Price Increases Are Some Companies Taking The P*ss?

[CarlaH]

A few years ago on a holiday in the lake district I wandered into a shop called The Bath House and bought some products. I have a birthday coming up and as I can't think of many ideas to put on a list for my partner I thought I might see if they have a mail order service.

I remembered they had some lovely soaps so had a look at the fragrances available and they are £9 per soap. This is a ridiculous price isn't it?

My usual soap (Dove) is about 50p.

I know the shop you mean. It's a tourist brand, so is expensive. It's nice stuff but not worth £9 a soap in my opinion

Presumably the shop owners know their market and are pricing it at a point some people will pay.

Hand made = £10/hr or so labour on minimum wage instead of primarily machine made
Ingredients = bought in smaller quantities and therefore for higher prices. Dove can buy them for much less in bulk. They also sell internationally.

The profit margins to a small business are not big, but you're supporting a small company not a multinational corporation.

Shop in a tourist area. Plus you aren’t paying for mass produced Dove you are paying for the ‘handmade’ type aspect probably. People will pay it.

That's not price increases. That's poncy stuff at an exorbitant price and has always been with us.

If I look on Ocado for bubble bath it offers me two "promoted items":

I was going to say similar to @SilverHairedCat - £9 is about right for what you're getting.

Did you get some in the end?

Sadly, many things are going up. If it's something you know you'd really like, then isn't that what having a present is all about - a nice treat for you.

Either way, hope you have a lovely birthday.

Nesti Dante soap is lovely, they have gift boxes of 6 bars on Amazon for about £17 ish. It's fab, lasts ages, and gorgeous scents.

I second that - lovely scented soap which doesn't go slimy or dry up and crack before the bar is finished. I started buying those during Lockdown when the skin on my hands started shredding with using antibacterial handwashes and hand gel. They last ages too. 🌹

YABU to compare the two products. Dove is mass produced and budget friendly. The £9 soap isn’t produced on the same scale and has a different target market so is priced accordingly. £9 is much more than I would pay for soap but presumably some people do pay it or it wouldn’t be sold.

this isn’t an example of price rises unless the fancy soap used to be 50p or the Dove soap has gone up to £9

I can't decide what to do. Perhaps I will tell my partner and leave it up to them to decide whether I'm worth it.

As someone who makes their own soap & done plenty of research, I agree that you do pay more for handmade products made with quality ingredients, than something like Dove.
That said, having looked at The Bath Shop Company website at their soaps, they are overpriced for what your getting. Water should not be the first ingredient in decent quality soap, it should be a mix of oils & butters & water will be much further done the ingredients list.
That soap has lots of extras you really don't need in soap.
Of course if you liked it, liked the fragrance oils they're using etc, by all means buy them but there are plenty of small soap businesses out there making fantastic soap with proper ingredients at half the price those are being sold for. They're trading primarily on their brand/location.