Consider this:
Impressive, in and off itself, for those who care about these things. But hardly worth talking about for, you know, sane people.Ben Paynter on nymag.com wrote:At upwards of $20 per 150-ounce bottle, Tide costs about 50 percent more than the average liquid detergent yet outsells Gain, the closest competitor by market share (and another P&G product), by more than two to one. According to research firm SymphonyIRI Group, Tide is now a $1.7 billion business representing more than 30 percent of the liquid-detergent market.
But, it turns out, the success of Tide marketing goes far, far beyond mere revenue for P&G, oh no.
Huh? Surely some crazy persons. It's obvious why someone might steal an overpriced product, but in this sort of volume, a lone nutcase, or rather two accompanied nutcases, why is DG bothering us with this?Ben Paynter on nymag.com wrote:When Thompson and his officers arrived to investigate, they stumbled onto another apparent Tide theft in progress and busted two men who’d piled 100 or so of the bright-orange jugs into their Honda.
Not a single nutcase, not even a pair. Not even a group of nutcases. Efficient, organized gangs with sophisticated methods, quote the opposite.Ben Paynter on nymag.com wrote:Later, Thompson reviewed weeks’ worth of the Safeway’s security footage. He found that more than two dozen thieves, working in crews, were regularly raiding the store’s household-products aisle, sometimes returning more than once the same day and avoiding detection by timing their heists to follow clerks’ shift changes.
But why? Why on earth would they steal some bulky laundry detergent when they could be making off with things that are easier to move, like clothes or electronics?
They are making it into drugs, that must be it! There's something in there that can be cooked into meth or bath salts or something!Ben Paynter on nymag.com wrote:Tide bottles have become ad hoc street currency, with a 150-ounce bottle going for either $5 cash or $10 worth of weed or crack cocaine. On certain corners, the detergent has earned a new nickname: “Liquid gold.”
Except that, no, they are not. That would hardly be newsworthy, no.
Yap. The dope fiends, they are actors in a market, just like everybody else. So they built an entire new industry around the trade in illicit detergent.Ben Paynter on nymag.com wrote:A store that charges $19.99 for a 150-ounce bottle might claim $2 in profit. But if it buys stolen bottles for $5, that jumps to $15.
All because P&G are so damn good at marketing their product that such big margins exist. Marvelous, isn't it?Ben Paynter on nymag.com wrote:“It’s the new dope,” he says. “You can get richer and have less chance of doing jail time.”
Now, if ever someone asks you why you shop cheap and avoid over-priced, brand-name products, you can tell them.
"Because I'm doing my bit in the war on drugs, unlike other people."
Here's the full scoop:
http://nymag.com/news/features/tide-det ... ndex1.html
This is just one of the things, was it in a book, a novel of some sorts, everyone would chuckle and deride it as unrealistic.
Life, you make the best jokes, still.
