Are Personal Care Products About To Get A Lot More Expensive?

Some of us might not know Procter and Gamble (P&G) by name, but we'd certainly be familiar with their products. As the makers of brands like Tide, Pampers, Safeguard, Gillette, Oral-B, and Old Spice, acquiring P&G's products can take up a significant portion of our household budgets.

Unfortunately, it appears that cut is about to get bigger, since P&G is now warning that consumers can expect to see price increases on some items in its grooming, oral, and skin care lines in the United States. If it is of any comfort, the price hikes aren't going to happen across the board; instead, P&G's Chief Financial Officer Andre Schulten says the new sticker prices will only apply to certain items like razors and other as-yet-unspecified products (via CNBC). 

And as with many supply problems that are plaguing the world, Schulten says the higher consumer prices are down to increased warehousing and raw material prices, as well as rising transport costs associated with more expensive diesel. 

This isn't the first time Procter & Gamble has had to raise prices on some of its products in 2021. Just before summer 2021, the company's outgoing Chief Executive, David Taylor, warned that prices would go up for its paper-based products, which includes Pampers diapers and Charmin toilet paper. At the time, Taylor had warned "Commodities and cost pressure have escalated significantly. You have a tough external environment and a pandemic that's raging; many parts of the world are at the worst they've ever been" (via The Wall Street Journal). 

P&G is not alone. Other household product manufacturers including Kimberly-Clark — which makes Kleenex, Colgate-Palmolive, and Unilever — are facing the same kind of pressures. Conditions forced some, like Kimberly-Clark, to announce similar hikes in spring 2021. And in case you're wondering what the cause of all these bottlenecks are, Reuters notes that the COVID-19 pandemic is still to blame, as rising cases have caused labor shortages in both Asia and the United States.

P&G says that some of these price hikes are being triggered by efforts to keep supplies flowing in so that they remain stable and no stockpiling takes place. At least, for now, Schulten says: "To the consumer, it looks like we're in good supply" (via The Wall Street Journal).