Grocery Shrink Ray Hits Faultless Spray Starch

Mark says he’s found fault with Faultless spray starch. The bottle shrunk by two ounces and is being sold for the same price, another victim of the Grocery Shrink Ray. Compare the products here and here. What’s interesting is that when he called his mom, she said she had a different brand of starch spray. It too had shrunk by two ounces. Could manufacturers be colluding together to all decrease their products by the same amount at the same time? I’ve heard of price-fixing, but what about the legality of size-fixing? In any event, Mark emailed customer service about the new package. Their cheery reply, inside…

Dear Mark,

Thank you for your recent email regarding your experience with our new packaging for our Faultless Heavy Starch. We always welcome consumer and industry feedback, positive or negative, as we continually strive to improve our products.

We appreciate you letting us know your concerns about the new aerosol can we are using. We realize it is a significant change. The can we used previously was a 22 ounce, three piece can, with a welded seam. Because of how it is made, the old can uses significantly more steel and is more suspect to leaking along the seam if stored for a long period of time. Though the new two piece can does not come in a 22 ounce size, it has numerous other advantages over the three piece can.

By using less steel, the new can is more environmentally sustainable and reduces carbon dioxide emissions associated with the manufacture and distribution of our products. In addition to creating less waste, the new can has a longer shelf life, smaller diameter for better handling, and a more ergonomic design with a cap which is easier to remove.

For over 120 years, Faultless Starch/Bon Ami Company has taken great pride in providing the highest quality products. We hope you appreciate our efforts to be environmentally proactive while preserving an economical way to aid ironing and wrinkle removal by not raising our prices and passing on raw material increases to our valued customers.

Thank you again for taking the time to contact us. We would like to extend an offer of a few coupons as a thank you for your loyalty and support of our products and company. Please advise if this would be acceptable and provide a mailing address for the coupons.

Respectfully,

Annie Blackman
Consumer Specialist

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