A Hot Fudge Sundae with Two Scoops of Dial®

I know it sounds yummy to think about all that creamy Dial® with rich chocolate fudge, whipped cream and the isolated cherry on top.  But probably what is called to mind is the more familiar taste of soap after saying something course in elementary school.  Maybe you like to eat soap.

 

But most will agree that soap is not ice cream.  But maybe the soap companies do not know this so we should help them out.

 

In reality what we are talking about is the shrinking of consumer goods in an effort to reduce costs so that the prices remain constant.  In the article on Time.com, “America’s Shrinking Groceries,” rather than increase the prices on the shelf they are quietly reducing the amount of product.  The reduction is happening store wide with products such as cereal, orange juice, soap and ice cream.  At Consumerist.com they have gone one step further and have taken pictures! 

 

Some of the reductions are good things.  Do we need that extra ounce of ice cream in the ‘individual serving’ container?  Come on, you know what I mean.  If there are ten ounces, eight ounces or six ounces in that container it is a single serving.  Right?  How many of us measure out 1 serving from a 2.5 serving container?  And in a 1991 article by Anthony Ramirez, “Soap Sellers’ New Credo: Less Powder, More Power,” featured in the NY Times, a trend towards smaller quantities that pack a bigger punch.  Do we really need filler powder in our laundry detergent?  If you can get the active ingredients in a smaller container with less waste then by all means.   In some cases, smaller is actually better. 

 

But when we are talking quantities that remain constant, such as gallons or pounds it would be a much tougher sell.  For products such as gasoline or milk, where the active ingredient is what it is, reductions in quantity to hide the price would be silly.  It would be ridiculous to change the price of gasoline to reflect .75 gallons.  A full tank would still cost the same.

 

I have to take a step back and point out that watering down milk had been done in the past and watering down gasoline is happening as we speak.  Ethanol only delivers about 70% of the mileage of gasoline.  You can read all about it at CleanAirTrust.org.  So if you were getting 20 miles per gallon of gasoline you would get only 14 miles per gallon with ethanol.  See the disclaimer that what you are buying at the pumps may contain up to 10% ethanol?  Since subsidized ethanol is a cheap additive that reduces your mileage you really are getting watered down gasoline.  The whole ethanol discussion is disgusting to me because people are starving…I don’t want to get started on that.  At least for now.

 

So back to the hot fudge sundae.   Soap is most definitely not ice cream and the active ingredients in soap are homogenous.  But when you get to the bottom of a bar of soap, you get less effectiveness and you get the tailings.  You know what I mean.  As the bar gets smaller it is harder to get a good lather.  Then it becomes a dance to see how small you can get the bar before it breaks.  Then you try to press the pieces together so it resembles a bar.  That never works.  For me, this whole process is quite frustrating.  And now my frustrations are more often because of the reduced size of the bar of soap in an effort to keep prices down.  It is causing more waste.  If you reduce the size of soap then you are going to increase frustration and get more tailings. Causing more waste is not very green.  Soap is one of those categories that it does not make sense to shrink. 

 

And so, although I do not use Dial®, I do use another unnamed brand that is part of Dial’s product line.  Just a note to you…I am willing to pay for bigger bars.  But for logical and preferential reasons I am against the shrinking of soap.  It may be time for me to switch.

 

So in the grand scheme of things, we can forgive the changes that have to be made, accept some of them even if we don’t like it and even want some of them.  But some changes fall into the other category, like New Coke, and are too much to accept.  Enjoy your sundae.

 

And who gets frustrated about something as little as small soap.  I mean really.  (Everyone has their soap…)