Don't know what part of the state you're in, but I hit the Krogers in the southern part of the state hard. I am set for many, many years.
THE williams mug shaving soap thread
- Thread starter crocto
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Don't know what part of the state you're in, but I hit the Krogers in the southern part of the state hard. I am set for many, many years.
I'm in Peru, but also hit the Krogers in Wabash and Kokomo. I am set for a long time, but if I heard they were discontinuing Williams I would stock up even more.
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Williams is a good, solid shave soap. If it were the only one available to me, I would use it without complaint. I do prefer others over it of course, I just love cella and arko soooo much!!!!
Just finished up a cheap drugstore shave with this puck thats been in my drawer for years. I let it soak in my mug, used my old VDH boar brush, and followed up with Ice Blue AV. Boy did I get a great shave. Makes me wonder why I purchased my DR HARRIS, GFT, and AOS pucks. Ah the scent thats why. No scent to get worked up about on the Williams puck BUT I will be keeping it in my rotation. It was very slick and did the job. I really like that simple picture of the foaming mug on the box as well.
Just got a vintage puck era 70's to try out from a fellow B&B member... the J.B. Williams Company kind. Really want to know how the original formula works as opposed to today's puck.
It sounds like you are both using pucks that you have had sitting at your house for years. The current (much debated) formulation of Williams didn't come out until 2005, so if your pucks are older than this you have been using Vintage Williams. Trust me, it's vastly different than the current formulation, and vastly superior.
You owe it to yourself to buy a puck of the current formulation (it's only a buck!!) so you can do a comparison. Otherwise you might be giving praise to a product that you actually hate!! lol.
My question is, who's buying this soap? The new formulation is readily available, but how many soap and brush users are out there actually buying it?
Within the last year, many Kroger locations clearance this item out. I noticed most recently, that Meijer (the Midwest's major competitor to Walmart) no longer stocks it (or the shaving brush they sold along side). I would say at best, the only places still stocking this are small mom and pop drug stores/ grocery stores (non-chain stores) that perhaps sell a puck or two a month.
In my opinion, this is a product that has a dying user base (since the men purchasing it are likely in their 70's and 80's), and the company fully understands this which is why they don't care at all about improving the formula.
We are a very small drop in the bucket of overall shaving sales, and likely not a large enough market to keep a mass produced product on the market.
The oddball thing, is that most locations that do sell this, don't sell a shaving brush beside it. So an elderly gentleman (who is not Internet savy) who needs to replace his shaving brush is out of luck, and thus forced to change to canned goo. Since one would have to go out of their way to find a shaving brush, the company is not exactly encouraging new customer sales either.
If Combe (the maker of Williams) wanted to attract new customers, they would also sell a shaving brush alongside their product.
So as I said it's a product with a dying customer base, and the company fully understands this.
Both CVS and Walgreens, in my neighborhood here, have Van Der Hagen brushes, soap, and (usually) shaving kits in their shaving aisles. What they do not have (at least Walgreens has not, for some while), has been SE blades. None of three Target stores within 5 miles of my place have any of the Van Der Hagen products, nor any kind of SE blades. I don't recall whether the CVS store had SE blades or not.
Personally, I have zero recollection of seeing Williams shaving soap in any store in Texas in the near-60 years I have been shaving. Colgate, yes, Burma Shave, yes, Old Spice, ditto.
Hey, People! I just got back from a sweep of some nearby stores on this holiday morning, from CVS Pharmacy, Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, to Walgreens. Not a one had a package of SE razor blades, but CVS had a brand new package of Williams Mug Shaving Soap, with the Combe Incorporated distributorship on the box, and comparing it to the "period" box of the same product, it has "Since 1840" above the oval with the foaming mug, the word "mug" is in larger type, a different font, and the end flaps have differences.
The old box just says "Famous for its lather" on one flap, while the new box has instructions about hot water and a good brush for "luxurious" lather. On the opposite end, the ingredient list is shifted around, with Sodium Tallowate and Potassium Stearate swapping places, the word "fragrance" moved up in the list from near the end, salt has been added for some reason, as has Stearic Acid, and at the very end it says "may also contain Sodium Palm Kernelate".
It appears that there really *IS* a Williams with "some" of the old formula's content, such as Tallow. Here's the old list of contents:
"Sodium Tallowate, Potassium Stearate, Sodium Cocoate, water, Glycerin, Trtrasodium Etidronate, Pentasodium Pentatate, fragrance, Titanium Dioxide."
Personally, I have zero recollection of seeing Williams shaving soap in any store in Texas in the near-60 years I have been shaving. Colgate, yes, Burma Shave, yes, Old Spice, ditto.
Hey, People! I just got back from a sweep of some nearby stores on this holiday morning, from CVS Pharmacy, Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, to Walgreens. Not a one had a package of SE razor blades, but CVS had a brand new package of Williams Mug Shaving Soap, with the Combe Incorporated distributorship on the box, and comparing it to the "period" box of the same product, it has "Since 1840" above the oval with the foaming mug, the word "mug" is in larger type, a different font, and the end flaps have differences.
The old box just says "Famous for its lather" on one flap, while the new box has instructions about hot water and a good brush for "luxurious" lather. On the opposite end, the ingredient list is shifted around, with Sodium Tallowate and Potassium Stearate swapping places, the word "fragrance" moved up in the list from near the end, salt has been added for some reason, as has Stearic Acid, and at the very end it says "may also contain Sodium Palm Kernelate".
It appears that there really *IS* a Williams with "some" of the old formula's content, such as Tallow. Here's the old list of contents:
"Sodium Tallowate, Potassium Stearate, Sodium Cocoate, water, Glycerin, Trtrasodium Etidronate, Pentasodium Pentatate, fragrance, Titanium Dioxide."
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I've used both the old and the new, and to me they are pretty much the same (meaning very good), just the old one doesn't stank so pretty.
If Williams is a drop in the bucket, then traditional wet-shaving itself is a bucket in an ocean of cartridge razors, canned gels and foams and electric whisker whackers.
Lots of retailers have been "thinning the herd" of options they offer in this lackluster economy. It doesn't surprise me at all that I've been able to score house branded DE blades and Williams soaps for a song at closeouts.
Lots of retailers have been "thinning the herd" of options they offer in this lackluster economy. It doesn't surprise me at all that I've been able to score house branded DE blades and Williams soaps for a song at closeouts.
The CVS and Walgreens still carry Williams around me at about $1.60 a puck. My Walmart has VDH deluxe soap, brush, and the shave kit with the soap brush and bowl for sale. The VDH puck there is around $1.60 also. I know the Walmart Wilkies slot seems to be empty when I'm there too.
I know my local Walgreens sells Williams and I think the Rite Aid does too. Winco, a regional discount grocery store servicing Washington, Idaho, Nevada, California, and Oregon (hence the name), sells it for 89 cents. I normally grab a puck while in there.
Just last week the wife called and asked me to pick up some beer on the way home from work...and requested "something light and not expensive."
A case of PBR with a puck of Williams is pretty high cotton, you know!
Just last week the wife called and asked me to pick up some beer on the way home from work...and requested "something light and not expensive."
A case of PBR with a puck of Williams is pretty high cotton, you know!
Ok, I think I will forgo all my expensive creams and soaps for today and try out this Williams soap.
Maybe this was asked before. Has anyone ever seen a Williams shaving mug? Just curious.
I saw one on a YouTube video for lathering Williams. It was half Williams and half Aqua-Velva. Not sure if he made it himself or not though.
The one like a coffee mug, or the special 1976 mug in pewter?
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I'm happy I have a non-chain grocery store right down the street from me that keeps Williams in stock. The new formula works fine for me and my hard water, so I'm not sure what all the hubbub is about.
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