Laundry detergent

Something happened recently that's nothing short of a revolution. And it involves laundry.

Oh, how cute would it be for me to make a pun about the revolutions of the laundry as it twirls inside the dryer?

But I'm not talking about that kind of a revolution. I mean the one that forces permanent changes on life as we know it.

This weekend, I was hunting for my favorite laundry detergent in as big a container as I could cart back home. That's how you get better savings.

But there was no economy-sized detergent. Unless you, unlike the president, believe we're in a recession and, therefore, these little containers of detergent were the size of the economy -- or more.

Every shelf had little detergent. Row after row of tiny containers. Where was my big and bulky kind?

Seems they no longer make them big and bulky. It is obvious that all you can get now is detergent that's twice as concentrated as the old formula. You need to use only half as much for a load compared to what you would have used before.

Makes sense. Less fluid makes it better for the environment somehow I guess. I don't know.

But are you telling me I can't get the container in the same size anymore? Even if its contents are twice as concentrated, all I can get are these dinky little things?

Furthermore, every company was in on this. Every brand. Even the store brand and the generic stuff! Not a single container was the same size or had the old formula.

Something's not right here. All the old containers were "Wisk"ed from the shelves overnight and replaced with somebody's blue-ribbon science project? This is a revolution, for sure. But it was an unheralded one.

Something like this ought to be proclaimed from the mountaintops. Something like this ought to have been accompanied by shouts of praise and blasts of trumpets. Word of it would be spread til kingdom come. If we live long enough, we'd tell our great-grandchildren where we were the day they switched to double-the-concentration Cheer.

Maybe I missed the evening news the day this happened. Maybe there was a huge announcement in the newspaper that I glossed over. Maybe the media did recognize that the "Tide" was turning and gave this the attention I think it deserved.

But somehow, I'm doubting it.

And what upsets me the most is that I may never again trot home a container of detergent that's as big and mighty as Montana.

The detergent I knew and loved? "All" gone.

And honestly, what do we stand to "Gain"?