It’s a fact that everything is bigger in America – just look the car And house. But nowhere is the quality of the larger perhaps more strikingly visible than in how toilet paper is sold. Wander the bathroom products aisle at the supermarket and you’ve entered a topsy-turvy world where numbers change shape. a packet 18 mega Toilet paper rolls, for example, magically transform into 90 “regular” ones. The labeling emphasizes this larger number in large font, lest you foolishly think that 18 simply equals 18. Another pack might emphasize that 12 Even thicker rolls The equivalent of 96 normal rolls of toilet paper.
The ad is clear: you’re getting plenty of toilet paper. This should be good news, since if everyone follows one rule, it’s never the end of TP. We saw concern around this phenomenon in the early days of the pandemic, when crowding reached new heights As much as toilet paper shredding is a struggle They can, a leading lack of and extreme Price increase. Americans’ massive vehicles and palatial residences may actually exist in service of delivering and storing the massive bulk packs of these bathroom essentials.
Then there’s the irony that for all the trumpeting of giant size, toilet paper rolls are generally getting smaller. This is a prime example of manufacturers’ tendency to charge the same price (or even slightly more) for less product, known as “shrinkage”. Makes it harder than ever to figure out if you’re getting ripped off. None of Vox, the three major toilet paper makers, responded to requests for comment.
“I really can’t think of any other category as confusing as toilet paper,” said Neil Saunders, managing director of retail at consultancy GlobalData. With dubious numerical claims about how much a “mega” roll is worth, brands can promote a perception of value without showing their work. Pricing per toilet paper sheet is a hassle, but it will show how expensive the product has become.
“The consumer won’t like it, so they all keep it a little opaque,” Saunders says.
Get ready for some toilet-paper math
The most glaring problem plaguing the toilet paper industry is the lack of standardization. Double, triple and mega rolls are vague descriptors that vary by brand; They are not units of measurement. In the fine print, toilet paper packaging will often acknowledge that these sizes are relative to “regular” rolls — sometimes they mean their own brand’s regular size, but other times, it’s against a competitor’s one-ply regular.
Surprisingly, there is no consistency in the so-called standard sizes. Charmaine has a regular roll 55 two-ply sheetsFor example, but it is often difficult to find a regular size of a brand of toilet paper in the store. Mega Rolls are often advertised as having Four times as many sheets It is being compared to the mythical “regular”, which means it Cottonall’s A regular roll concept has 61 sheets, Quilted is the answer An awkward 73.75 sheet, and Angel Soft’s 80 sheets. But even these are misleading statistics from many real lives value the toilet paper Rolls There are more than 100 sheets.
The sheet-per-roll ratio can also change depending on whether you’re looking at single-ply, two-ply, or three-ply. (Not to further injure your brain, however Sheet dimensions (also varies.) The Mega Roll is just one size of many brands offer, all with slightly different naming conventions. Cottonell sells Mega, Family Mega or Super Mega, while Charmin now offers Mega-XXL and even “Roll forever,” which is so large you need a separate container. The jumbofication of toilet paper jargon seems to know no bounds.
All of this makes comparison shopping much more challenging than the average household product. Making matters worse, there is no single consistent method of setting unit prices for toilet paper. Some retailers, such as Walmart, Amazon, and Target, show prices per 100 sheets, but even then you need to consider the variation per roll of sheet for each brand. Walgreens shows the price per sheet, while Home Depot shows a pretty outrageous price per roll. According to Chuck Bell, program director of advocacy at Consumer Reports, irregular unit price labeling is a problem for many consumer products. Unit pricing is “outright mandatory in only nine states,” Bell said, adding that another 10 have adopted it voluntarily. “It’s hard to compare products online for value for money.”
No wonder people took matters into their own hands. In late 2018, a California man named Victor Lee published a “Toilet paper value calculator” that crunches the number of rolls, sheets per roll, and any discounts that apply. Lee said Wirecutter A good deal in 2022 was probably around 0.253 cents per sheet. There’s no longer a shortage of toilet paper or people panic buying their pallets – though The urge to do so lasts — It’s a much more expensive commodity today than it was before the pandemic, especially now that we’re years away from a period of hyperinflation. A report by consumer watchdog Public Interest Research Group noted that before the pandemic, a pack of 36 Charmin Ultra Soft The rolls cost $30.95 on Amazon. At the time of writing, same pack Cost is $59 On the site (as of December 2020, it was sold for the highest price $114.99.)
Most name-brand toilet paper today exceeds Ly’s price threshold. A 30-pack Charmin Ultra Strong Mega Rolls break out at 0.5 cents per sheet, though a 36-pack Scott 1000 Toilet Paper About 0.083 cents per sheet. Kirkland’s 30-pack Toilet paper, selling for $23.49 at the time of writing, works out to 0.206 cents per sheet.
D The cost of making toilet paper According to the Los Angeles Times, the increase may have increased in recent years due to a slowdown in wood production (where wood pulp, which is mostly made from toilet paper, is less available). Combine that with that fact, as journalist Will reports in a piece about Oremus Epidemic toilet paper shortageMore people today are working remotely, reducing time spent in the office bathroom. This means that the average consumer is using more toilet paper at home, worried about how much their budget for bathroom products has increased.
Contraction strikes – again
Toilet paper manufacturers have come up with a way to keep prices roughly the same, though — at least at a glance. The same pack of toilet paper you buy every month can be more expensive when you scrutinize the fine print, when you realize that each roll is made of fewer sheets. A recent analysis by loan marketplace LendingTree found that toilet paper was among the top offenders among products whose size or volume Shrink from 2019 or 2020. A pack of 12 Mega Rolls of Angel Soft has gone from 429 sheets per roll to 320 — essentially shrinking by a quarter — but at least the price has dropped by 15 percent. Charmin Ultra Strong Mega Rolls, on the other hand, saw a 15 percent drop and an 11 percent price increase.
This is not a new technique that only toilet paper manufacturers are employing. People complained Commodity compression for years; A Consumer Reports article from 2015 A comparison of top brands of toilet paper rolls, shows that some are reduced by more than 20 percent. Because, manufacturers claimed at the time, the better quality of paper meant people could use less of it.
An older Charmin regular roll had 82 sheets versus only 55 today.
Edgar Dwarsky, a former consumer protection lawyer, has been tracking this shady practice — which he calls “to shorten“- on his website for decades, MousePrint.org And ConsumerWorld.org.
“I remember in the 1960s when my Mounds candy bar was two ounces and a dot became something,” he told Vox. He notes that there were as many as old Charmin toilet paper 650 sheets In a single ply roll; Its Mega-XXL today has only 440 sheets. An older Charmin regular roll had 82 sheets versus just 55 today. The playbook is to shrink the size of the current roll, then invent a new tier (with a more ridiculous name) that may cost more.
Consumer brands are “in the business of making you feel like you’re getting more,” says Dwarsky. “It’s all a name game, it’s a numbers game, and if you’re oblivious to that, you’re going to snooker.”
How to avoid flushing money down the toilet
Toilet paper is marketed both as a value product, where you’re getting four rolls for the price of one, and a strangely enjoyable luxury at the same time. It’s something that can be quickly disposed of, literally thrown away, yet toilet paper ads are almost always about its pleasantness, mattress softness or special “quilted“or”diamond weaving” texture that adds a premium feel to the product. There are scented toilet paper, and even toilet paper with colorful patterns. One of the Quilted Northern April Fool’s Day Advertisement Making fun of the overly promotional style of his art, he announced a “return” to handmade, artisanal toilet paper.
Ultimately, it’s because we spend so much time with it and in such an intimate way, so bells and whistles like these are important to some of us. “Of course there are some people [who]For medical reasons, like to have really soft toilet paper,” says Saunders. “Some people like extra strong toilet paper.” For others, it’s a pure bang-for-buck play, where they roll the most (which isn’t necessarily the best value). ) can gravitate toward the pack.
The range of options, from one-ply sparseness to lilac-scented plushness, isn’t a problem. It’s that it’s so hard to isolate the value you’re actually getting. As Dwarsky notes, consumers might bring a scale to weigh a pack of toilet paper every time they go to the store, but then what can you do about it? You still have to buy one of the #ShrinkFlated options and this isn’t an area where we’re spoiled for choice. Although there are many different versions that a single brand offers, just three manufacturers – Procter & Gamble, Kimberly-Clark and Georgia-Pacific – make up about 80 percent of the bathroom tissue market.
One can switch to commercial-grade toilet paper, which is much cheaper but (ahem) of crappier quality. Where consumer toilet paper is soft, perhaps mixed with lotionOften embossed with a delightful little pattern, the stuff we see in public restrooms is stiff and so thin that it breaks if you look at it. Nevertheless, a 12-pack of commercial toilet paper About $34 at the time of writing at Home Depot, and a roll is about 700 feet long. Assuming that a square of consumer-grade toilet paper is about 4 inches long, a 440-sheet Charmin Mega-XXL roll would still be under 147 feet.
Legislators And President Joe Biden Fingers pointed at corporations for shrinking inflation and even did presented a bill is trying to ban the practice, though neither Dwarsky nor Bell think it will become law. But requiring more transparency about product sizes, more consistent unit price labels, or even a consumer notification when sizes change could go a long way to helping shoppers. Last year, French grocery chain Carrefour led price negotiations with suppliers Start attaching labels Next to packaged foods and drinks that have been cut short.
What’s certain is that fraudulent, misleading accounting of toilet paper rolls shouldn’t be the norm—and, in fact, it seems to be the tradition of most North Americans. Although other countries sell “mega” rolls, there are no fiddly mathematics on D Packaging Emphasize that a dozen rolls is somehow more than that. Toilet paper is no small matter, especially for Americans. Per capita, the United States is the No. 1 consumer of it in the world, with every American consuming approx 141 roll per year As of 2018. A Consumer Reports buying guide compares once-yearly usage The length of 23 football fields.
Counting rolls and sheets is one way to avoid the frustrating morass Opt out of the game All in all “I switched to a bidet 10 years ago,” says Dwarsky.
