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Lore of the Palmolive stick

Lately, rumors have circulated in Shavedom, that Palmolive ostensibly has discontinued their famous green shave stick. I am a big fan of this stick, so I took contact to the Colgate-Palmolive company and asked (twice!) if they could confirm this rumor. Fortunately their answer was (both times), there are NO plans to stop production of the green shave stick.
palmolive-stick.jpeg

Still, I think it is interesting how the circulation of this rumor seems so persistent, widespread and unchallenged. Perhaps it has to do with the particular "aura" (or whatever) of this soap .... This has been one of my favourite soaps for long, in the first instance for lathering quality, but also for it's "old school" feel, the colour, and especially it's scent, which instantly takes me back to my imagination of the 1950s.

I think this "old school" feel is so distinctive of this soap, that I get to wonder if the image of "lost tradition" attaches particularly easily to this soap .... perhaps this is a reason that the rumor of it being discontinued seems to stick so well to it.

Hence my question: are any of you aware of previous rumors that this soap ostensibly had been discontinued? Not within the last few months, but (say) a year ago, or three or five years ago ... ?
Does anyone have a count of how many times this soap has been alleged to have been discontinued? :001_smile
 
I think a lot of the long time products get these reports from time to time. Unfortunately sometimes they are correct. Glad it's not true here.
 

AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
The recent accounts were not of the Palmolive stick being discontinued, but of the distribution in the UK being curtailed. So the stick will still exist, but not on the UK High Street.

There will continue to be ways to get them online, maybe even by some UK vendors, but it won't be as easy as popping into your local Asda, Tesco, Wilko, or Superdrug, as was the case. Never the less, I have built up a modest stash of them, so I won't be having to trawl the net to find a vendor for some time. As it's a secondary soap for me (Mitchell's being the primary), and as I get a couple of hundred shaves from each stick, I expect it will be many many years before I diminish my humble little stockpile.
 
Lately, rumors have circulated in Shavedom, that Palmolive ostensibly has discontinued their famous green shave stick. I am a big fan of this stick, so I took contact to the Colgate-Palmolive company and asked (twice!) if they could confirm this rumor. Fortunately their answer was (both times), there are NO plans to stop production of the green shave stick.
View attachment 991171

Still, I think it is interesting how the circulation of this rumor seems so persistent, widespread and unchallenged. Perhaps it has to do with the particular "aura" (or whatever) of this soap .... This has been one of my favourite soaps for long, in the first instance for lathering quality, but also for it's "old school" feel, the colour, and especially it's scent, which instantly takes me back to my imagination of the 1950s.

I think this "old school" feel is so distinctive of this soap, that I get to wonder if the image of "lost tradition" attaches particularly easily to this soap .... perhaps this is a reason that the rumor of it being discontinued seems to stick so well to it.

Hence my question: are any of you aware of previous rumors that this soap ostensibly had been discontinued? Not within the last few months, but (say) a year ago, or three or five years ago ... ?
Does anyone have a count of how many times this soap has been alleged to have been discontinued? :001_smile
I think sometimes a store "discontinues" a product but someone misunderstands this to mean the product as a whole is being discontinued. Then, because we are a passionate lot, what started as a mild misunderstanding becomes widespread apocalyptic panic!!
 
I think sometimes a store "discontinues" a product but someone misunderstands this to mean the product as a whole is being discontinued. Then, because we are a passionate lot, what started as a mild misunderstanding becomes widespread apocalyptic panic!!
Stores won't stock items when they don't sell well. I like Aqua Velva 5in1 ASB and I'm running low. My local Wal-Mart's doesn't stock it anymore and I can't find it anywhere else locally. I'll probably have to go internet shopping for it.

Clayton

Sent from my LM-V350 using Tapatalk
 

Raven Koenes

My precious!
I think it makes sense for some manufacturers to pull their stock from retail stores. If it is a niche item like Palmolive Stick, it may not be as profitable to rent space in a store to sell your product, especially when people that want it are willing to go on line to order...and often times at better deals.
 
Phew, that's good news. Just had a stick show up in the mail today. Now I can use it instead of just sniffing it and calling it "my precious".
 

ajkel64

Check Out Chick
Staff member
They stopped making them here in Australia. Some stores have the European Palmolive but the one that was made here in Australia is long gone.
 
I became caught up in the great Palmolive panic of 2015, and bought several sticks. I have yet to finish even one, but it was a learning experience, lol.
 
Given that Colgate-Palmolive discontinued US production of both their lather and brushless shaving creams about a decade ago, I'd have believed the rumor with sadness. At least we get the European versions of the cream, and of course the shaving stick. (Both Colgate and Palmolive at one time had puck shaving soap, but those are both long gone...)
 
The recent accounts were not of the Palmolive stick being discontinued, but of the distribution in the UK being curtailed. So the stick will still exist, but not on the UK High Street.

There will continue to be ways to get them online, maybe even by some UK vendors, but it won't be as easy as popping into your local Asda, Tesco, Wilko, or Superdrug, as was the case. Never the less, I have built up a modest stash of them, so I won't be having to trawl the net to find a vendor for some time. As it's a secondary soap for me (Mitchell's being the primary), and as I get a couple of hundred shaves from each stick, I expect it will be many many years before I diminish my humble little stockpile.

Paul from Connaught Shaving posted some info on another forum which might be of interest.

"The Palmolive Classic line is not distributed in the UK by Colgate. It is purchased directly by Wilko, ASDA etc and they distribute it. If Colgate UK have delisted the line its because no one buys it through them anymore. I try to tell people when they ask but we are still getting many doomsday like purchases."

The Palmolive stick is still for sale in UK high streets, Wilko & Superdrug to name a few seem always have it on their shelves.
 
In the course of following this string, I have made an interesting observation.

When I started this string nearly two weeks ago, I claimed that:

"...This has been one of my favourite soaps for long, in the first instance for lathering quality, but also for it's "old school" feel, the colour, and especially it's scent...".​

Now two weeks on, I have to confess however, that I had not actually used the green Palmolive stick for a long time when I wrote the above. I wrote it based on earlier experience/memory, and the idea I had settled on, that this was "one of my favourite soaps".

Prompted by this post, I dug out a green stick from my stash, and have used it regularly for the past two weeks, and -- alas -- I find that the lather quality is quite poor, compared to soaps that I use on a regular basis these days (Klar, Cella brick, Mitchell's wool fat, Arko stick).

So I wonder what happened ...

I guess I have become a more experienced shaver since I first fell in love with the Palmolive stick ... become more familiar with how quality lather behaves, and what it feels like.

Still, I am struck by how powerful "an idea" can be in judging (in this case) a soap. It only goes to confirm the main point I made at the outset, about the special "aura" of the Palmolive stick. Especially its olfactory power, its fragrance, makes it very special for me, even though I now realize that it's actually a pretty ****ty soap (..!! )

 
I think sometimes a store "discontinues" a product but someone misunderstands this to mean the product as a whole is being discontinued. Then, because we are a passionate lot, what started as a mild misunderstanding becomes widespread apocalyptic panic!!
Yep, this is the phenomena pretty much. Add in the ptsd that wetshavers suffered from the great reformulation traumas (the 3t's creams were changed from a wonderful thick, gloopy, croap like product to a far inferior thing before eventually settling on their current form; and subsequently many of the old, high end tallow base hard soaps went to palm oil bases - and the companies were we, less than forthcoming with the truth) and you have the perfect storm.
 
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