T K Maxx. - no soap!!!!!!

[Augustone]

OK, slight exaggeration, they had some soap but a tiny selection. I used to love browsing them and choosing some new ones but there is now only a tiny selection on my local store. Is this all stores or do I need to go to a bigger one to get my fix?

I noticed this recently. Just a few tins of soap and a couple of bars of bath soaps. No Savon de Marseille and no Nesti Dante. TK Maxx used to have a brilliant range of soaps. No idea what's happened. It's only very recently though.

I’ve noticed this, over the last two or three years. It’s like everyone went doolally during the first bit of the pandemic buying bar soap and they’ve never bothered to stock up again. It used to be a great shop for soap, but not any more (ditto scented candles actually).

Brexit

Hm yeah that is probably it, isn’t it? Cos a lot of the bar soaps were Italian or French.

Oh no, I love their soaps, always buy decent soap from there and was just thinking the other day that my soap stash was getting low and that a trip to them was due. The only time I visit TK Maxx is to stock up on soap. I wonder if this all branches?

Yeah I’ve noticed too.

Lidl had one type.
Morrisons had a couple. Although they have some very expensive posh soap, it was staying on the shelf.
Aldi had two types.

Do people not use bar soap anymore or have they decided we shouldn't be using anything in a light wrapper, and instead poison the environment with plastic pump action bottles of hand wash and shower gel?

I did some brand work with Nesti Dante recently. Apparently soap sales over the last decade have increased, in general. So people are actually buying more of it. It sounds like the TK Maxx thing is a Brexit/logistics issue.

They had loads in my local branch. They'll probably be getting more in soon for Christmas too.

There's been a massive pressure on availability of oils - in large part due to the fact that Ukraine produce lion's share of world sunflower oil, which has put pressure on other oils as manufacturers switch... and huge uncertainty in the palm oil market too.

Soap is a relatively low margin product so volumes produced are down.