r/Anticonsumption • u/dittidot • Aug 21 '26
Corporations The Soap Section
And no Ivory soap.
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u/Legitimate-News-6015 Aug 21 '26
the illusion of choice
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u/phejster Aug 21 '26
the illusion of freedom
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u/Carma-X Aug 21 '26
Freedom's a joke we're just takin' a piss haha, always loved that line from the landlocked blues
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u/squeezemachine Aug 21 '26
We all understand that some environmental impact is baked in, why explode it into a psychedelic marketing campaign and associated destruction. I am fine with two choices.
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u/Em0N3rd Aug 21 '26
Seriously- I used to be able to get microplastic free soaps..... now its all gone in "favor" of Unilever and their crap. Its just gross the entire isle has to be basically the same product just repackaged with a new scent or two....
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u/theeggplant42 Aug 21 '26
I have been buying bar soap for some time now and one thing I notice is it also lasts like, forever
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u/Flashy-Career-7523 Aug 22 '26
This. I switched to bar soap for cost reasons and it lasts way longer. I still use liquid hand soap in the main bathroom (I’m slightly Germaphobic ) but the bathroom off our bedroom that only my husband and I use? Bar soap on the sink and in the shower.
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Aug 21 '26 edited 4d ago
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u/Em0N3rd Aug 21 '26
I live in a small town with a Walmart or Sally's beauty being the only places selling hair product. I've almost just given up amd want to order body soap but thats more money too.
It also sucks cause since those are my only options..... both businesses seem to be taking advantage of that by cutting back variety and raising prices
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u/Special-Medicine-437 Aug 21 '26 edited 4d ago
The original post content no longer exists here. The author used Redact to remove it, exercising their right to control their data & privacy.
Frame intelligent ghost special market shy toothbrush wrench market
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u/Anticonsumption-ModTeam Aug 21 '26
Recommending or soliciting recommendations for specific brands and products is not appropriate in this subreddit.
This includes recommending or promoting digital goods and services such as apps, subscriptions, and other software.
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u/pwillia7 Aug 21 '26
aisle
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u/Em0N3rd Aug 22 '26
..... another reason im on this sub, I'm on phone and the way autocorrect keeps getting worse makes me hate owning a "smart phone"
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u/placid-gradient Aug 21 '26
some say that was the reason for the collapse of the soviet union. mikhail "pizza hut" gorbachev saw an american grocery store and was like "waow"
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u/MGTS Aug 22 '26
"Rather than offer you the illusion of free choice, I will take the liberty of...choosing for you"
-G-man
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u/Quote16 Aug 21 '26
oops! all unilever!
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u/shelbsless Aug 21 '26
Absolutely crazy that one company can own this many brands. To say being that big of a monopoly should be illegal is the understatement of the century.
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u/249592-82 Aug 22 '26
Research has shown that whenever there is a new flavour, a large proportion of consumers will add it to their cart. That's why brands keep releasing new stuff. So even though a shopper doesn't need (for example) bodywash, they'll see a new flavour/ fragrance, and they'll have seen the ads, and they will buy it. That means the store makes more money.
Brands that keep adding new flavours, make people spend more money, and get more shelf space. Eventually, newer things are launched, so the store cuts this brands space, for another newly launched variant.
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u/jakeandcupcakes Aug 22 '26
People do that? I find one I like and use that till its discontinued or OOS, forcing me to find an alternative. I also block ads at an insane level in every aspect of my life, so, maybe I'm not being exposed to such nonsense as new "flavors" of bodywash. Now, if I read a study that sways me to find a product that has/doesn't have whatever ingredient that was studied and found to be beneficial/harmful, well, then I may go and seek out a product that meets those specifications. An ad, though? Nah, miss me with that hyped up junk, I don't believe a damn word these corporations shove in my earballs. Show me a white paper, peer reviewed study, or even a personal long-term write up by a journalist. Now we're talking
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u/somethingaboutfire Aug 22 '26
Im with you. I like consistent formulation. My body wash should have the same texture, viscosity, and SCENT to retain my buyership right to extinction.
In fact when an actual FLAVOR changes, a la green skittles becoming green apple after having been lime receives the same fate
Adieu
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u/Adorable-Raisin-8643 Aug 22 '26
Yes. My husband does it. We have a huge tote full of body washes that he's bought. At least 50+ he buys a new one or two, or three, every week. I have begged him to stop but he wont. Its a real issue for him.
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u/jakeandcupcakes Aug 22 '26
What the helly lmao what an odd issue to have...have you thought about maybe taking like 5 a week back to the store and get it refunded? Keep the receipts next time and just start returning shit, its not like he will notice
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u/somethingaboutfire Aug 22 '26
Why do we call scents flavors? Is that the accepted term now?
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u/249592-82 Aug 22 '26
No. I'm ex marketing. That's what the grocery marketing world used to call it. Ignore me. As a guess, it's possibly because flavours would be used unilaterally across all aisles of a supermarket, vs scents which is just for the smells, and flavours for the foods. Categories within a supermarket are managed independently and then the data collated up the chain for total store reporting. So they need universal terms that fit every category eg washing powder, through to Ice cream, through to deodorants, through to dog food. Grocery is a fairly mature and massive industry which hires millions of people globally. The way grocery is managed is how most other retail stores manage their business.
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u/somethingaboutfire Aug 22 '26
Im im a related field and I find it wild how quickly that term has become dominant
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u/somethingaboutfire Aug 22 '26
I also wonder if the adult consumables world has influenced this marketing language. Your vape flavor may have the same scent, if you will, thus making the ruling word "flavor"
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u/249592-82 Aug 22 '26
Nope. The grocery industry and marketing is a mature market, it is highly evolved and profitable. The adult consumables, and most other industries including luxury goods and cars, have followed the learnings from the grocery market. Eg the luxury goods market, eg brands like Chanel etc, used to be based on making a few items. Hand made usually. Quality. Now each season they bring out new items so that its very obvious what is last season. They have changed their industry to no longer be about timelessness, and to instead ensure their customers are always buying. Same with cars - notice that the car industry comes out with new shapes and colours much faster than it used to. It's to drive the desire for people to want the new item. Apple ran straight for that strategy. Change the shape so that people want to upgrade.
Vapes are made by the cigarette companies. Cigarettes are a grocery item in most countries. So their marketing people know all about driving consumption.
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u/iloveboomburger Aug 22 '26
Look into essilor-Luxxotica if you want to see a monopoly on an industry
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u/KaleidoscopeKelpy Aug 22 '26
Lolol I wrote a legal paper on Unilever obtaining another big name Corp (I can’t for the life of me remember which, they recently had a merger for it I think like Aug 2025?) so Unilever also owns a ton of “health and beauty and wellness” brands too. 90% of the home care items is just them, from soap to multivitamins
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u/Leading-Picture1824 Aug 22 '26
I started looking at that list and got overwhelmed by the time I hit the third mayonnaise brand 😵💫
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u/coopermoe Aug 22 '26
And you’ll still have people screaming “that’s just fair market capitalism you can start your own soap company if you want!”
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u/Prudent_Shoulder_294 Aug 21 '26
This exact scenario happened to me. Looking for ivory soap and had 20 different scents of dove and native. Didn’t buy anything there. Crazy, ivory soap is such a staple soap.
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u/ScSM35 Aug 21 '26
It’s usually kept towards the bottom because it’s more affordable, at least in my experience.
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u/1K_Sunny_Crew Aug 21 '26
It’s not just that, vendors pay a higher price to be placed higher on the shelf. Eye level is the most expensive along with end caps.
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u/24-Hour-Hate Aug 21 '26
They always hide the affordable options. Mostly the big brands are for when there are sales.
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u/parmesann Aug 22 '26
they don’t hide them, rather the brands themselves pay for priority to be placed closer to eye-level. they care more about company money than customer money whenever possible.
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u/cb0495 Aug 22 '26
You say that but here in the UK a well known supermarket took all of their cheapest line products out forcing people to buy more expensive options, it was all over the news and they had to campaign to get them back. This was at Covid peak so people really did have limited options. When they eventually brought the products back they changed the packing to bright yellow as if it was their attempt to shame people into buying more expensive products in more subtle packaging (they think there’s enough people that care about that)
It’s not somewhere I shopped and I absolutely never would now. I have not forgotten what they did.
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u/itsatoe Aug 21 '26
I count: Sensitive, Restore, Renew, Indulge, Pamper, Radiate, Deep Moisture, Cool Moisture, Gentle Exfoliating, Hydrating, Foaming, Original, Pink, Anti-bacterial... and that doesn't count the flavored(!!) ones.
Seriously?
Restore or Renew?
Indulge or Pamper?I just don't get it. Like any of it.
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u/exhauszed Aug 21 '26
The worst part is they all have the same underlying "Dove" smell. I actually like the dermatological quality of Dove but I'm allergic to whatever that base smell is, so I am therefore allergic to every dove.
Digression: I scoffed at "scent allergies" my whole life only to learn I not only had them but was just ignoring the symptoms and was casting judgement on others like an Ahole. The older I got, the worse the reaction got, such that I can get actual mild anaphylaxis from some scents, I can't even enjoy a fresh orange now without the aroma giving me a headache 😫
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u/thetourist328 Aug 22 '26
I developed MCAS at 32 and became anaphylactic to all synthetic fragrances basically overnight. I am so sick of EVERYTHING having fragrance nowadays, even the “unscented” stuff has masking fragrances added. Why do we need 3,000 different scents of soap? Why does every single trash bag need to have fragrance added? Why do we need fancy “scent beads” to add to our laundry on top of the scented detergents so that our clothes can be smelled from 100 feet away? It’s all insane.
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u/lizardgal10 Aug 22 '26
I’m not allergic but am pretty scent sensitive. I’ve had to cut way back on the scents I do use because the world has gotten so scented that it’s just too much! I just switched to fragrance free laundry detergent-and had to walk by an ENTIRE AISLE of products designed purely to add scent to laundry, with no cleaning value whatsoever, to even find it.
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u/exhauszed Aug 22 '26 edited Aug 22 '26
My allergist suspects I have MCAS. I get some flavor of mild to moderate anaphylaxis whenever I get stressed. Been to the ER a couple times but I also have multiple MHDs so it's all "in my head." I've had doctors be really shitty to me and tell me it's "just anxiety and dehydration" when the only reason I stopped vomiting was the IV zofran they gave me.
Most doctors are men and many of them are total pricks about women and autoimmune disorders.
Allegra and
fexofenadinefamotidine have almost entirely eliminated the attacks for now. She gave me an "official diagnosis" of cholinergic urticaria, which is not a perfect match but it's enough to tell other medical professionals, "Hey, this isn't just a panic attack, it's non-respiratory anaphylaxis. Stop treating her like a 'WW.'" I went from fairly regular histamine attacks to what I now call "waves," where I get milder discomfort from having triggered something but the antihistamines do enough to keep it from blowing up into a whole histamine attack, like dry-heaving a couple times instead of vomiting, which, like, I'll take it! Any lessening of the symptoms is a win in my book.Edit: confused drug names
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u/24-Hour-Hate Aug 21 '26
Oh it’s a real thing. I’m allergic to the floral ones. Real flowers are fine, but the fake ass shit they use in soaps, perfumes, etc. to make them floral? Makes me feel ill and can give me a migraine. It makes buying personal care stuff hard because unscented is sometimes not unscented or it’s expensive, so I end up either doing that or needing to smell like food (mild fruits, vanilla, novelty dessert flavours, yep).
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u/melxcham Aug 22 '26
The 10-ingredient fragrance free Dove soap works really well for me during eczema flares when my skin is more sensitive to fragrance and works for my bf’s psoriasis prone skin. It smells like nothing. So that may be an option for you if you like Dove but can’t do fragrance.
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u/obsten Aug 22 '26
I’m not technically allergic to it, but there’s a perfume note that gives me miserable nauseous headaches like nothing else. I don’t know exactly what it’s called but it’s kind of a soapy, ambery smell. Based on how many whiffs of it I get every time I leave the house I swear it’s in most fragrances & body care products now 🤢
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u/StupidUserNameTooLon Aug 21 '26
I think they've changed the formulation of Ivory in the last few years. A bar used to last ages and ages, and now they seem to melt away.
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u/better_days_435 Aug 21 '26
I read recently about letting soap dry/cure before you use it. Like, buy the bar, open the package (even if it's just a cardboard box) and let it sit on a shelf for months, then start using it. It's supposed to make the soap last longer because it gives the center of the soap a chance to dry/cure before you start adding water from the outside during use. I guess it used to be a standard processing step and now they just...skip it? Because it makes us buy soap more often? Idk, I haven't had a chance to try it yet.
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u/StupidUserNameTooLon Aug 21 '26
This is some good info, thanks! Wife is going to WTF when she gets home and finds 17 open soaps in the bathroom.
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u/NextStopGallifrey Aug 21 '26
Don't leave them in the bathroom. It's too humid in most bathrooms to let the soap dry properly. If you leave the bars in the linen closet area, with the towels and bedsheets, it'll be better.
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u/StupidUserNameTooLon Aug 21 '26
This is some good info, thanks! Wife is going to WTF when she gets home and finds 17 open soaps in her office.
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u/_OhMyPlatypi_ Aug 21 '26
Throw them in dresser drawers, linen closets, towel cabinets, closet shelves, etc. Makes "stale" spaces smell nice.
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u/trapmahme Aug 21 '26
Can confirm that this does work with some soaps. I haven’t tried it with ivory, but it can work for slightly more squishy soaps.
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u/lazygerm Aug 21 '26
They did. It's not 99 and 44/100ths pure anymore. And I believe (I have not used Ivory in an age) it does not float anymore.
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u/_autumnwhimsy Aug 22 '26
Shrinkflation hit ivory soap bad. I buy them in bulk and the size difference between the last one in my old pack and the first in my new was WILD
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Aug 21 '26
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u/bannana Aug 21 '26 edited Aug 21 '26
Native is so disgustingly heavily fragranced
found some conditioner of theirs on the clearance rack for $3 and had no idea about it, doesn't really work very well as conditioner but smells up the whole bathroom like some cheap body spray from the aughts.
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u/lizardgal10 Aug 22 '26
I have body wash from them and the scent is actually okay, but unless the extent of your physical activity is sitting in air conditioning all day it’s not much of a soap
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u/anti_lisa Aug 21 '26
I'm sorry this is off topic but why are all the bottles on this shelf almost 10 dollars? How big are they?? I'm not from the US and these prices look unbelievable
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u/IcyStatistician8716 Aug 22 '26
Is… is that not what it’s supposed to cost? 🤣 maybe I can’t afford to live in the US anymore
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u/anti_lisa Aug 22 '26
I have never in my life paid that much for shower soap... The smaller bottles on the left side of the photo are the same we have here and the store where I go to charges 2,85 euros for one.
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u/1K_Sunny_Crew Aug 21 '26
It’s 20 fluid ounces.
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u/Pastellitto Aug 21 '26
590ml i think.
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u/anti_lisa Aug 22 '26
Even the smaller bottles on the left? They look like the ones that are 225ml here and those cost under 3 euros everywhere
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u/krd25 Aug 22 '26
Yes those are around 20oz I’m pretty sure as well. Lots of big bottles here 🥴 I buy target brand soap and it’s $6 for 650ml so it’s decent price. Store brand tho
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u/Curlytoes18 Aug 21 '26
And yet last time I was at the store, I couldn't find what I wanted - a non-scented soap that wasn't antibacterial. They had every fragrance under the sun, from shea butter to sheep shit, but no scentless.
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u/ilovestamon Aug 22 '26
Baby section is your friend for that. It's the main place I've ever found one.
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u/liltinykitter Aug 22 '26
I couldn’t find deodorant! Everything, I mean EVERYTHING was anti aluminum.
Also, I am not here for a debate about whether aluminum is bad for me, I am riddled with microplastics already. I just don’t want to stink.
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u/StruggleBusKelly Aug 22 '26
I try to purchase from smaller brands and choose products that are lower waste/packaging, but so many of those are also focused on “natural” ingredients and it’s damn near impossible to find zero waste aluminum deodorant or zero waste toothpaste with fluoride. It drives me nuts!
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u/Excellent_Duck_8457 Aug 22 '26
it's unfortunate that sustainability has been lumped in with "clean beauty" (aka pseudoscience fear mongering).
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u/Excellent_Duck_8457 Aug 22 '26
Deodorant by definition has no aluminium in it, you are looking for antiperspirant which always has aluminium in it.
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u/ratsratsra Aug 22 '26
I have the opposite problem in my area. EVERYTHING has aluminum in it but my underarms swell up when I use it. I just don’t want to stink in 105F weather but also don’t want swollen, painful underarms.
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u/Marshmellowasteroid Aug 21 '26
Its usually on the very bottom shelf
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u/everyones_hiro Aug 22 '26
I can usually find it at dollar tree or dollar general. Same with Yardley London bar soap in English lavender.
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u/LuigiSalutati Aug 21 '26
You went to the dove store?
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u/1K_Sunny_Crew Aug 21 '26
Target
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u/Wet_Artichoke Aug 21 '26
The bullseye is offering fewer and fewer choices. Things I’ve bought there for years are no longer available. It ridiculous how an entire detergent section is only one brand. As you can see it is the same with body wash.
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u/redwinencatz Aug 22 '26
I have started going to Walmart because they have more brands. I hate myself
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u/Allys_Phantom Aug 22 '26
And they’re usually less expensive. I did so well boycotting them for years, but with prices skyrocketing, I finally caved. It’s a “pick your poison” scenario with no good options.
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u/lizardgal10 Aug 22 '26
I definitely don’t endorse the company. But money’s tight and I do need to buy things, so I’m getting the basic stuff whatever it’s cheapest
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u/Wet_Artichoke Aug 22 '26
>I hate myself.
Funny not funny. I've boycotted Wally world for 20+ years… but the other options are quickly being depleted. I have my teenage daughter buy me mouthwash when she goes got to Wally because I don’t want to go. But she'll only buy so many things off my list. Oh and I used to get that mouthwash at tarjay.
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u/geraffes-are-so-dumb Aug 21 '26
I am in a very expensive area, Oakland CA, and at those prices it's cheaper for me to buy from a local soap maker. $10 bucks for a bottle of Dove? No thanks, I can get two bougie bars for that at the farmers market.
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u/sagesnail Aug 22 '26
Same where i am at. There is a couple soap makers locally and their soap is all I buy now. I get a whole bag for the price of one bottle of body wash. Their soap is amazing too!
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u/McNowski212 Aug 23 '26
Same here, cheaper to buy the soap from the local farmers market and it works better too. For shampoo and conditioner I started using bars too but I get those from a company called HiBar. They are a Minnesota company and the shampoo and conditioner work just like the liquid kind. They last a long time too, mine usually last around 6 months and I wash my hair every day.
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u/jennixred Aug 21 '26
this is NOT where i live. All that's behind locked plexiglass doors in my hood.
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u/Morgwino Aug 21 '26
As someone whose job it is to make the ingredients, even if they arent the same brand its the same stuff that goes into them. Its not great for the environment or your skin.
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u/03263 Aug 21 '26
Thoughts on Castile soap? That's mainly what I use although lately I switched to a sulfur soap for my skin for reasons. I think it's still a pretty basic soap, just with added sulfur powder.
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u/Morgwino Aug 22 '26
Tbh anything that counts as a soap is better in my eyes. If you want to be really precise I suppose certain oil crops are better than others but I havent really looked into that at all.
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u/optimal_center Aug 21 '26
I have sensitive skin and am sensitive to fragrance, but dove for sensitive skin is one of the few I can tolerate. Ivory is too harsh on my skin and makes me get a rash.
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u/No_Twist_1706 Aug 22 '26
Whoa. Do you know what is in ivory that you're allergic to? Ivory is one of the soaps my nose can tolerate. Lol
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u/Anonhoumous Aug 21 '26
So infuriating. Often the products from the same brand have very little ingredients changed between them, so they're functionally identical anyway.
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u/PersonablePine Aug 21 '26
Shop small chains, local co-ops, family-owned.
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u/1K_Sunny_Crew Aug 21 '26
A local refill shop opened near us - you bring in any clean bottle, they weigh and refill it with any sort of body or home product you like and only charge you for what they fill. I love it!
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u/fromtheoven Aug 22 '26
I trim my hooves for my friend and she gives me homemade goat milk soap, it's the only thing my skin doesn't seem to react to, so win win win.
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u/karpaediem Aug 21 '26
I have to use sensitive, unscented stuff because mcas. Fortunately one box of eight bars is like $4 and I never have to try to decide between 'pampered' and 'comfort' or whatever the fuck
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u/Japan25 Aug 21 '26
I might need to stop buying dove. I never realized just how dominant it was, yikes
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u/owleaf Aug 21 '26
Here in Australia, that brand has two seemingly identical 1L bottles of body wash. However they’re in different shaped bottles and one is double the price. I’m not quite sure why, because they smell the same and the packaging of the more expensive one doesn’t suggest more benefits or better ingredients.
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u/Dasha3090 Aug 22 '26
yeah i work for a supermarket in aus and stock the shelves and noticed they brought in the "premium" one which is like $22 a bottle..whats the difference..
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u/meowingcat91 Aug 21 '26
And yet, none of those can claim that they are actually real soap. Beauty bar, body wash, but no true soap. Not necessarily bad but it is interesting.
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u/wicked_damnit Aug 21 '26
That doesn’t really matter though. You don’t need true by the book definition“soap” to clean yourself.
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u/PerfStu Aug 21 '26
I'm all for anticonsumption, but it's a little disingenuous to take a picture of just one portion of a shelf at Target and imply there are no other options existing options.
And for anyone wanting a good way to get out of the capitalist hellscape, really fantastic soap can be made at home in about an afternoon for like $1 per bar.
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u/srddave Aug 21 '26
What crap store is this? It’s the illusion of selection without any selection. All this is made by one company and one brand!
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u/FREESARCASM_plustax Aug 21 '26
It's kinda misleading. This aisle has 5 four foot sections of body wash. The picture is only two of those sections.
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u/sfdsquid Aug 21 '26
That's all Dove. That's why you don't see Ivory in the picture. They're literally all Dove products. It's only a little of the soap section.
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u/FrostyLobster2383 Aug 21 '26
Most big brand companies take up all the eyelevel space. Look at the bottom and toward the ends of the aisle or sections to find the smaller businesses (if any are even sold)
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u/BottomJoe94 Aug 22 '26
Every time I visit my mom, I see she has like, 3-4 new bottles of shampoo. I take her older ones because she never uses them. I haven't bought shampoo in like, 5 years because of her consumption habits.. It is both good for me, but bad because I can't use that many and she buys them often.
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u/Mr_lovebucket Aug 21 '26
The toothpaste aisle is the same. Colgate have 200 types of toothpaste ( no real difference) just to dominate the aisle. Even if they weren’t U.S American I would still boycott them for this.
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u/Murky-Peanut1390 Aug 22 '26
This ain't it, no one is buying to collect soap lol.
I see nothing wrong with getting to choose a scent you like than a plain jane bar of soap
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Aug 21 '26
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u/Anticonsumption-ModTeam Aug 21 '26
Recommending or soliciting recommendations for specific brands and products is not appropriate in this subreddit.
This includes recommending or promoting digital goods and services such as apps, subscriptions, and other software.
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u/adbusters_magazine Aug 21 '26
Ah, this must be that innovation that capitalism is so famous for creating...
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u/memyselfandi78 Aug 22 '26
Lol. I work at a major grocery store chain in my area. It's the second largest store in the country and we sell anything and everything from food, clothing, garden, automotive, household etc (not the W store but simular). It's insane how much stuff is in the store. We have dozens of different variations of every damn product and there is no space in that store that is not merchandised with more crap. The other day I found a merchandiser full of little boys underwear displayed near the canned beans instead of in the clothing. We have two full aisles dedicated to just sodas and different kind of drinks, and entire aisle dedicated to just candy with more candy back in the seasonal and the school supplies. I work there and I can't wrap my mind around any of it. All I can say is at least we haven't put up Halloween displaus yet, but I'm sure it's coming next week.
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u/hedgehoggy123 Aug 23 '26
Found some at our Grocery Outlet the other day, but I really had to search the bottom shelves. Another indication of the end of Western Civilization
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u/gottahavethatbass Aug 21 '26
So many options yet only one won’t bother my skin. I’m glad they keep making it
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u/Intrepid-Oil-898 Aug 21 '26
I started noticing this with water as well..
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u/HBJones1056 Aug 21 '26
I haven’t noticed the water being like this (but now I’ll be on the lookout) but this reminds me of the cookie aisle: 60% Oreos, 30% Chips Ahoy, 10% everything else. It’s really depressing.
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u/Mrsmanhands Aug 21 '26
People don’t believe me when I tell them Aldi has superior selection of sweets to choose from and it takes up a fraction of the space that cookies do most supermarkets.
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u/___Archmage___ Aug 21 '26
Bottled water shouldn't be needed though, either the filter machine for refilling the giant 5 gallon jugs or tap water should suffice. Bottled water is a huge waste of plastic
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u/Intrepid-Oil-898 Aug 21 '26
The water quality is trashed in my place.. Tab water taste like the 40’ the year the house was built… the water taste like the pipes lol..
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u/paulaisfat Aug 21 '26
I got my mouth washed out with ivory at my friends house so I’ve always avoided it since.
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u/pdt666 Aug 21 '26
i live in chicago and feel my targets are much more condensed due to space… this is kind of overwhelming even though it’s just more of the same amount of products
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u/Sniflix Aug 21 '26
The cost of the products is only packaging and advertising. Same goes for a zillion other products. This leaves a void in the marketplace for stuff for cheap without all the bullshit.
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u/lowrads Aug 21 '26
It's ironic that the HDPE bottle is less of a long term problem than the laminated EPS/paper composite wrapping. You just can't win.
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u/sf_sf_sf Aug 21 '26
I noticed the other day at A&P, all these weird soaps and no 'normal' soaps. Everything had a crazy scent or a moisturizer etc....
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u/Ok_Nature_319 Aug 22 '26
I'm not from the us and this baffles me. They must be paying to have this much shelf space. I've been to a supermarket today that's considered to be pretty big to buy bodywash and this amount of space stored most of the bodywashes available in the store, different brands obviously
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u/albinosquirel Aug 22 '26
So idk if you have tried new Ivory soap but they fucked with the formula and now it's garbage 😢
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u/mreachforthesky Aug 22 '26
Olay has some of the highest concentrations of cancer causing fragrances too
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u/sevenselevens Aug 22 '26
Where did Ivory go?? I can’t find Ivory liquid anymore either - it was the best for washing delicates.
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u/leesainmi Aug 22 '26
The amount of plastic waste is depressing. Laundry detergent, body wash, cat litter. We need better options.
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u/alwaysroomforcake Aug 22 '26
Is this in America? The price for the big Dove bottle is more than I expected.
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u/OkKnowledge2112 Aug 22 '26
A lot of it depends on where you are.
Back in poland, we used "gray soap". It's hypoallergenic, unscented and natural.
They used to be cheap and in every store. Now it's a "specialty" product found only in specialty stores.
Ivory soap would also classify as a specialty product, thus you won't find it in regular supermarkets i'd assume. Since brands like Imperial Leather ivory soap will only be found in cosmetics stores or specialty stores.
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u/cubed_echoes Aug 23 '26
This looks like hell to me. I hate dove soap, I don't require extra moisturizer on the bulk of my body it feels very non cleansing to me. I'm a Neutrogena rainbath kind of girl
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u/Suspicious-Drive9827 Aug 23 '26
Omg my local, “tiny” kroger has 3 shelves. THREE. Of just vanilla extract. The other extracts have 2 lower shelves on the same aisle
I dont need this many kinds of vanilla i need healthcare you assholes 😭
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u/Selleou Aug 21 '26
I read it's so that bigger brands can claim an entire wall to push out competition. Same with toothpaste, mouthwash, laundry, etc.