I hadn’t given Gumption a moment’s thought in decades. Even as a child it seemed a very old-fashioned product, lurking under sinks for occasional deployment. But then I spotted the old classic “paste cleanser” in the ALDI special buys on sale from this Wednesday (6 March 2024).
The catalogue copy boasts that Gumption has been “a household staple for 60 years” and it “contains no bleaches or harsh chemicals”.
60 years is underselling it actually. The Gumption trademark was registered in Australia back on 17 November 1947, covering “polishing soap and cleaning and polishing preparations”, and runs through until 2033. Clorox Australia, the current manufacturer, is doing better with trademarks than Agatha Christie, it seems.
Here’s a vintage Gumption ad from the Australian Women’s Weekly in 1955.
We can learn quite a few things from this:
- The fact that the product was imported from England was definitely worth promoting. Incidentally, this angle also suggests that the current marketing claims that Gumption is “proudly Australian made since 1947” aren’t entirely correct.
- Palmolive wasn’t the first household product to pretend it was also good for your skin.
- I don’t recall Gumption in my childhood being lemon-scented, and this ad doesn’t mention that either. So the current scent is apparently a more recent addition. (There was also a eucalyptus-scented version at one point.)
- The offices for Gumption Products (Aust) were at 60 York Street, coincidentally opposite my current employer. That’s still an office building, but I can confirm after checking in the foyer that Gumption has indeed long since departed.
Despite that storied history, I’m not sure how much longer Gumption will last. Clorox does run an official Gumption site, but it is literally a single page with basic customer service contact details, and Clorox doesn’t link to it from its own official list of brands.
Gumption also isn’t getting prominent supermarket placements. In my local Woolies, it’s on the very bottom shelf, the location normally reserved for bargain-basement house-brand goods, barely visible behind promotional labels for other cleaning products.
So maybe Gumption enthusiasts should stock up while it’s on sale. And on that point: is ALDI’s Gumption special actually any good?
$4.49 for the standard 500g container is indeed cheaper than the regular price of $5.30 at Coles and $5.40 at Woolworths. The difference between Coles and Woolworths is in itself unusual; normally they’re in lockstep.
The pricing is also remarkably consistent. Back in 1955, a 16oz container (close enough to 500g) was 2/11. The RBA inflation calculator says that for 2023, this would convert to $5.90. Effectively that’s close to the standard price.
Whatever the decade, put it this way – Gumption on sale is a much better choice than buying vinyl records at ALDI.
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