Murphy Pure Vegetable Oil Soap (32 Fl. Oz.)

Item Purchased: Murphy Pure Vegetable Oil Soap (32 Fl. Oz.)
Location Purchased: Dominick's / 3145 S Ashland Ave. / Chicago, IL
Price: $3.00 + tax

Review: In the evolution of consumer convenience, we often think of things such as the credit card, the drive-up bank teller or online bill payment. Each of these things have their pros and cons, but for the most part, they make our lives more convenient and streamlined. Despite all the fears and very real danger of identity theft, many people I know continue to type their credit card numbers into a form on the local electric company's website all in the name of convenience and speed.

Convenience and speed is such a predominate force in today's culture that we seldom put the dark consequences on the scale. Even if we do, the opportunity to spend more time watching Jerry Springer wins out.

I prefer to balance my life with a healthy dose of moderation. I still write paper checks to pay my utility bills and you'll never see me dropping my hard-earned cash into an envelope to slide through my bank's after-hours deposit drop slot.

It is with this balance in mind that I address Murphy's Oil Soap. When I was a kid, I remember my father mixing a small amount of whatever floor cleaner we had under the kitchen sink with a large amount of warm tap water in a bucket. This imperfect solution often resulted in the perfect cleaning liquid with which to make our floor shine in the morning sunlight.

With the new and "improved" Murphy's Oil Soap, the fundamentals of mixing have been taken care of for today's lazy consumer. This bottle of floor cleaner is already diluted so that all you have to do is spray a little bit of it on the floor and wipe over it with a mop. Despite the high quality of the product that results from the pre-diluted floor cleaner, I can't help but view this product as just another racket cashing in on the laziness of today's chore children. Despite the pleasant citrus scent and glowing floorboards that result from using this product, the consumer is getting less product for almost the same amount of money. When you buy a higher concentration of cleaning fluid in the same volume, it can last you for weeks or even months. With this 32 oz. bottle of watered down, ready-to-use cleaner, I mopped over my hardwood floors once and found myself with an empty plastic squeeze bottle. Now, all for the sake of convenience, I have to make another trip to my local supermarket to buy another r bottle of Murphy's so I can finish the second coat of mopping pleasure. Twenty minutes extra to complete something that would have taken me a total of two minutes to complete if I had purchased a higher concentration, dilute-it-yourself floor cleaner.

How convenient is that?

Rating: 2 / 5