Is there a bleach shortage?

[Anonymous]

I went to three different grocery stores and even Home Depot and none of them have bleach. I haven’t heard any news about a shortage recently, but was wondering if others have seen the same. Ordered some through Amazon but thought it was weird….

[Anonymous]

Yes.

[Anonymous]

Well the prices have increased quite a bit which I'm assuming has to do with supply/demand issues.

[Anonymous]

Yes there is a chlorine shortage. It's been like this since 2020 (not related to pandemic directly). They are rebuilding the plant, hopefully easing prices and supply in 2024.

In late 2020, hurricane Laura destroyed major chlorine manufacturing plant in Louisiana. This damaged 40% of the US chlorine tablet supply. In 2022, another key factory caught fire in New Jersey. This destroyed 100,000 lbs of chlorine tablets

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to three different grocery stores and even Home Depot and none of them have bleach. I haven’t heard any news about a shortage recently, but was wondering if others have seen the same. Ordered some through Amazon but thought it was weird….

Tell me you didn't pay $23 for it

https://www.amazon.com/Concentrated-Clorox-Regular-Bleach-64/dp/B01C65T4M6/ref=sr_1_23?crid=1KZ48IKP0XJQR&keywords=clorox&qid=1694798722&s=hpc&sprefix=clorox%2Chpc%2C83&sr=1-23#customerReviews

[Anonymous]

Don't we have a Strategic Chlorine Reserve? We have them for oil and helium.

[Anonymous]

Yes.

[Anonymous]

Yes there is but it’s because Clorox was the victim of cyberattacks. So they are processing orders by hand. Just heard this in the radio yesterday.

[Anonymous]

This is super helpful. I'm in Canada and the bleach section at my local grocery store is very sparse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes there is a chlorine shortage. It's been like this since 2020 (not related to pandemic directly). They are rebuilding the plant, hopefully easing prices and supply in 2024.

In late 2020, hurricane Laura destroyed major chlorine manufacturing plant in Louisiana. This damaged 40% of the US chlorine tablet supply. In 2022, another key factory caught fire in New Jersey. This destroyed 100,000 lbs of chlorine tablets

For those who care...

https://www.poolmagazine.com/cleaning/biolab-plant-reopening-will-impact-chlorine-prices-for-2023/

[Anonymous]

I bought some at the Dollar Tree, but it honestly seems pretty weak. It was not name brand. They had no name brand.

I found some at Harris Teeter over the weekend (and only paid $4.49 for it) that finally did the trick. It was also not name brand but it seemed much more powerful.

[Anonymous]

Glad I have 3 gallons sitting around that I bought during Covid. Bought when I couldn’t find appropriate cleaning supplies and wipes and was going to make a spray. And never did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Glad I have 3 gallons sitting around that I bought during Covid. Bought when I couldn’t find appropriate cleaning supplies and wipes and was going to make a spray. And never did.

You might want to open one and take a sniff. I found an old bottle that I also bought during Covid and was surprised when I opened it, it had absolutely no smell to it. I don't know how effective it would still be.

[Anonymous]

Bleach breaks down over time.

[Anonymous]

When I was at Giant, I noticed they only had off-brand bleach on the shelf. Honestly, I'm so used to seeing supply issues since the pandemic, I didn't put it together there was a problem with the Clorox brand.