bkelley
11-10-2009, 05:54 AM
If there ever was a Holy Grail of laundry detergent, Wisk would have to be it. After reading all the posts here about how awesome it is for cleaning bikes, I just had to try it. I read that it was pretty hard to find, but I took that with a grain of salt. I figured that it could have just been had to find in some small towns or something.
Anyways, I first started out at the Family Dollar store down the street. Mom said they have, and I quote, "a trailprotrailprotrailprotrailpro-ton of detergent". With a statement like that I figured this wasn't going to be so hard after all. So, I make a trip to Family Dollar, only to come up empty. Wasn't too surprised, it's a relatively small store.
Next stop, Wal-Mart, 'cause, you know, Wal-Mart has everything. Everything except Wisk, that it.
Beaten, but not down, I give grandma a call. After a 10 minute lecture about how she's never used Wisk but that TSP is the best darn stuff money can buy when it comes to cleaning products, she finally tells me that she's seen it at Smart and Final, and that's also where I can find TSP. After another long lecture from the old lady at Smart and Final, I figure out that TSP was taking off the market by the EPA because of the phosphates not being removed from wastewater during treatment and was then subsequently discharged into watersheds and larger bodies of water blah blah blah. So, I stroll down the detergent isle. Didn't see any Wisk. Check the other isle, nothing. Go back to the other isle and look some more. FINALLY! There sat a single, lonesome bottle of 2x Concentrated Wisk Original Clean on top of the shelf. Literally the only one, on the top of the shelf, like 10' in the air. Had to climb up to get it. Good thing it turned out to be like a 200oz bottle with a nice hefty price tag of $29 or something. Way too much for me to be spending some some damn laundry detergent.
So I left the store and ended my trip defeated. Was going to have to continue my search some other time, the Steelers were kicking off in 15 minutes. After some clutch internet sleuthing, I found an article on About.com where some lady wrote to like three different people in charge of the Wisk product. One wrote back stating:
"Currently, if you live on the East Coast, you will be able to find Wisk HE more easily. We are at most East Coast grocery chains, CVS, Sam's Club, Costco, and BJs. Unfortunately, we do not have distribution at Target and we have limited East Coast distribution at Wal-Mart. If you live outside the East Coast, you can find Wisk at Kroger, Food 4 Less, Ralph's and Fred Meyer. You can also always buy it online from Amazon and DrugStore.com. We, on the brand team recognize that this limited distribution does not help our consumers find our product and can lead to frustrations such as your readers described. We are working feverishly with these retailers to re-gain our distribution so that consumers, like your readers, will be able to purchase Wisk again."
Great, I'm on the side of the country that Wisk doesn't like to distribute to. Amazon has a pretty limited selection and DrugStore.com no longer carries it. Only place we have here that was listed for the west coast is Food 4 Less. So that's where my next stop is. If not there, I don't know what.
Sorry for the somewhat long write-up, I just can't believe how hard this crap is to track down.
Anyways, I first started out at the Family Dollar store down the street. Mom said they have, and I quote, "a trailprotrailprotrailprotrailpro-ton of detergent". With a statement like that I figured this wasn't going to be so hard after all. So, I make a trip to Family Dollar, only to come up empty. Wasn't too surprised, it's a relatively small store.
Next stop, Wal-Mart, 'cause, you know, Wal-Mart has everything. Everything except Wisk, that it.
Beaten, but not down, I give grandma a call. After a 10 minute lecture about how she's never used Wisk but that TSP is the best darn stuff money can buy when it comes to cleaning products, she finally tells me that she's seen it at Smart and Final, and that's also where I can find TSP. After another long lecture from the old lady at Smart and Final, I figure out that TSP was taking off the market by the EPA because of the phosphates not being removed from wastewater during treatment and was then subsequently discharged into watersheds and larger bodies of water blah blah blah. So, I stroll down the detergent isle. Didn't see any Wisk. Check the other isle, nothing. Go back to the other isle and look some more. FINALLY! There sat a single, lonesome bottle of 2x Concentrated Wisk Original Clean on top of the shelf. Literally the only one, on the top of the shelf, like 10' in the air. Had to climb up to get it. Good thing it turned out to be like a 200oz bottle with a nice hefty price tag of $29 or something. Way too much for me to be spending some some damn laundry detergent.
So I left the store and ended my trip defeated. Was going to have to continue my search some other time, the Steelers were kicking off in 15 minutes. After some clutch internet sleuthing, I found an article on About.com where some lady wrote to like three different people in charge of the Wisk product. One wrote back stating:
"Currently, if you live on the East Coast, you will be able to find Wisk HE more easily. We are at most East Coast grocery chains, CVS, Sam's Club, Costco, and BJs. Unfortunately, we do not have distribution at Target and we have limited East Coast distribution at Wal-Mart. If you live outside the East Coast, you can find Wisk at Kroger, Food 4 Less, Ralph's and Fred Meyer. You can also always buy it online from Amazon and DrugStore.com. We, on the brand team recognize that this limited distribution does not help our consumers find our product and can lead to frustrations such as your readers described. We are working feverishly with these retailers to re-gain our distribution so that consumers, like your readers, will be able to purchase Wisk again."
Great, I'm on the side of the country that Wisk doesn't like to distribute to. Amazon has a pretty limited selection and DrugStore.com no longer carries it. Only place we have here that was listed for the west coast is Food 4 Less. So that's where my next stop is. If not there, I don't know what.
Sorry for the somewhat long write-up, I just can't believe how hard this crap is to track down.