Have you ever thought about how much money you could save by switching from liquid soap to foam soap? Of course you haven’t. No one lies awake at night thinking, “Gee, I wonder how many pumps of soap everyone took today?” Even so, there is some merit to analyzing it from time to time. In my first post I mentioned that in each area of focus I’d break down both cost savings and sanitation benefits from one system to another. In this analysis we’re going to compare Dial liquid soap to GOJO’s LTX Touchless Dispensing System.
First, let’s look at cost. This can be a bit deceiving, because you will pay more for each refill of GOJO’s soap, but there’s good reason for it. Let’s break it down. Dial liquid soap costs $3.99, and t
here are 221.8 mL in a bottle. The average person takes 1.5 mL of soap from a pump dispenser. That means you’re getting just under 178 hand washes out of that container, or you’re paying about $.022 per hand wash. Conversely, if you bought a 1200 mL container of sealed foam soap from GOJO, it’d set you back about $27. Out of that one container you’ll get an astounding 1333 hand washes. Ultimately, this means you’ll pay $.02 per hand wash.
*Crickets* Not impressed? Doesn’t sound like much of a difference? Well, the short answer is you’re right. I’ll bet you didn’t think about labor cost though. Do you know how annoying it is to pour soap from a gallon jug into a little container? It’s brutal. And at 178 hand washes per fill, you’re going to be doing a lot of pouring. There’s also a lot of waste because there is typically spillage. Conversely, each refill of GOJO hand soap is going to last you about 7.5 times longer, and it’s an easy snap in, snap out sealed refill—no mess. Let’s say it takes 2 minutes to refill a container of Dial. Remember you need to get the gallon jug, unscrew the lid, pour it in slowly, clean up the mess, and put the jug away. Multiply that out by each container you have, times 7.5. At 8 containers you’re looking at 2 hours of labor to refill those containers. It literally takes 15 seconds to replace a GOJO refill, times 8 dispensers equals 2 minutes of labor. When paying someone $15 per hour, that’s basically going to save you $30. Ah, now I’ve got you.
If saving money and time isn’t a good enough reason to switch, sanitation better be. One out of every four refillable bulk soap dispensers are contaminated with illness-causing bacteria.1 Even worse, once it’s contaminated, you can’t clean it, even with bleach. The bacteria re-grows. The dispenser really should be completely replaced.2 GOJO offers a factory-sealed refill which eliminates the threat of contamination. It’s also touchless, so you won’t be picking up any germs from the pump.
By now you can see that we shamelessly promote GOJO. They’re a great manufacturer with a great story (which I don’t have time to delve into right now). One of the reasons we at Richter’s love GOJO so much is because they’re a great ally for us. Even though we’re a small business, they give us a ton of support. If this blog has convinced you it’s time to make the move to some excellent touchless foam soap dispensers, today is your lucky day. GOJO has partnered with Richter’s so that together we can offer you FREE dispensers. All you need to do is buy two refills for each dispenser you get. There are literally no limits. In fact, if you need 30 or more soap dispensers, GOJO will even throw your company logo on all of your dispensers for you. Pretty slick if I do say so myself.
If you’re interested in a free dispenser, shoot me an e-mail (andy@richteronline.com). I’ll get you the order form and get you squared away. Well, what are you waiting for?
Sources
- Chattman M, Maxwell S, Gerba C. 2011. Occurrence of heterotrophic and coliform bacteria in liquid hand soaps from bulk refillable dispensers in public facilities. J Environ Health. 73(7):26-29.
- Lorenz L, Ramsay B, Goeres D, Fields M, Zapka C, Macinga D. 2012. Evaluation and remediation of bulk soap dispensers for biofilm. Biofouling, 28(1): 99-109.
