What Happens When The Lowest Price Isn’t Low Enough?
Tuesday, August 10th, 2010
Loading ...Procter & Gamble (P&G) and Colgate-Palmolive recently announced quarterly earnings and both stated sales were “soft” as consumers bought more private label and house brands.
Now I don’t know about you, but I buy a lot of my household stuff at Costco (used to be Target but they are always out of stock on so many items). Costco sells Tide in the giant economy size- the new size fits on a Ford F-150 Harley Davison model and requires storage but the hose option makes it easy to dispense into the washing machine. Alas, price per ounce for the Kirkland brand is 25% less.
I brush my teeth with Crest (P&G) and Colgate. Costco sells giant economy sizes like 8.3 oz. packed in 4 and 6 packs. I figure that’s enough toothpaste for a year for one person. No wonder people are buying more toothpaste at the Dollar Stores.
Luckily I don’t have kids in diapers. Back in the day I did have them, I remember buying Pampers in 24/36 count boxes. Now Costco sells them in 96/144 count crates and it’s more work to deal with the crates than change the blasted diapers. Perhaps it’s easier to buy private label diapers at Walmart.
Recently I was talking to a woman that wanted swimmer’s shampoo. I told her we sold Malibu and it was about $10 a bottle. Her response was that it was way too expensive. I asked her what she bought. She said Pantene (P&G). I then said Pantene is around $10 a bottle.
“Oh, I don’t buy it at retail price. First I wait for it to go on sale. Walgreen’s had it on sale for $6. Then I go to the P&G website and download their coupons. They had $2 coupons. Then I wait for Walgreen’s to have double coupon days so I ended up getting the Pantene for $2.”
No doubt, these are crazy times. Shampoo, toothpaste and laundry soap don’t appear to be on the high end list for consumers. No wonder Dollar Store sales are up 6-8% across-the-board while name brand toiletries are down 4-6%.
Where’s the value? Perhaps P&G should start selling smaller sizes to Costco and return to the days of premiums. Heck, they can include a bottle of Nioxin with each purchase; with the economy so bad, more and more people are losing their hair.
Happy Tuesday!
