Blueland CEO Sarah Paiji Yoo on how the pandemic changed the cleaning supplies aisle

Blueland CEO Sarah Paiji Yoo wants you to know that when you pay for cleaning supplies at the grocery stores, you're mostly buying water. "Oftentimes consumers are paying really for a new plastic bottle -- and water, which we already have at home," Paiji Yoo said on the Modern Retail Podcast, which was recorded live during our Modern Retail Virtual Summit this week.

Blueland sells concentrated tablets for consumers to mix their cleaning supplies on their own. The relatively tiny packaging is another differentiator compared to what you see from Ajax and Dove.

"Existing CPG players were incentivized to have larger, bulkier packaging because this packaging really served as billboards in stores," Paiji Yoo said.

Blueland goes the direct-to-consumer route, which Paiji Yoo considers to be the only route for products that depend on changing consumer behavior. Its appeal isn't just that it's a smaller, new kind of product; Blueland wants to eliminate single-use plastics. In the last two months it's expanded to the dishwasher and laundry categories (with a powder and tablets, respectively).

The plastic films that keep your typical dishwashing pod together aren't all that good for the environment. "I think people think that because it dissolves that magically disappear. But unfortunately those plastic mulches enter our water systems," Paiji Yoo said.

The pandemic has made consumers somewhat more likely to demote previous green concerns in exchange for effectiveness and availability, she said. But as a result of the crisis, she estimated, demand has been 4x what it would have been otherwise.