I know everyone has their favorites detergents, and some they wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole, and ERA is probably one of the latter for a lot but it's been a staple for me as far back as I can remember. When I first moved out on my own and made use of the basement laundry in the apartment complex across the street, illegally because I didn't live there.. but that's another story, it's what I bought to smell like 'home'. While I like to experiment with various detergents and am always game to try new stuff, ERA has always been on my shelf ever since.
Over the past few months I've had a tough time finding the regular ERA detergent. My local grocery store, Wally World, and Dollar General no longer carry the regular ERA (Active Stainfighter with classic scent) Walmart now only has the version with Oxygen bleach mixed in, or Oxibooster as it's called, and they've marked the price on that to almost twice what the regular ERA sold for.
In Google searches you can see many people are clamoring about it disappearing, so it's a country-wide thing not just a local problem or contained to one area of the U.S. I landed on ERA's Facebook page with a lot of disgruntled shoppers complaining and whoever runs the ERA account answering over and over with the same form-letter type post that says they just need to let their local store know that they want ERA and that way they will know to restock it... or something like that.
You can still find regular ERA online to buy, but it's obvious the decline in availability has been noted because the price gouging is ridiculous on sites like Amazon and other resellers... sometimes as much as 5 times over what it sold for originally. Smaller retailer sites will have it at better prices but the shipping is a killer, not to mention having liquid goods shipped can sometimes be a very disappointing experience when you receive a sticky wet box on your front step.
Using the Oxiboost version isn't really an option for a lot of long time users like myself. I generally only use Oxyclean type bleaches for a pre-soak that gets rinsed out, and don't like it added in the main wash. ERA with Oxiboost also has an overly perfumed scent which is one thing I always liked about regular ERA... it just smelled clean, not overpoweringly flowery.
But... regular ERA isn't quite gone for good just yet. You can still find the classic version if you look hard enough. I just recently discovered my local Menards carries it in their grocery section, and actually a little cheaper than the grocery store sold it for, and I've read where others have discovered it at smaller retailers and farm and tractor type stores. Sam's Club sells the extra concentrated version as well, but you obviously need to be, or know, a member.
