Feb 9, 2010 11:30 pm US/Eastern
Personal Care Products Cost More For Women
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
Americans spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year on personal care products, everything from body wash to saving supplies. But in some cases, we discovered that women are getting a raw deal.
That's because women pay more, just for being women. Eye cream, for example was a real eye-opener. Neutrogena's Eye Reviver for men was priced at $9.99. The woman's equivalent was $5 more or 50 percent higher.
We spoke with women at the Miniluxe nail salon in Newton. They were not happy. "I think they're using their packaging to make more money" one woman told us. Another, "I don't think that makes a lot of sense."
We found other examples. The women's version of L'Oreal Vita Lift cream was $5 more than the men's product.
Nivea for Men/Sensitive body wash cost us $4.99. The women's version, Touch of Happiness, is a dollar more, according to Consumer Reports.
And Extra Strength Excedrin and Excedrin Complete Menstrual contain the same active ingredients, but the women's product is $1.50 higher.
"It really is illegal", says Steve Weisman, a professor at Bentley College and the author of the book, "The Truth about Avoiding Scams." In Massachusetts, we do have laws that do now allow discrimination in a whole hose of areas including sex, so that does apply here."
Manufacturers maintain that the men's and women's products are different. Nivea for example says the women's body wash has skin sensation technology which is costlier to make. And Neutrogena says its eye revitalizers have different formulas. Weisman's response, "For the most part, deodorants and deodorants and aspirin is aspirin. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, you're going to pay more for a female duck."
In some cases, companies blame the store for charging women more than men.
Schick says its Quattro razors should be priced the same. We found that the women's cost fifty cents more.
The same applies to the two Excedrins.
Weisman says that companies get away with this because no one holds their feet to the fire. He suggests women complain to the attorney general.
Women should also be more careful shoppers, checking ingredients and opting for the men's version if they really see no difference.
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