Glade Air Freshener: HYPER Inflation

[GentlemanJim]

I've been buying thr 8oz aerosol cans for 97 cents apiece, like forever. At that price it just didn't make sense to not have plenty sitting around, I'd buy 3-5 cans every 2 weeks.

Then, it went out of stock almost everywhwere I shop. And it was suspicious because even the slow selling fragrances were gone, along with the ever popular ones.

Something just told me they were going to manipulate the marketplace, for a higher price. 4-5 weeks the shelves stayed empty at Walmart, Meijer, and Kroger.

Well, I was right, now they have plenty in stock, 8.3 z cans now instead of the old 8 oz....but priced at a whopping $2.38 per can....that;s like a 140% price increase.

Outrage!!

They claim on the can that the contents now have 2X as much fragrance...but that is pure BS. I had a benchmark for how the old formula could be sprayed to fill a room, then close the door, then go sit in my living room and within 10 minutes I could smell the bleed off from the closed room.

And the new formula comes nowhere near what the old could do, huge price increase and a product inferior to the original to boot.

[Caroline13]

Well, 97cents sounds like they were giving it away. And the new price sounds like a bargain to me.... Sounds like a Dollar Store price. I don't use those perfume sprays...

I have a price increase on a food and I'll post separately.

[GentlemanJim]

Originally Posted by Caroline13

Well, 97cents sounds like they were giving it away. And the new price sounds like a bargain to me....

Over the years I often wondered how they could even produce the can for 97 cents, let alone the contents..

Surely If I wanted to buy even a simple metal cup, no one would sell one so cheaply.

BUT, it was that price for years, so I was happy to take advantage of it.

But, what this thread is really about, is the manipulation...having ALL the product disappear and stay gone...all at once, and then have such a drastic increase once store inventory is restocked, just feels like corporate fat cats deciding to stick it to consumers. Ever since the lockdowns companies have been coming up with creative excuses to "stick it" to the consumer, and this feels like just more of the same.

It's not so much the new price I have a problem with, rather it's the feeling of being "gamed" that seems noteworthy.


Perhaps Glade used their 97 cent price to chase competitors from the market, and now once successful are about to "cash in"? I don't recall who the historic competitors of Glade were, but all I otherwise see on shelves now is Febreeze, and they are a relative new comer. SO perhaps Glade's historic rivals bit the dust?

The new improved replacements are truly inferior. Glade used to readily disperse in the air, easily. But the new cans don't spray as fine a mist, and you can see most of that fall straight to the floor (which is what I always disliked about the "pump" sprayers)

[biffbronson]

I still believe in the market forces of supply and demand serving to even out prices to some extent. Just yesterday, I was observing a YouTuber comparing name brand and store brand / small company products: cleaning, paper, food, etc. In some cases, the "knockoff" so to speak performed as well as or better than the name brand, or tasted equally good. The old saying remains pertinent: you never know until you try.

Big brand makers have always had the advantages of pervasive advertising and superior product distribution / store placement. But when their products' prices rise significantly, many consumers naturally begin considering alternatives.

Dollar stores are now under pressure not only from shoppers stocking up when they detect a good deal, but also because of a tight market of applicants for stocking the shelves & "recovery" -- their stores have become an uneven mess in many cases. Sample of something I overheard at a Dollar Tree: a shopper was checking out and commented to the cashier, "This very same thing costs $3 at Walmart." By paying $1.25, her savings was over 58%.

Brand loyalty will always exist -- I have a cousin who "always" buys name-brand foods. I on the other hand for example, having been a PB & J fanatic since the late '60s, have only once ever come across any PB of any brand I found substandard. So I'm always open to trying the "little guys'" products.

I'm more familiar with store tactics than manufacturers', so I find GJ's comment about "chasing" competitors' products from the market interesting. Stores themselves will employ a "loss-leader" tactic to bring customers in. One that I worked for sold their "promo broom," a low-priced item designed to draw them in.

Something I will add though is that the name-brand producers' salespeople are oftentimes under an incentive program to get as much product into stores as possible. That's why we had tons of 60w Sylvania light bulbs in backstock, and an ass from VSI Fasteners dumped a giant cartload of screws & bolts on us that took forever to sort out.

[Caroline13]

So much junk stuff comes from China. What the companies all do are profits, bottom line. We have a horrid issue going on now with So Cal Gas company, talk about price gouging and SoCalGas did not answer their phone for the whole week.

[GentlemanJim]

Originally Posted by biffbronson

I still believe in the market forces of supply and demand serving to even out prices to some extent. .

I believe that some business men acquire adept skill in spiking demand, and then cashing in.

People are a lot like a stampeding herd when there is uncertainty in the market place, and I believe some marketeers know how to prey upon that.

Suppose I manufacture "widgets" for example....let's suppose its a mature product line, one that used to be chiefly manufactured inn USA, but all my competition has offshored their production, and I am the last remaining dinosaur making widgets in the USA.

Lets say I have a tenuous hold on a 30% market share, and all my competition is beating me up with low prices, due to their lower labor costs....I am just barely keeping my head above water.

But, then like we had a couple years ago, lets say the west coast ports get all backed up, and suddenly my widgets are the only ones on store shelves Do I continue to produce a bare subsistence level of product priced competitively with the off shore guys? Or do I raise prices, go to 3 shifts, and milk the cow while it's in the barn?

NOW, the rub.....I've been enjoying a 35% premium do to my situational monopoly, for 6 months

Finally my competition untangles their source. and has product at last going back on store shelves...what Is their incentive? to "price bust" the market place, or will they say "gee, GJ has been getting a 35% premium, so why shouldn't we try the same?"

I believe that due to long term cut throat marketing tactics, prices get pulled down lower than any of the suppliers care to go, but they have stomped on their own feet trying to woo business away from the competition.

A good market pannic is an ideal excuse for them to reset their prices, and blame it on forces beyond their control.

[GentlemanJim]

One other thought that occurred to me, it might be telling as to how ALL the Glade aerosol spray cans disappeared at the same time from 3 major retailers, all at once.
Makes me suspect there may have been a health issue requiring that they just quietly withdrew their product, without publicizing the hazard, and the "new and improved" product is actually a fix for that problem, priced sky high to help cover the cost of the recall?

just a thought.

[stevea]

Menard's might still have "Old" Glade.

2X fragrance for 2.5X price

[GentlemanJim]

Reading the instructions for the new product, they boast that shaking the can before use is no longer required. But there is also an "advisory" that after spraying one should "wipe floor, if damp"

Pretty much confirming my fallout observation earlier,...so they even know the product suxx.

Here's my estimation, the product is no longer sprayed like a true aerosol, instead it's like a powered "pump" type sprayer with a compressed air charge pushing the juice through a nozzle, similar in operation to those old hand pump garden sprayers.....except these cans have compressed air instead of a pump handle.

Seriously, I cant imagine ever buying another one of these, they don't do the job, and they rain fall out on floors and furniture. at over twice the previous price.

[stevea]

I suspect S. C. Johnson will be forced back to the drawing board. This sounds like another New Coke from the 80s mess (for them).

And no Menards did not have Old Glade. Eventually the end runs will probably be at Big Lots, Dollar General, etc.

I wonder if this is the same story:

https://www.airwick.us/products/room-spray

[GentlemanJim]

Glad you mentioned end lots...Ever shop at Ollies? I need to check there for old stock

https://www.ollies.us/home.html

[stevea]

I just found four, and four only, old Glades at Meijer. The old Apple Cinnamon had a different UPC than the new one, so I price checked the old ones at .63.

So it might be worthwhile to check other Meijers if you really want it.

[GentlemanJim]

Thanks,....so out of curiosity, what did you find at Menards? Empty shelves, or only the updated Glade?

[stevea]

Originally Posted by GentlemanJim

Thanks,....so out of curiosity, what did you find at Menards? Empty shelves, or only the updated Glade?

Menards had only the new Glade at 2.28. I couldn't investigate thoroughly since a person was in the way, stocking the shelves or inventorying.

[GentlemanJim]

It will be interesting, IMO, to see where their price is, 6 months from now.