, you see what's happened. A hidden price increase has been put into effect by keeping the price unchanged, but downsizing what you get for your money.
Now C-P is doing this with its bar soaps. I'm a bar soap lover, for reasons of familiarity (I grew up with the stuff), and environment. Liquid body washes carry an environmental cost I personally find unacceptable - the plastic containers are petrochemical-based, and the product itself is largely water, which is just a leetle bit oil-intensive to ship.
My favoured bar soap has always been Palmolive Mild All-Family, which has come in a 4-ounce bar ever since I can remember. In fact, I have DVD's of the old Colgate Comedy Hour from 1951 where the "thriftiness" of the 4-ounce size is touted.
Well, my latest purchase of Palmolive was a shock. I really didn't notice anything when I reached for the soap on the store shelf. It was only when I got it home and put it next to the rest of the bars I already had (we're stocker-uppers) that I realised - C-P strikes again!
The new bar size is 3.2 ounces, for a total of 9.6 ounces in a three-pack of bars. The old size gave you 12 ounces in a three-pack. This is a whopping price increase! What really frosted me was that C-P went to a very great deal of trouble to make the new, smaller package look exactly like the old, so that you wouldn't notice in the store.
Since I've been using the new size, I have found that it lasts no time at all, creating a constant need for replacement. I complained to C-P, making my disappointment plain. I told them that an honest price increase would have served me better than the tactic they chose - everyone knows costs are increasing, and no reasonable person would hold an honest increase against them. My reward for my trouble was a bland, canned form letter and a few cents-off coupons for C-P products. The letter referred to Palmolive as having been "converted"; they couldn't even be straightforward enough to say "downsized". Such mealy-mouthed corporate-speak!
There's not much to be done about it, except to stop using Palmolive, and that would cut me out of a pleasant product. But it amazes me that a corporation would not be able to figure out that consumers would resent the change. By the way, C-P has done this to all its bar soaps across the board, including Irish Spring, Cashmere Bouquet, etc.
Here's a photo of before and after; you can see the lengths to which C-P went in making the difference hard to spot in the store:
And when you get it home and compare it to the old one, you see what's happened. A hidden price increase has been put into effect by keeping the price unchanged, but downsizing what you get for your money.
Now C-P is doing this with its bar soaps. I'm a bar soap lover, for reasons of familiarity (I grew up with the stuff), and environment. Liquid body washes carry an environmental cost I personally find unacceptable - the plastic containers are petrochemical-based, and the product itself is largely water, which is just a leetle bit oil-intensive to ship.
My favoured bar soap has always been Palmolive Mild All-Family, which has come in a 4-ounce bar ever since I can remember. In fact, I have DVD's of the old Colgate Comedy Hour from 1951 where the "thriftiness" of the 4-ounce size is touted.
Well, my latest purchase of Palmolive was a shock. I really didn't notice anything when I reached for the soap on the store shelf. It was only when I got it home and put it next to the rest of the bars I already had (we're stocker-uppers) that I realised - C-P strikes again!
The new bar size is 3.2 ounces, for a total of 9.6 ounces in a three-pack of bars. The old size gave you 12 ounces in a three-pack. This is a whopping price increase! What really frosted me was that C-P went to a very great deal of trouble to make the new, smaller package look exactly like the old, so that you wouldn't notice in the store.
Since I've been using the new size, I have found that it lasts no time at all, creating a constant need for replacement. I complained to C-P, making my disappointment plain. I told them that an honest price increase would have served me better than the tactic they chose - everyone knows costs are increasing, and no reasonable person would hold an honest increase against them. My reward for my trouble was a bland, canned form letter and a few cents-off coupons for C-P products. The letter referred to Palmolive as having been "converted"; they couldn't even be straightforward enough to say "downsized". Such mealy-mouthed corporate-speak!
There's not much to be done about it, except to stop using Palmolive, and that would cut me out of a pleasant product. But it amazes me that a corporation would not be able to figure out that consumers would resent the change. By the way, C-P has done this to all its bar soaps across the board, including Irish Spring, Cashmere Bouquet, etc.
Here's a photo of before and after; you can see the lengths to which C-P went in making the difference hard to spot in the store:
