The Priconomics article mentions and links the New York Magazine article that your link is based on.
The NYM article reads an awful lot like a submarine piece for that amazing technological wonder, Tide, the expensive to produce detergent that gives anything you wash with it a quality feel.
...and reminds me of this[0] where residents of hard-hit Beattyville Kentucky use Coke or Pepsi as currency to support their addictions. Both this soap situation and the cola situation are horrible, but it's fascinating to see how people cope.
