blake_jl said:
I think the worst that could happen is you buy a product to do a certain job, you aren't 100% happy so you buy another product to try again and it turns out to be the same thing.
Whether you pay a couple of extra bucks compared to the next person, not so important. But buying the same thing twice when you didn't want to isn't good.
That's probably the most sensible response that's been in this thread.
mikenap said:
This made me think it was one company operating under 2 different names. When I posted here, someone also directed me to the Warner Chemicals site which is all the InstaFinish products at the same prices as the InstaFinish site. No big deal. But I also saw that under that same distributor tab, on 3 different sites now, each site had a different number to call. Obviously the Warner and InstaFinish sites aren't trying to hide anything, all the products are the same with the same prices, names and packaging. But the CG site was selling some things under the CG label which seem identical to the InstaFinish-branded product for less.
In essence, it's not true relabeling by a seperate brand. It's relabeling the same products to be sold by another branch of the same company but at different prices. That is what seems shady to me. I totally understand when Adams or PB buys or relabels product and adjusts prices according to their own overhead and expenses. It's how they stay in business. But CG and Warner/InstaFinish are the same company, from what I can tell and from what people here have posted. So why the disparity in prices? Why should they sell me the same product for 2 different prices depending on which website I happen to see first?
The answer again, is marketing. I've been looking for a new water softener. If you go to Lowe's, they have Whirlpools. If you go to the Whirlpool site to look at their softeners, you wind up at a company variously called Ecodyne or Ecowater Systems, that makes the Whirlpool softeners (the Whirlpool manual says in the back that the product is made by Ecodyne). They also make the Kenmore units for Sears. They also sell them under the Ecowater brand. So I started searching for some reviews and wound up at the Autopia of water treatment, a forum like this one. They suggested that these units, which were also sold under the GE name (and perhaps still are) are cheap junk. (most of the forum members are pro water treatment guys, and suggest the units available only from them). So I think, maybe I can get a softener from Grainger thru work. I find this Northstar brand, it looks pretty good, I go to their website, download the manual, I'm looking through it...and when I get to the exploded parts view...it's clear this is just another Ecodyne unit. But this manual doesn't say anything about Ecodyne...except that the address of the company is the same as Ecodyne.
So there you have one company, making products for many different companies, in some cases disclosing, and in some not. It's just marketing, using different channels, brands, and pitches to appeal to different market segments, and sell the most product.
The piece of the puzzle that throws people off about Chemical Guys, is that people think of them as the source of a lot of the rebranded products, and they may be, for some. But the reality is that CG's is just one of the distribution paths for Warner, and that private label products may come direct from Warner or by way of CG, or perhaps through another intermediary like CG.
