Bleach Prices the Next victim of "Inflation"?

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bradfordwhite

bradfordwhite

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 16, 2019
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Location
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I went to buy a large bottle of bleach today at Dollartree,checked two stores and found nothing.
No large bottles, no scented, no small bottles of Clorox, nothing.  Very suspicious.

There were empty shelves where the bleach is <span style="text-decoration: underline;">supposed to be</span> but in there spot, in addition to being empty, is just random merch, bleach dust, and a few bits of mouse excrement.

Asked the store people at both stores where the bleach was and they were like "we just haven't got our shipment in yet".

Stopped at a Big Lots, not that I ever shop there, but thought I'd take a look as I haven't been in a store like that for several years.  Dear LORD- there were few customers,  the floors were a mess.  shipping labels all over the floor, mismatched tiles, and stuff was in disarray.  It didn't look like it had been cleaned in years.  Anyway found the clorox bleach and just a small bottle they had priced at $3.69.  Couldn't wait to get out of there.

 

Went to Walmart.  They had the larger store brand bottle of bleach for like $6.49, another Mexican labeled thing for $6.19, and the Clorox was around $8

 

 

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Stopped at a Big Lots

Big Lots in my area have off brand bleach for $2.19 a gallon, (price had been $2 for several years until just recently).
 
There's bleach, and there's bleach. Without an EPA certification, you don't really know what concentration is being offered (it's usually on the outer box/crate). The disinfecting bleach (of whatever concentration or brand) is the full strength and isn't scented or thickened. I did notice a weird price discrepancy--Cloralen (Mexican bleach) was $1.49/quart on sale for $1.29/quart at Vons in Palm Springs...at Safeway in rural eastern Arizona the same bottle was $2.99. Maaaaaybe if the Cloralen plant is in Tijuana and they're trucking it from Tijuana to Phoenix to the store...
 
"Splashless" Bleach goes flat quickly. The price for disinfecting bleach is about on par. Costco sells Clorox "Performance Bleach" which is 7.55% Sodium Hypochlorite and says it kills 99.9% of bacteria and viruses. A carton of (3) 3.78 quart jugs is $18 and change. Decades ago, Clorox bleach was 4.95% Sodium Hypochlorite as were the store brands and the jugs were gallons. I don't know why disinfecting bleach has gotten stronger. Maybe it's because people are using it in cold water.
 
Stopped at another Dollartree in Santa Rosa= NOTHING.
Just completely empty spots in the shelving surrounded by fully stocked other laundry products.
Not even so much as an empty wrapper from a candy bar somebody ate when shopping and no mouse excrement.
Something suspicious is going on, I know it.
I googled this hot mess. I'm not the only one who's noticed.

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Liquid chlorine bleach.

Used in washing machines properly does not cause corrosion and greatly extends the life of the machine by killing, mold and buildup that can ruin seals, etc..

Using electric heaters in the machine is far harder on the machines wiring and circuit boards etc. than using a quarter cup of chlorine bleach in a front load washer.

John.
 
The local Sam's here has a three gallon pack for just under $19.00! WTF?
I really feel my age when I recall that as a youngster, a brown glass gallon of Clorox was 25 cents.
 
Stopped at a 4th store in the area= nothing
but worn paint spots where the bottles used to occupy the bottom two shelves.

I asked a young woman putting stuff on shelves and she said "we're all out. We've ordered it but we haven't been getting it in lately."

Ah-huh. Something's going on.

YES, I know bleach is available at other stores.

Why is there NONE at Dollartree? I mean they used to have generic label gallon in several scents, then they'd have the skinny bottle of Clorox. All of it was good in my experience.

I NEED my Dollartree bleach!

Another thing I've noticed at the likes of Walmart is they only have two sizes: the standard size and the gallons. I haven't seen the thin bottle.
I should check some other stores this week.
 
I rarely if ever use chlorine bleach. I probably have a gallon jug of it in the patio kitchen or patio bathroom or the main kitchen under the sink that's at least 10 years old. I *think* I used some recently, like in the past 2 months, to remove some nasty stains from the kitchen sink. Didn't take much, just had to let it sit for 10-20 minutes.

 

Yeah, I know, don't use abrasive cleanser on porcelain coated sinks. But someone beat me to it here. Oh well.
 
Literally

Picked up a Bottle of Great Value (Wal-Mart) Brand, 81oz 7.5% Sodium Hypochlorite for $4.24. This was in Orange County, CA. I wanted Chlorine Bleach to wash something, and plan on leaving the bottle at families home after I leave.

They also had Cloralan Bleach, 121oz for about a $1 more. Cloralan is a good brand.

As are many of the store brands. Great Value, Target, RiteAid, Vons, Ralphs, etc, etc are all made by the KIK Company which also makes some private-label products for Clorox. It's great quality bleach and filtered just like Clorox. Only downside is its lack of a splash guard spout.

@qsd-dan, Chlorine Bleach breaks down freely into Water & Salt after usage. It doesn't affect the environment.
 
By the way

The LA's Totally Awesome Bleach from the Dollar Tree... is mostly Water. I think it's less than 3% Sodium Hypochlorite. It may be even less.

On the bright side, it does stay stable longer and it is far less likely to cause damage to clothes when being added into the machine.

One thing that I tell people though is, you should always dilute bleach with water before adding it to the wash. I personally use 3/4 of a cup, and I dilute it with water using a 4-cup measuring cup, all the way to the top. This yields great results for me.
 
Yes, bleach is strongest when it's newest. Usually after 30 days it's lost quite a bit of strength.
It's true that most cleaners (laundry detergent, shampoo, etc.) lose their strength after about 6 months.

It's always kind of funny when you see these people who are "couponers" and pride themselves on stockpiling things like detergents and other such things that deteriorate. They really end up costing themselves money. I mean it's one thing to stock pile kleenex, toilet tissue, and plastic bags; but things that expire are a waste of money to stock pile.

 
Stopped by one of the first Dollartrees today to get some things. No bleach.
Plus they rearranged the laundry by putting it together with the dish soaps. It seems like now that there are some other products missing that they used to offer.
I know the small bottle of Tide detergent is missing.

Where the bleach and laundry detergent WAS, all they did is spread some laundry baskets and similar plastic containers out to try and fill those shelves.

ah-HUH. Asked the guy who's been working there for several months and was working the register, what was going on with bleach. He was like sometimes they'd get it in and half the time they don't so it quickly sells out.
 
So angry

I begrudgingly bought a medium bottle of walmart bleach.
What I've now learned is "low-splash" and it's awful. It's like a gel.

I put a two small holes in the seal, one for a small stream of fluid and the other for air intake. Bottom line is made a mess. bleach gel all over the side, then on the floor.
When did they start this crap?

This stuff is going back.

I WANT MY DOLLARTREE BLEACH BACK!
 
Honestly...

I don't understand why you would have even purchased Splashless Bleach. I only bought that once, years ago (maybe 2009?) and after one use, realized, it just didn't whiten worth a damn. It also didn't disinfect at the time (as I read the bottle) and just seemed overall like a bad idea.

Since then, I've never bought anything other than Store Brand "Regular" Bleach, with the Sodium Hypochlorite Figure listed on the bottle. Only when Clorox Bleach is on sale, will I buy the name brand. But honestly... I almost feel like the KIK-Made store brand Bleach does a better job than Clorox.

Getting to you. Why did you poke holes into the seal? You are supposed to peel off the Seal and pour it directly into a measuring cup for dosing.

I'm not quite sure what you were trying to accomplish, and I wouldn't mind hearing you elaborate a little more. I'm honestly confused.
 
This is the one...

You want. It's the same stuff at Target, RiteAid, Vons, Safeway, Ralphs, ShopRite, Wal-Mart, etc, etc.

Best Bleach I've ever purchased. I also am a member of another forum, where some of the members buy LCB in Bulk for Pool maintenance, and they recommend the store-brand Bleach. It's more cost-effective, and the quality is there.

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WTH is it with you and the cheap bleach? Go to a real grocery store and buy bleach that is 7.55% hypochlorite if you are trying to disinfect or a lower ratio if that is not important which it must not be if you bought the splashless stuff.

Splashless is supposed to pour smoothly from the bottle opening, no modifications to the seal needed.
 
I bought splashless by accident. I didn't even know it was a product before this. And the bottle looks the same as the one above but it has the word "lo-splash" on it.

I knew bleach came in different flavors like lemon and autumn mulberry dandelion or such nonsense, but I'd never dealt with bleach gel.

Plus they're remodeling our Walmart and when I bought the first thing of bleach it was on a temporary shelf that was half empty with some vacuum cleaners on a shelf next to it. And the price tags didn't match up. The day before the bleach was on another temporary shelf that had been put up running down the middle of a main walk way. Today the bleach and laundry products were on another shelf at the side of the store that appears temporary as it's in another main run way, or at least where a main run way used to be. The office products are all in the garden center. The old electronic dept has finally been fully moved to it's new location at the back of the store and the old location is almost all empty because last night the ripped up the floor. There is a long tall display shelf with all the Greeting cards in the grocery dept. that's been there for about a month. I saw camping coolers and tents displayed in at least three areas. The back main walkway has been reduced to about 4' wide. There is new refrigerators in the grocery section that have been there for at least two weeks and are mostly empty. They're replacing a lot of cement in the front of the store, they're priming and painting the outside, stripping up all the nice white floor tiles and carpet (in sections) and polishing the cement for the extra special "always looks dirty" look(hate it) ...
So don't believe stories about Walmart going out of business. They're just getting tackier.

Another Walmart in Windsor is also getting some upgrades. Last time I was there they had replaced all the self-check computers which the guy who works in the dept. said are "glitchy"

As for the holes in the seal. I learned to do this to control the flow so one can use the bottle as a dispenser. Think dish soap or shampoo bottle. They don't just slap a 1" cap on the bottle and call it a day, they put on an easy open flow restricting cover so you can dispense directly without taking the chance of a major spill.

Years ago, when I'd buy Top Job or whatever bottled cleaner, I would take a small drill bit, maybe 1/16th or 1/8th of an inch and drill two holes in the cap on opposite sides of the outer edge. One was meant to allow a stream of liquid out and the other allow air in.

I basically do the same with bleach but one can just use a pointed object to carefully in sert such holes. I typically pour the bleach into small medicine type plastic bottle which I keep at the kitchen sink for use. To fill them you need a small funnel and having a small stream of bleach is better than the full spout.

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A nephew of ours worked for an engineering firm engineering chlorine plants (even down to the bottling plant). They're concentrating the bleach to reduce transportation costs---no other reason. Originally, full strength bleach was 5.25%; in the 60s Purex (in an effort to compete with Clorox which for a few years was owned by P&G) went to a 6% concentration to compete (Purex Super Bleach--more whitening same price was their schtick). They reverted along with private label. EPA then prescribed that a minimum of 5.25 was required for disinfection and a lot of disinfection systems (dishwashers, 3-sink warewashing installations) were calibrated that way (meaning, use a cupful of bleach in a sink full of water for disinfection while washing dishes). Those systems/instructions were pretty easily recalibrated for more concentrated hypochlorite solutions, so what you see now is, essentially, for another comparison, "cosmetic" bleach (unlabeled, can be thickened/gelled/scented/detergented) and "drug" bleach (labeled concentration, EPA registered, unscented, unthickened, can be relied on for the right concentration and recalled by manufacturer if it doesn't meet the concentration...). Choose for your appropriate use.
 
#25 Thank-you

Interesting infor. I never really thought about concentration levels. Always thought bleach was bleach. It smelled and was dangerous but in worked good when used correctly.

I have to admit though, when partly diluted, by that I mean the odor; I like it. It's like the smell of clean.

Some hotels will put a 1/4 cup of bleach in the toilet after cleaning it and just leave it in there, then when you check in the subtle smell has permeated the air in the room.
 
Stopped at the 4th store again

They had some stuff. Not the big gallon bottles. They had this Cloralen 1 quart stuff which seems to be relatively normal.
They also had boxes of dry bleach crystals.

To my surprise not only did they have the Refreshing Breeze Tide, something I haven't seen in a DT for at least 6 months and probably longer, they also had Original scent Tide.  I haven't seen the later in small bottles like this in years.  I think the last time I saw one was when I purchased a new Whirlpool Duet years ago and it was packed inside the washer tub.

 

 

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my 2 cents

At my Dollar general store we have all kinds of bleach

But 2 kinds of Clorox are discontinued and zero in the store

I got some of the cloralen bleach to try in the Danby DW to wash cups and saucers

We have that in the dollar section AKA as V V

cloralen platinum splash free gel in 20.29 oz size is what i got

https://cloralen.com/cloralen-platinum-bleach-liquid-gel/
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