This is a bit off-topic for me, but this is something that REALLY bothers me about big companies trying to deceive the consumers. For many years now, we’ve ONLY used Tide Laundry Detergent because after trying many other brands – name brands and off-brands, we found that Tide did the best job. We buy it on sale, try and use coupons, etc. because the stuff isn’t cheap.
My mother, who lives with us, generally does our laundry (I know – how great is that!) brought the changes in the Tide measuring cap to my attention. She was very upset and felt like she was being taken advantage of by a corporate giant – Procter & Gamble. She’s been using the liquid detergent for years and became very accoustomed to the measuring cap on the top of every bottle. She doesn’t know when the change occurred, but she realized that the bottle had a new cap. The new cap was actually a different size than the old cap. Apparently the new cap is larger and the measuring lines are far below where they were in the old cap. Now, I don’t believe this is an accident at all, but a way to get the loyal consumers to unknowingly use more of the product.
My mother was furious when she figured this out! She also said the the measuring lines are so small and difficult to read. But she had been filling the cap up to the spot that she had done for years, not realizing that the size had changed and she was using more detergent with each load since the cap change.
I found another interesting post on Tide and their deceptive practices here – http://www.mouseprint.org/2010/02/01/tide-why-you-get-fewer-loads-than-promised/.
That’s my rant for the day!
Posted on February 18th, 2010 by lizzie
Filed under: Weight Loss Ramblings
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well if you live in FL they had tide bottles 2-for-1 last week. sale is over but what a deal, deception or not!
Yes, I totally agree with you! I’m very furious too with these companies who are acting like this.
Well what i think is, that it’s they’re marketing strategy to make more profits if they were losing some sales, its really annoying but what can we do?
I think Procter & Gamble should have a form of advert to let consumer know about the new measurement. It is bad to just change the cap over night without leting the consumers know about the new cap.
Well I would compare the amount in the caps with one another before jumping to any real conclusions. Looks can be deceiving.
I have always have been skeptical about these laundry det. companies, especially with the bottles being so small but doing “80″ loads, yeah right, these companies are just getting money
I know someone who used to work for this company. He told me the line is actually double what you need to add. Obviously they want you to use it up quicker. Since then I always put in half the recommended amount.
Well more than the change in the lines on the inside of the cap, the fact that when it gets wet it is almost impossible to read the lines at all. I think that this is aweful because you only think to fill it to the top.
In my experience you can always use less than they say and get great results… you could get your own little measuring cup and always use it, that way it doesn’t matter what they do with the lid. It’s true what you say though, big companies are full of tricks, you just have to be street wise – but when people are older they just want to live in peace and they deserve to be spared such indignities.
Your mum is really very observant. I think the same concept happens in toothpaste and toothbrush too. Those toothpaste companies give longer toothbrush, so that you automatically use more toothpaste
i never do laundrey im so lazy
I agree that it’s deceptive and wasteful. I’m pretty sure our washers would do just as good a job with less than what the manufacturers recommend!
Yeah, I definitely agree with scheng1 above, but in fact, toothpaste companies have devised by themselves a way to sell more product by enlarging the hole of the toothpaste tube. 10 years ago, it was a lot smaller, and now it’s diameter is almost twice the size. The guy who taught about this “invention” won an award! Since I’ve heard about this, I only use a little toothpaste every time, even my dentist told me it’s really okay.
Well, for me.. it doesn’t matter. You can wash clothes even without detergent powder right? some people are only using detergent bar but they wash clothes as white as other can with a detergent powerder.
First it was the toothpast company and now detergent.
The only constant in life is change – evolution
So in the name of becoming better / bigger / because its all about increasing sales …. companies will keep inventing ways for the consumers to use more and more. Its the consumer who needs to get smart – evolve
No matter how deceptive they are, use their coupon, double it in some stores, and buy it when it is on sale. Then they won’t make a dime on your purchase. lol.
I got wise to this little trick myself. I read (somewhere) that American’s use 4x as much detergent as Europeans. So I now put all my clothing detergent into a pump and I use only 2 big pumps…about 1/4 of the amount that is the line on the Tide cap. Guess what? My clothes get clean and smell fine. I suspect my clothes are actually cleaner, because there used to be a soapy residue after the final rinse and now my final rinse isn’t so soapy. This is along the same lines as the instructions to “rinse and repeat” on the shampoo bottle…WHY? To use more product. So try using even less than the line on the Tide cap…you’ll be amazed.
Haha yeh as with any changes there are pros and cons. The cons is that the things we’re so used to are gone as well as a few others but the pros are it’s supposedly more enviromentally friendly since it consumes less materials to produce it.
What a trick… This is something that people must be keen on. This may be a marketing strategy on their part but deception is unacceptable. Thank you for the information, many users of the same brand may be too busy to realize that.
Most of the time I just put in “a suitable amount” of laundry detergent, around 2/3 of the measuring cup that came with the detergent. Yes I’m too lazy to check what the correct amount is but my clothes come out clean and nice
This is deceiving and slightly upsetting. One of the worst feelings is the feeling of helplessness amidst deceptive practices of large corporations. Thank you for posting this!
I wouldn’t be surprised if they reduced the concentration of the detergent to save cost, and at the same time requiring you to use more detergent per load.