[DavidB]

Sooner or later, just about everyone in the car care chemical industry calls me, or comes across my desk. That means I learn a lot about who makes what (and who makes what for whom). I'm seeing an alarming trend with small, out-of-no-where brands popping up.

Two weekends ago at the Good-Guys Hot Rod show here in sunny San Diego, I saw a "boutique detailing brand" that was new to me. While the guy running the booth was helping others, I did some snooping around and found a box with his product that had a shipping label. The label was from a chemical manufacturer (let's call them brand X), so I swiftly memorized the name and address.

Today I researched the brand X chemical manufacturer only to discover they market themselves as a "private label chemical manufacturer." With a bit more research, I discovered several brands well known to this community that purchase the majority of their chemicals from brand X.

I did some calling around to my circle of pro detailer friends to ask if they had ever used brand X products. Two of them had/do use brand X, and compared them in quality to Auto Wax Company, a well-known brand for large shops. One of my friends commented that brand X polishes work fast, because they are overly aggressive, but they are "cheap as heck" so a lot of pros like them.

I guess this new discovery of Pro-gone-Boutique got me thinking. Is it okay with you that you might be purchasing products designed for professionals at "boutique prices?" Personally, I'm a little disturbed because it means anyone can bring a brand of car detailing products to market without doing any research or development with a chemist. All you have to do is select from a list of products, and if you buy enough gallons of the stuff, they might even let you change the color and fragrance. Heck, brand X even fills the bottle and slaps a label on for you so you don’t need a filling system.

If you purchased a pint of super-duper swirl remover for $13, but you could have a whole gallon for $19 direct from brand X, would you be upset? I like profit, too, but 400-600% is a bit much… isn’t it?

Part of me is saying “… hey, dude, maybe you should join them and profit from the cheap stuff!”, but the perfectionist side of me says “… no, work hard finding or creating the best products, regardless of cost or the import hassles.”

Where do you stand?