Collective,
 
On weekends I work at a homebrew shop.  While staring at a drum of malt
extract it occured to me that there was a way to save a lot of money on
Petromalt.  The ingredients on the tube say that it almost 50/50 malt
extract and liquid Petrolatum.  Through the store, I can get bulk malt
extract pretty cheaply.  My local pharmacy has generic 13 oz jars of
Petroleum Jelly for less than a buck.  Bottom line is (with my discount at
the store), for about $3.50 I could make 2 lbs of Petromalt like substance
when a 3.2 oz tube of Petromalt costs $6.99.  This puts Petromalt at
$34.95/lb vs homemade goop at $1.75/lb.  Petromalt does have Glyerine,
Acacia, and Vitamin B1 in it too....but are these other ingredients really
necessary for hair ball treatments?  Am I missing something or am I onto a
great money saving idea?  I'm half thinking about designing a nice package
and seeing if I can sell the stuff in local pet stores.
 
I hope Bill will allow me to put on a market researcher's hat and ask the
collective one more question.  (If the question is out of line, please
Bill, just remove it from my post.)
 
If you could get a pound of cat lax for say $5.00, a dollar from each
package being donated to ferret shelters, would you buy it?
 
I would love your thoughts on this crazy idea.
 
Cheers!
Matthew in VA.
[Posted in FML issue 2627]