The craze going around that has people filming themselves “eating” detergent pods to fulfill a challenge is also affecting retailers. The sellers are increasingly becoming worried about more people shoplifting detergent products that they are taking extra security measures.
One store in Tampa has placed anti-theft devices in the pod containers. It also posted warning sigs telling customers that the area where the detergents are is under video surveillance.
Some stores in other areas of the country have put in other stringent measures including locking up the pods and putting them in the classification of alcohol, medicines, and electronics. As such, it would entail a store employee to open the case to sell the product.
A customer of Walmart has reacted incredulously to the move of such stores in an interview with a local media. Gina Trina told WTSP: “Alcohol, certain medicines, we just bought medicines that we had to share ideas for. That’s reasonable. Laundry detergent, no.”
Dr. Fred Aleguas, who is in charge of the Tampa Poison Control, says such measure has been a practice for years now, but the detergent challenge craze is making things more complicated. He says the pods are already dangerous to begin with, but that the Tide Pod Challenge has caused a spike in the number of poisoning cases.
The said Tide Pod Challenge has warranted a stern warning from U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, which told the public that ingesting the pods can cause them to dissolve quickly and release highly concentrated toxic contents.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Early post for all the teachers out there. Let the kids know: Laundry pods are not a snack. The likes and views aren’t worth eating poison <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/teacherlife?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#teacherlife</a> <a href="https://t.co/pNcmi9Fauh">pic.twitter.com/pNcmi9Fauh</a></p>— US Consumer Product Safety Commission (@USCPSC) <a href="https://twitter.com/USCPSC/status/953609992556437505?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 17, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The maker of Tide detergent products, Procter & Gamble announces that it is also working and finding ways to do its share to stop the “Tide Pod challenge”, which is basically a social media-fueled trend in which teenagers eat single-load laundry detergent packets.
CEO David Taylor has a message for the youth. He says: “Let them know that their life and health matter more than clicks, views, and likes.”
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