Letters.

• Position: Letter to the Editor

Only the Good Die Young

I read with interest your discussion of good products that disappear from markets. Some years ago I conceived of the idea of starting an Internet service to sell such products. People would happily pay a premium price if they could only get those items they've been looking for.

And now the Internet really makes it possible. At very low cost, you can now find those few thousand people who want to buy Rise shaving cream or Breck shampoo.

Heck, I don't see why some company like P&G doesn't just sell this stuff on its own web site. It must have thousands of discontinued products in its own inventory.

BRUCE R. BARTLETT Great Falls, Va.

You wonder how come excellent products disappear. You are obviously unaware of Block's Law, which I first set forth in a book several years ago: If it's good, they'll stop making it.

Incidentally, since you mention the shaving cream loss, whatever happened to the great Wilkinson razor, with its special sure-shot dispenser? Another of the too many too-good-to last products.

HERB BLOCK Washington, D.C.

One vanished product I surely miss is Pine Bros. honey throat drops--marvelous for the dry throat; not colored sugar, but glycerin. Some company took over the original makers and killed this super product.

ELMER S. NEWMAN Cleveland, Ohio

Rise was originally a product of Carter-Wallace. It was sold in December 1988 to Faberge, which was then acquired by Unilever in July 1989. Sometime between then and now Rise disappeared from the radar screen. I guess when you sell over 1,800 products, it's easy to misplace one.

By the way, "Macintosh" refers to a generic product--natural rubber sandwiched between two layers of cotton. It's been replaced by synthetics.

RON FORCE DEAN OF LIBRARY SERVICES UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO Moscow, Idaho

Charles Peters replies:

I'm informed by my old friend L.T. Anderson, columnist for the Charleston Daily Mail (W. Va.), that Rise is still on sale in my hometown at Drug Emporium.

Macintosh was both a generic and a brand name. The Macintosh raincoat cost $22 in the early 1950's at the old Ambecrombie & Fitch store on Madison Avenue in New York City.

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