So I need to buy some laundry detergent, my current box getting low.

For years I have used unscented soaps, as I can’t stand the scents added (of any kind, especially perfumes.) “Fresh scent” being among the most obnoxious.

Anyway, for years I have used Tide Free and Gentle.

So I go to buy a box and behold, P&G discontinued it earlier this year.

The excuse I found online via Reddit:

Please know decisions to discontinue products or introduce new ones are thought out very carefully. Consumer purchasing patterns and ongoing consumer research are taken into consideration when making such important decisions. We always want to bring you the latest innovations, and sometimes this means we have to say goodbye to older or favorite products, especially if demand isn’t high enough to keep making them.

Michelle: While we don’t have an exact replacement, we do still manufacture our liquid and PODS form of our Tide Free and Gentle line.

The reality is this: the powder form is too efficient. I can make a 95oz box last an entire year.

So P&G can sell roughly twice as many PODs or liquid containers equivalent to a single box of powder.

And getting back to our carbon budget: twice as many things shipped, and heavier (the water in the liquid form) means more energy consumed per load of laundry detergent.

I looked on Amazon a couple of months ago for a box of said Tide and it was a bit expensive, but I should have bought it then, because now the powder boxes are being treated as collector’s items, with an asking price of $46/box ! And even with Prime, not arriving until Christmas week.

Oh, and of course the smaller box (which P&G hadn’t made for some time) is even more expensive:

Fortunately the Henkel Corp. still makes powder form of All fragrance-free detergent. But even then, Amazon only has the liquid form in stock (thankfully Walmart will come to my rescue here.)

Point being: “pods” are a pricing scam, but too many consumers are just too lazy to measure out detergent so they’ll pay multiples of what a box of powder cost.

And returning to the issue of climate change: this is why I am confident we will not avert from the worst case scenario for climate change - because people will want convenience over efficiency every damn time.