Is Fairy Liquid a false economy? Blog discussion 6 March 2007 at 2:32PM in Martin's blogs & appearances & MoneySavingExpert in the news 72 replies 15.9K views

MSE_Jenny

This is the discussion to link on the back of Martin's "Is Fairy Liquid a false economy?" blog. Please read the blog first, as the discussion follows it.

Read Martin's "Is Fairy Liquid a false economy?" Blog

Sooler

You could, as the bottle empties, just keep topping it up with water, then it will last much longer

kerrazoo

Which magazine a couple of months ago did a best buy test on washing up liquid and this is what they found.. that Fairy did as all the adverts used to say last longer than the other ones.

As to whether we all squirt the right amount, if you oversquirt the liquid then you get a sink full of bubbles and so adjust your squirt for next time... unless of course you like your bubbles I suppose.

aris

We decant Fairy into a little stainless steel hand-soap type bottle we got at TKMaxx (the kind you press at the top) - this regulates the amount we use thus avoiding wastage. You really don't need that much fairy to get going.

SarahNeedle1872

I don't think it matters whether u have Fairy or a supermarket own brand, unless u decant it (as above), I bet we all squeeze the same amount in, concentrated or not. Defo false economy!

alba37

I don't think it's false enconomy. I like bubbles in my dishwater, and know I have to do more squeezes with other brands. Can't say for sure if it's cheaper in the long run, but it's definitely worth it for me either way. No others have come close to Fairy IMHO of course!

SonOfPearl

I think your analysis is spot on, Martin. Companies know all our human foibles and habits and use them to good effect. They know that were are habitualized to put a certain amount of washing-up liquid in our washing-up bowls and that many of us are likely to go on doing that even if less liquid is required.

I use Ecover and try to use as little as possible. It works well and is better for the environment too!

beaker141

I think in the old days it was definately the best, but I think the own brands are now very close to it, but agree we use too much.

I used to use loads of it when I was a kid, so we could have the bottle for either water fights or making something !

We also used to use it as bubble bath, Matey was too expensive, we used to be able to get the bubbles overflowing the bath !! Might be why I have skin problems now though !

wishiwasarichgirl

yep, its definately clever marketing, i do the same squirt regardless

reminds me of toilet roll ads "even thicker, so you use less sheets" kinda thing, i still pull the same amount off the roll anyway, therefor using it up quicker - thats why i never buy the "quilted" stuff.

peter999

Fairy Liquid is a British institution.

How dare you Martin !!??

peter999

popshed

I noticed that the scoop in the Vanish Oxi Action tub is now about 4 times bigger than it was just over a year ago yet the adverts still use the line "just one scoop in your wash" the same as before.

On the subject of washing up liquid. There was a trend I noticed about 2 or 3 years ago where everybody introduced "concentrated" washing up liquid which came in a noticeably smaller bottle. I obviously switched to the concentrated version at the time and it did last a long time. Over the years though the same bottles have had the word concentrated removed and it became practically impossible to find one with it on. It seems the "concentrate" had become the standard dilution. Now we're back with the concentrated thing again. So is it more concentrated than before? or are they just performing the same trick twice?

I also remember how for years we got by with washing powder then they decided to tell us that powder doesn't dissolve properly so we needed liquid and associated balls, then they decided that tablets (which as far as I can tell are just impacted lumps of powder) and nets were better because they weren't as messy, then it was liquitabs....etc