Why are thieves stealing Tide laundry detergent in Connecticut?

[tenderfoot]

OXFORD — The video opens with what appears to be a normal scene outside a grocery store: Two people loading up the trunk of an SUV with items from their shopping cart.

The footage continued as the pair quickly threw item after item into the car, parked in the fire lane at the store’s entrance. One of the carts and the back of the SUV was nearly filled with large bottles of Tide laundry detergent. The person shooting the video then turned to reveal a minivan also parked in the fire lane with two other people filling its trunk with what appears to be paper towels and even more bottles of Tide.

The video was capturing what police have described as a brazen daytime shoplifting incident.

“I honestly thought it was a joke,” Wayne Pesch, president of the Connecticut Food Association, a group that represents grocers in the state, said about the video.

:snip:

While several Connecticut police departments said they haven’t seen large-scale thefts of laundry detergent, Tide-brand detergent, in particular, has emerged as a favorite among thieves in recent years, according to the Associated Press.

That’s for a number of reasons — it’s a commodity everyone needs, it’s a popular well-known brand, it doesn’t spoil and the big bottles retail for around $20.

Pesch noted thieves could probably offload the stolen detergent for around $10 a bottle.

The theft in Oxford points to a larger issue of theft for food retailers, Pesch said, who he said operate on thin margins. Some retailers have announced store closures, citing shoplifting and “organized retail crime.”

https://www.ctinsider.com/news/article/Why-are-thieves-stealing-Tide-laundry-detergent-16616218.php

[SCantiGOP]

1. So, do you know

where we can score some Tide?

[sheshe2]

2. Oceans edge?

It ebbs and flows.

[doc03]

3. Tide has always gave me skin rash nt

[tblue37]

5. Me, too, and several people I know. One student about 25 years ago came up to my desk during

an in-class essay and asked to speak to me in the hallway. She asked if she could do a make up essay on some other day because she had suddenly that day developed a very itchy rash all over and couldn't sit and write.

I asked her if she had very recently switched to Tide for her laundry. She had actually borrowed Tide from her roommate the day before because she'd run out of her normal detergent but needed to do her laundry.

I told her to go home and rewash everything in some other detergent and take a shower. When she returned to class two days later (it was college, so class met on alternate days), she was overwhelmed that I had been able to fix her problem so quickly.

But I had experienced the same problem myself the only time I'd ever used Tide, and had talked a couple of other people past their Tide rash problem, so it was a logical guess.

[doc03]

18. I got a rash from it when I was a kid. I am 73 now, two years ago while on vacation

I used some because that is all they had in the hotel laundry. I figured they probably
changed it in 70 years, nope still got the rash. That is the only allergy I have other than
some pollen.

[bedazzled]

28. Tide is one of the worst allergens

according to companies that do analysis of allergens in homes. It is positively toxic. Wouldn't go near the stuff

[MissB]

4. If they'd stolen powdered tide

Then I’d put good money that they were using it to clean stuff (and not just laundry). That stuff is good for general household cleaning.

But nah, they were just common thieves.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

12. Can you still find powder Tide? Powder detergent is an endangered species, from what I've seen. NT

[ProfessorGAC]

13. No, We Cannot

P&G closed all but one powder manufacturing sites in north america many years ago.
The environmental footprint of drying facilities is very high, and the abatement technology is very expensive or a bit costly but not particularly effective or reliable.
The only environmentally friendly & cost effective decision was to transfer the market to liquids.
The few drying facilities left can easily cover what's left of the niche powder market, but major brand name detergents are no longer in that group.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

14. Oh, that's it. I thought it had something to do with the move to front end loading machines. NT

[ProfessorGAC]

23. A Logical Surmise

But, powders can be made to be low foaming, too. So, they would work in an HE washer.
In fact, a few companies sell them. OxyClean, Amway, & others.
One thing I forgot to note before.
Making powders is also very energy intensive.
The formula is made up to a 25-30% solution/suspension.
So, for every 2 pounds of finished powder, they need to evaporate 5 pounds of water. (Hence, the environmental impact.)
It's not fully dry at that point, but then they add scent, an additional sprayable surfactant, and then fluid bed dry. (More energy!)
The downside of liquids, of course, is higher fuel costs to transport. But, liquids are still a net savings at every level, manufacturing, wholesale & retail.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

24. "HE," that's what I meant. I was a holdout on liquids, but since it's all I can find ...

Is HE pretty much what all front-loaders are? Are there any HE top-loaders?

I have a Maytag top-loader. They can have it when they pry it from my cold, dead fingers.

[ProfessorGAC]

27. Yes

HE washers are horizontal because the drum can turn the clothing, over & over, through the surfactant solution.
As a result, we don't need as much water as it takes to submerge all the clothes.
The formulas have all been adjusted to work well in cooler water, as well.
So, less water & energy is used per load.
We have a Whirlpool HE washer and like it a lot. We've had it 11 or 12 years now.
Another energy advantage. The horizontal configuration allows for a higher rate is spin with fewer concerns over balance & bearing wear.
Because of the faster spin cycle, the clothes are much less wet when moving to the dryer. So, that cycle takes 5-10 minutes less to fully dry, also reducing energy consumption.

[jmowreader]

30. I have a front loader

It can be set up to run powdered detergent. The detergent hole in the laundry products drawer has this little cup for the liquid detergent that you remove for powder.

[Hortensis]

22. Huh! The things you learn. Thanks, Prof.

[MissB]

20. I've had no issues with finding it

I don’t use much of it though- to clean surfaces I’m using about a teaspoon in a gallon of water so a little goes a long way.

[ProfessorGAC]

25. And, Now For The Bad News

Even powders are not 100% active ingredients.
One teaspoon in a gallon is unlikely to achieve the Critical Micelle Concentration (CMC), meaning you're probably just making bubbles, not an effective surfactant system.
Below the CMC, we don't form the micelles needed to effectively trap (suspend) soils, so we would only get 50% of them picked up, with the other 50% just uniformly spread out on the surface.
I'd add more like a tablespoon, if I were you.

[KentuckyWoman]

29. It still comes in packets used by restaurants to scrub floors.

Fast food joints especially use it to mop floors. It works quite well actually.

[DanieRains]

6. Arrest Prosecute Then Jail ALL SHOPLIFTERS - The Solution Is So Simple

Buy since I own a business, and have people try to steal my inventory ALL THE TIME I am biased.

Lock Them Up.

[USALiberal]

15. +1000 nt

[TlalocW]

7. And that's why I have Dropps delivered to my house

No black market. Though my sister has given me some of those detergent strips to try to see what I think. Looking forward to that... because I'm old, and that's all I have in my life.

TlalocW

[PortTack]

8. I've gone exclusively to the laundry strips! Gets stuff clean, no perfume smell, no plastic waste

No heavy bottles to lug around..a win win.

As far as why they are stealing tide...probably easy to resell

[alphafemale]

21. I switched to strips recently and love them

Only have found them in mail delivery so far.

They are great in cleaning and eliminating waste.

If they would catch on with the general public it would shrink the space of that grocery aisle by huge amount.

[DFW]

9. Tolerance of shoplifting makes life more expensive for everybody

The shop owners usually work on low margins, so they either have to raise prices to cover the chronic losses or close, making the locals spend time and money looking for shopping locations farther away. It's unfair to all but the shoplifters, themselves, to let this continue. Also, as the shoplifting gets more organized, well, this is how a mafia starts. Next, come protection rings that extort money from local businesses to protect them from shoplifters. They are probably pretty good at it, too, as they ARE the former shoplifters, now powerful enough to beat the crap out of any new competition.

It's bad enough that this has started to be a trend. This will get much worse if it is allowed to continue.

[KG]

10. I usually boost Arm & Hammer.

[Tomconroy]

11. Shoplifters are often people with drug problems

But these guys look kind a like they are pros.

[Baitball Blogger]

16. Their vehicles were filmed, which means the police has license plate numbers.

Unless they're going to add grand theft auto to the rap sheet?

[skypilot]

19. I saw this on the news.

The theives had actually removed the license plates. Also, according to the report I saw, no one even called the police until after the theives had driven away.

[bucolic_frolic]

17. Honestly, people still use laundry detergent in plastic bottles?

I use a Dollar Tree powder in a box. It says 50 loads. I probably get 15-20. But no cleaning complaints, no rashes, no odor. Add a little washing soda from a box for really soiled stuff. Oxybrightener by the tablespoon if needed. No plastic!

[FakeNoose]

26. This type of organized shoplifting has been going on for several years in California

... specifically in the San Francisco area. I've seen many posts about it on DU and elsewhere.

The shoplifters know that the cops won't stop them and they are quite brazen about it. It will eventually lead to retailers moving out of the poorer areas where the police protection is skeezy and the profits don't cover the shoplifting losses.