Bama T: The same thing happened to me. I was in college had my barber order a mug and brush and tried Williams with it. The Williams lather failure brought me to the "Edge", until I found the Shave Den a few years ago. It makes me think Williams sold a lot of canned lather. Today I am thankful for so many great choices and lots of info via the forum.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Well then thats it.....Americas contender is out of the race....Now Arko Shave Stick has a clear field....and of course TSD shave soap..... The powers at be, at Williams are stupid.....That soap is an American Institution and will always have a market.....I might have to never use any product from that company again! I love Aqua Velva though.....bet it's next.....these people must have no conscience to remove Williams Mug Soap from production....And a slap in all of our faces, as folks who appreciate a mug soap, even if Williams isn't your favorite...
Maybe, every last one of us needs to send an e-mail to Combe Incorperated, and complain about this decicion to discontinue this product, and outright 'dissing' the Wet Shaving community like this.....Maybe if they know there are people out there who still dig soaps and brushes, they might reconsider......What do you think!
I don't think they will reconsider. A company doesn't make a decision like this lightly. They must have had this discussion many many times before deciding to discontinue it
While I certainly don't hate Williams shave soap and I can lather it fairly easily, I honestly won't miss it. If anyone wants an easy to lather, well performing, CHEAP shave soap Arko is still around. If they discontinue Arko THAT would upset me
I'm fairly certain the reason to discontinue the product was financial at heart. It either didn't sell well enough, couldn't be priced higher to account for a lower volume and/or was not strategically aligned with the direction the company was moving towards as a whole. Very few, if any, decision such as this is made purely to annoy the customers.
Went to my local pharmacy today to pick up some refills, spot several pucks of Williams for $.99, decided I needed one more. Already had a couple.
I hope they are pulling it to reformulate the soap. Williams is a soap I want to love but the new formula is difficult to make a stable lather with. I have some of the older Williams and it is much better. I don't know if I would call it vintage because I don't know what year it was made, but it doesn't have that lemon scent and it lathers with no problem. seems weird to get such a thick lather from Williams. I really hope they bring the old recipe back because the nostalgia factor is there and it has been around for a long time.
Buy 50, put them in a box and forget about them. 50 years from now a grandchild will find them and sell them on future-ebay for a killing
Well I may be completely wrong but, here it goes. I'm not sure how many of you remember the great twinkie scare we had a while back. As soon as the public heard that they were discontinuing twinkie's they were bought up like crazy . Every shelf was cleared out and eBay was flooded with them for a very large profit. The company sales went up , the interest grew again . From what I remember they either kept production after all and are doing better than ever or sold the rights to the highest of multiple bidders and they new owners are doing very well. Many new varieties as well as movie promotions. So long story even longer. Maybe there is someone up the williams chain of command or in marketing who is a genius and trying the same thing. Who knows, I guess I will have to wait and see if my theory is correct or not.
Seems like everyone is stocking up on Williams....the last few stores I checked were sold out. The current flurry of interest in Williams just goes to show that when supply is threatened then demand for a product increases. I have been a faithful user of Williams for most of my shaving life...and I have a few pucks stored away for when I get bored with the plethora of new and different shaving soaps/creams that now fill my den shelves.
Before I tried it I had heard it described as lemon meringue like. I personally agree, but with some lemon floor cleaner poured in as well. When I heard the urinal cake reference I thought " that's it ! That's what it smells like !"