Is this a case of young people not knowing how to do their laundry, or just a change in the way that laundry is done? There's definitely something going on - 15% fewer liquid fabric softeners are being sold in the USA now than there were in 2007. For market leader Downy, it's even worse; they've suffered a sales loss of 25% during the same period.
In a grumpy interview, Downy's head of global fabric care told investors that he doesn't think millennials understand what the product is, or what it does. If that's the case, perhaps he should be having a strong word with his company's marketing division, who have clearly failed to do their job. The prevalence of 'two in one' laundry solutions available in stores has likely eaten away at standalone fabric softener sales, too. Why pay for two things when you can achieve the same job with one product, at a lower cost?