Kickstart: Clorox shifts from pandemic stockpiling to inflation 'value' buying

Brand owners for consumer products have had to make a lot of adjustments since the start of 2020. For Clorox Co., first there was the early pandemic stockpiling to cleared store shelves of bleach, wipes and other cleaning products. That was followed by a big drop in sales for those same items from the 2020 peaks, but at a level still higher than before the pandemic.

And now, going into 2023 with an expected recession looming and inflation eating at buyers' budgets, the company finds itself trying to make sure it is the "value option" leader in stores.

"What was universal was great amount of change," Eric Schwartz, chief marketing officer for Oakland, Calif.-based Clorox, said during the Ad Age Marketer's Brief podcast hosted by our sister paper Advertising Age.

In the podcast posted Dec. 6, he noted that the company's cleaning business seems to have settled at a "higher plateau and at a higher growth rate" than before the pandemic, but the company and its suppliers have to maintain an ability to change plans quickly.

Clorox, based in Oakland, Calif., has some in-house production of bottles for its cleaning products.

With inflation high, Clorox brands are facing renewed competition from generic and store brands, so it is working to offer better value to buyers. That may mean having larger containers available to shoppers at warehouse retail stores — for those looking to stock up — as well as small bottles for those with less cash available.

"We know there are more pressures on consumers today, and those pressures are not abating anytime soon," Schwartz said.

The podcast is also available at streaming websites.

In June, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency banned the import of PVC made from the Xinjiang region of China, citing the use of forced labor from the Uyghur minority.

And while there is nothing official from the U.S. government at this time, the United Auto Workers union is putting pressure on the auto industry to halt the import of parts made in the area for the same reason.

The UAW issued a news release Dec. 6 after a report from the United Kingdom-based Sheffield Hallam University indicated that major auto brands have potential exposure to Uyghur forced labor in supply chains for steel, aluminum and copper, EV and lead acid batteries, electronics and other components used in the global automotive supply chain.

The report is from the same researchers who looked into the supply chain for PVC.

Gift cards have been a godsend to buyers who aren't quite sure what to give during the holidays.

Now an environmental group would like consumers to avoid them — or at least avoid the PVC plastic cards. Instead, Beyond Plastics would prefer that businesses offer their gift cards in paper or digital formats.

"There is no excuse for businesses to continue selling PVC gift cards when safer, more sustainable alternatives are readily available," Judith Enck, president of Beyond Plastics, said in a Nov. 25 news release.

An estimated $173 billion worth of gift cards were sold in the U.S. in 2021. As many as 70 percent of those cards are produced on PVC, Beyond Plastic says.