where I live there is one kind of underwear, Hanes her way, maybe 4 kinds of socks, maybe ten kinds of toothbrushes. White running shoes and rubber boots. One brand of towels etc. But in about five colors. Having multiple options of toothbrushes and having a competitive market for them is what allows the price of toothbrushes to be affordable to more people. Supplying our toothbrush market keeps people in other countries fed, I hope....and used to probably keep some of our own people working. I'm not for unbridled, unchecked, exploitive capitalism at all...but complaining about toothbrushes? That seems self-indulgent to me more than the toothbrushes themselves. They aren't hurting anyone. If they don't sell at Safeway they will be sold for way cheaper at teh dollar store and less fortunate people can have nice toothbrushes. I hope that we get out of using plastics for them..maybe ceramics would be better as it would be made out of sand..who knows. mg