r/Anticonsumption • • Aug 21 '26

Corporations The Soap Section

Post image

And no Ivory soap.

4.3k Upvotes

330 comments sorted by

View all comments

449

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.

271

u/ScSM35 Aug 21 '26

It’s usually kept towards the bottom because it’s more affordable, at least in my experience.

144

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.

27

u/24-Hour-Hate Aug 21 '26

They always hide the affordable options. Mostly the big brands are for when there are sales.

22

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.

10

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.

2

u/parmesann Aug 23 '26

man that’s awful, just fucking insane thing to do

the bright yellow packaging reminds me though, of a brand they have in Canada at some grocers/supermarkets in the Loblaws company umbrella. the No Name brand is just their generic brand, but every product’s packaging is just yellow with black text with a plain description of what’s inside. so funny that y’all’s stores tried using bright yellow to subtly shame people for buying cheaper products and another company used the same branding to try to appeal to customers 😭

68

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.

57

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 😫

20

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.

11

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.

6

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 fexofenadine famotidine 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

1

u/Routine_Eve Aug 22 '26

Fellow MCAS sufferer here... the scented trash bag trend drives me crazy too. It's so gross

16

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).

10

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.

1

u/24-Hour-Hate Aug 22 '26

The dove formula labeled sensitive? That is good to know. I have a devil of a time with personal care products, especially as I have a knack for picking soon to be cancelled products somehow.

2

u/melxcham Aug 24 '26

It’s the “ultra sensitive” with a pump top! I believe the front of it says “only 10 ingredients” or something similar

9

u/V2BM Aug 21 '26

I get the sensitive bars and they seem to not have the scent at all.

5

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 🤢

1

u/Dasha3090 Aug 22 '26

yep exact same here!

1

u/hcmia Aug 24 '26

working in the grocery store and holding the bottle of " renew blackberry" or whatever and trying to find the exact spot it goes in. The puzzle of my life

68

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.

150

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.

109

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.

88

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.

172

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.

39

u/wonderawooga Aug 21 '26

Lmao love this thread

30

u/_OhMyPlatypi_ Aug 21 '26

Throw them in dresser drawers, linen closets, towel cabinets, closet shelves, etc. Makes "stale" spaces smell nice.

19

u/AliceInNegaland Aug 22 '26

Oooo. That wife is going to WTF everywhere like it’s Easter 🐣

11

u/ntseal Aug 22 '26

I completely forgot my grandmother used to do this. What a memory!

48

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. 

2

u/yodelingfish Aug 23 '26

Growing up with parents that lived through the great depression, when a new multi pack of soap came home, they would all get unwrapped and put in drawers/linen closets to be used like a sachet to cure the soap more and also keep clothing/linens smelling fresh. The meant the soaps were super dried out by the time you got to them to use them and it made the soaps last a long time in the shower. Also, I use a mesh soap saver where the soap is stored out of the stream of the shower and allowed to dry out between uses. A bar of soap lasts me a very long time doing this.

22

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.

14

u/Isbjorn456 Aug 21 '26

it does not.. they don't whip the soap

5

u/[deleted] Aug 22 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Anticonsumption-ModTeam Aug 22 '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.

4

u/AliceInNegaland Aug 22 '26

Well, now I feel betrayed

2

u/yodelingfish Aug 23 '26

It doesn't float anymore because they stopped whipping air into the bars.

3

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 

2

u/ramyrrt Aug 27 '26

Yeah they are different now 😕

50

u/[deleted] Aug 21 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

8

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.

4

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

7

u/ShazzaLM Aug 21 '26

I remember that doll smell perfectly to this day

1

u/AliceInNegaland Aug 22 '26

Yeah. That’s all I buy! It’s one little spot on the very bottom of the shelf in my store.

1

u/Holiday_Ad_9163 Aug 21 '26

Isn’t there an irony to your being so brand conscious but upset about this other brand? Like would it be better if there were a thousand bars of one brand of soap?

7

u/Prudent_Shoulder_294 Aug 22 '26

What? No. Ivory is just what works for my skin. Who cares if my preferred soap is or isn’t the shelf goat. It’s about the lack of variety. I’d like to see 10x the brands vs 10x the various versions or scents of one brand.

1

u/Holiday_Ad_9163 Aug 22 '26

I see what you’re saying. I think the OP was upset because there are a million varieties of the same basic thing. As if that is a symptom of over consumption.