Post #657 Combe Email Confirming Williams Mug Shave Soap Discontinued

[VerbaVolant]

I understand, lol. The intent of my post was to show that keeping Williams shave soap, or any individual cosmetic product for that matter, in production at scale is not a small or inexpensive undertaking. There has to be a large market.

I read your post again and cannot make sense of this statement "that means manufacturing over 15 MILLION pounds of soap every year, 15,138,330." But then, my math is not my strength. Neither is my English, nor my critical thinking.
How awful, I cornered myself. Didn't I?
Oh well... lol

 

[Rosseforp]

I read your post again and cannot make sense of this statement "that means manufacturing over 15 MILLION pounds of soap every year, 15,138,330." But then, my math is not my strength. Neither is my English, nor my critical thinking.
How awful, I cornered myself. Didn't I?
Oh well... lol

That would convert to 68 railroad cars full of shaving soap.

~doug~

 

[Owen Bawn]

That would convert to 68 railroad cars full of shaving soap.

~doug~

I was prepared. I have 68 railroad cars full of Williams right here. Next to my 55 storey Tower of Arko.

 

[Rosseforp]

I was prepared. I have 68 railroad cars full of Williams right here. Next to my 55 storey Tower of Arko.

Que up Close Encounters of the Arko Kind

 

[Owen Bawn]

Que up Close Encounters of the Arko Kind

Have I told you about my life size replica of Cologne cathedral made of 845,000 Palmolive soap sticks?

 

[Ad Astra]

I do have 10 boxes of this mediocre soap salted away from the last panic buy; need to donate it to the next breast cancer drive ...


AA

 

[Owen Bawn]

I do have 10 boxes of this mediocre soap salted away from the last panic buy; need to donate it to the next breast cancer drive ...


AA

With your connections you should be able to get it sent into deep space as an example of the wonders of Earth to other life forms who might intercept the rocket.

 

[VerbaVolant]

...Sony had a now discontinued ICF-S10MK2 pocket radio that, prior to the shift to digital signal processing (DSP), was considered one of the best radios of this type out there with a bit of a cult following...

My $10 radio that lives in my car as part of my emergency kit. One of the four radios from that kit. So it happens, I like cheap soaps and radios...

 

[Lane101]

Yeah, the perspective is not apparent to the faithful.

A quick googling says that there are about 25k drugstores and 40k supermarkets in the US (65k stores total). If each of them sold 10 50g pucks a year, that means manufacturing over 15 MILLION pounds of soap every year, 15,138,330. So every one of our 136,000 viewers would have to buy 111 pounds of Williams every year to support that. And that’s only 10 pucks a year per store.

Not going to happen.

My guess is that Coombe can no longer make it for $1 a puck, much less sell it for that. Given the current economic times, I’d guess that Williams, if they made another batch, would be priced on the shelf like VdH at about $4-5 per 50g puck. I don’t think people would pay that for it. Companies like Coombe aren’t clueless, they know what the demand is and what people will pay for their products.

Hi Steve, Agree completely with your logic though the math used above is off. 15,138,330 pounds of soap translates into over 138 million (138,407,588) pucks of Williams (16oz/lb & 1.75 oz per puck) or 2,130 annually per store across 65,000 locations.

Your per store example of ten 50g pucks equals 10 x 1.75 oz = 17.5 ounces or about 1.1 pounds per year. Across 65,000 stores this means an annual volume of 71,500 pounds of soap or roughly a half pound each for 136,000 viewers. This translates to 4.8 pucks, call it 5 pucks per year, for each shaver. Still highly unlikely as it means we would all have to shave almost exclusively with Williams since the pucks last 2-3 months. With corrected numbers your logic is still sound as this is unlikely.

Reality is even worse than this since most retailers will not want to give up a shelf spacing to sell less than one $1-$2 soap per month - likely the real reason Williams disappeared from the market. Let's say the minimum sales retailers would accept would be 72 pucks per year (2x turnover of a 36 puck case) then we are up to 72 x 65,000 or roughly 4.7 million pucks (Roughly a half a million pounds of soap) or 34 pucks annually for each of our 136,000 viewers. Even more unlikely.

 

[Lane101]

My $10 radio that lives in my car as part of my emergency kit. One of the four radios from that kit. So it happens, I like cheap soaps and radios...

View attachment 1599418

Suspect car emergency kits are essential in Canada as they were when we were in the more sparsely populated midwest. Try a newer digital signal processing (DSP) based pocket radio and it will blow you away. Recommend the Sangean SR-35 for around $25 U.S.

Funny, the Amazon scarcity effect is happening again. SONY replaced the S10MK2 with another analogue pocket radio ICF26 (same core analogue IC chip as the S10MK) that it just discontinued last fall. Now these $20 ICF26 radios are listed for $30 to $50 while the new ICF27 (looks identical and is now DSP instead of analogue) is only $18.

Old fashioned terrestrial radio is under appreciated in part because broadcasters, communications companies and manufacturers want to shift listening to subscription services and data plans that provide recurring revenue streams. When I use a pocket radio I often get a lot of questions and queries as to where to buy one.

Now back to the Williams soap discussion. Were you able to store a few pucks like many of us before it was discontinued?

 

[Lane101]

I was prepared. I have 68 railroad cars full of Williams right here. Next to my 55 storey Tower of Arko.

So do you store the Arko within a structure made of Williams soap or the other way around with the Williams parked inside the 55 story Arko tower? We want to understand which soap you value the most

P.S. With that much Williams soap we don't need Combe to restart manufacturing. Based on the math I just posted your 15 million pounds can supply all 65,000 stores at 10 pucks a year for over 211 years!

 

[VerbaVolant]

...Were you able to store a few pucks like many of us before it was discontinued?

I tend to hoard products that I like and are good value. I lost count of how many pucks I have since they are split between two residences. I believe I have 15 pucks in my fridge at my current residence.
So really, I should just chuckle and move along. Not much else to say.

 

[Owen Bawn]

P.S. With that much Williams soap we don't need Combe to restart manufacturing. Based on the math I just posted your 15 million pounds can supply all 65,000 stores at 10 pucks a year for over 211 years!

I wish I had more. 68 railroad cars of Williams just doesn't seem enough.

 

[Steve56]

If you’re looking for a replacement, Arko would seem to be it. If you want a puck they have that too. The puck is about 2€ ($2) at yourshaving and at 90g it’s almost twice the amount of the 50g Williams puck. And you get a tub with it. It works well, drop in a puck or slice up a stick and off ya go. I make fun of Arko’s scent a lot, but it’s pretty main street. Fresh, it seems to have a rosemary note to the lemon like Alvarez Gomez, but that note seems to fade pretty quickly. Myrsol Limon goes well with it (as would Alvarez Gomez).

 

[bright09]

If you’re looking for a replacement, Arko would seem to be it. If you want a puck they have that too. The puck is about 2€ ($2) at yourshaving and at 90g it’s almost twice the amount of the 50g Williams puck. And you get a tub with it. It works well, drop in a puck or slice up a stick and off ya go. I make fun of Arko’s scent a lot, but it’s pretty main street. Fresh, it seems to have a rosemary note to the lemon like Alvarez Gomez, but that note seems to fade pretty quickly. Myrsol Limon goes well with it (as would Alvarez Gomez).

View attachment 1602635

works great in my os mug a arko stick pucked into my mug

 

[Steve56]

Up today is a sample of Razorock Blue generously sent to me by @Lane101 - thank you sir!

This could a worthy Williams replacement, good value (as most of Joe’s soaps are) and available most of the time as a stick or puck in four flavors. It isn’t a s slick as modern Williams, so there is that. Post shave is average, and not drying. Be advised that my opinion is based on one use.

At one use in, if you made me choose, I’d go with Arko for performance and Razorock for scent. Arko is a bit closer to modern William’s scent (which I do not care for).

 

[Lane101]

Up today is a sample of Razorock Blue generously sent to me by @Lane101 - thank you sir!

This could a worthy Williams replacement, good value (as most of Joe’s soaps are) and available most of the time as a stick or puck in four flavors. It isn’t a s slick as modern Williams, so there is that. Post shave is average, and not drying. Be advised that my opinion is based on one use.

At one use in, if you made me choose, I’d go with Arko for performance and Razorock for scent. Arko is a bit closer to modern William’s scent (which I do not care for).

View attachment 1603301

Hi Steve, Thank you for the call out. Great review!

Very consistent with my first use (of WTP Black) almost a year ago where I also concluded that Arko was the best overall value for pure shaving performance. After dozens of shave with WTP I've come to agree with you that it is not quite as slick as Arko, Williams or my Van Der Williams blends. The difference is in large part driven by less residual slickness versus the tallow based soaps noted above. You can see the indication of this in my first use review (link below) where I noted that the residual was easier to rinse off my face. That said there is still plenty of slickness for an excellent shave that makes it, as you've stated, an excellent Williams replacement. WTP is part of my regular rotation.

The WTP also produces a nice creamy lather likely in part, as you've noted earlier messages, due to the inclusion of coconut oil (Potassium Cocoate) in it's ingredient list. For those interested my first review via the link below also includes a detailed comparison of WTP to other more premium soaps that further illustrates what a great value WTP is. Very similar or identical ingredients to soaps costing as much as 10x.

Hopefully Italian Barber is able to restock the pucks in the near future. They are in stock on the WTP shaving sticks.

April, 2022 WTP First Use Review:

razorock what the puck triple milled shave soaps

I have all 4. Excellent soaps! I get great face lathers with badger, boar and synths with them. I ended up grating them and pressing each into standard size empty soap containers. Stacks nice.

www.badgerandblade.com

 

[Steve56]

FYI, I was browsing another forum and saw that Marvy shave soap had been discontinued. I haven’t seen this here, though it may well be here somewhere.