Toilet Paper Downsizes in a New Way
We all know that toilet paper has been downsized for decades. Charmin has gone from 600 or 650 sheets on the roll all the way down to 200 or so over the years. Other brands followed suit. Even Scott’s 1000 sheet roll was downsized in a sneaky way in 2006 by making each sheet shorter.
The case of Cottonelle’s downsizing is a bit unusual, however. Look at these two packages of their toilet paper purchased at the same time last month:
*MOUSE PRINT: Both packages give the exact same dimensions for the contents — they say there are 304 sheets on each roll, and that sheets are 4.2 inches by 4.0 inches. Clearly the package on the left is taller by about 3/4 of an inch (with rolls stacked on top of one another core to core).
What is going on here? The company said:
Because of all the precautions taken in our manufacturing plants, it is difficult to explain how the product you received escaped our detection. Please accept our apology and our assurance that we will do our best to prevent a recurrence. The proper roll height is 4.2 inches. During 2007, we reduced the size of our COTTONELLE® bathroom tissue slightly to align our roll height [number of sheets per roll] with other premium tissue products on the market. At that time, the sheet width was reduced from 4.5″ down to 4.2″. The length of each sheet (4.0″ between the perforations) did not change.
So it looks like some of the older 4.5″ width rolls were put into a newer wrapper that had the new lowered sheet count and narrower width on the label. One can only wonder if this was truly a “mistake” or rather an interim step in the downsizing process to hide the change for anyone comparing the older label to the newer one.
This then appears to be the industry’s latest ploy — downsizing toilet paper by making each sheeter narrower. Toilet paper has historically been 4.5 inches wide as demonstrated by Quilted Northern:
If you peruse the supermarket aisle you will notice that very few brands are 4.5 inches wide anymore. (Scott 1000 sheet role still is, for the moment.) Others are 4.3 inches, 4.27 inches, 4.2 inches, or even 4.0 inches.
If this trend continues, soon they will be marketing products to us that look more like dental floss than toilet paper.
Enterprising toilet manufacturers could severly reduce the need for toilet paper by by introducing a version of the bidet.
Luckily, toilet paper keeps forever. You can stock up on your favorite brand now, maybe a two or thrre year supply when it goes on sale. (preferably with a manufacturer’s coupon) Indirectly, it is a better investment than a 3 year CD at 3.5% and the savings aren’t taxable.
Comment by ExitRamp — December 8, 2008 @ 9:59 ami think the real story is how thin they have been making the sheets. ever notice how easy your finger pops through there now. it didn’t use to be that way!
Comment by Shawn — December 8, 2008 @ 10:31 amNo matter the size you are still throwing away your money, flushing it right down the commode so get used to it
Comment by SCRIMPER — December 8, 2008 @ 1:25 pmI agree with exitramp, That is how I shop all the time. Something on sale I stock up. especially staples like tp
Comment by myra — December 8, 2008 @ 11:15 pm@Scrimper: Oh come on you have to splurge on toilet paper. Even if you cant afford to eat you should be able to take comfort in the fact that you have the softest toilet paper. Thats the one thing they shouldnt mess with.
Comment by ryan — December 9, 2008 @ 4:08 amSome of this junk ive been seeing now feels like that paper from kindergarten you first leaned to write on — it shreds if you even look at it.
I just saw your segment on the Today show. This is just another way to screw the american people and unfortunately they have us over a barrel. Shame on them!!!!
Comment by Batrina — December 9, 2008 @ 9:04 amit breaks my heart to see this happening…. its just out of control. im a young single mother, and im scared.
Comment by desiree — December 9, 2008 @ 10:04 amI think the way that it might help to stop alot of these companies from screwing the americans.
Comment by Dionne — December 9, 2008 @ 10:18 amIt to expose,expose, expose just as mouse prints did.
And the most powerful tool is word of mouth, and the internet.
I posted my comment earlier on another page, but I’m going to post it here, as well.
I would absolutely die of total shock if any major brand company ever did anything right for its consumers, just like the CEO character in the movie Mr. Mom who promises to reduce the price of tuna during “these economic hard times.” That character didn’t reduce the size or amount of his product; he did the right thing and reduced the price. But alas, that’s only the movies and in this real world, we, the consumers, get stuck paying for big companies’ “overhead expenses” and they know they can get away with it, because what they have is pretty much what we need.
Comment by Carolyn — December 9, 2008 @ 11:22 amI’ve noticed that the cardboard rolls inside the toilet paper were getting bigger.
Comment by Terrie Routh — December 9, 2008 @ 11:46 amI didn’t notice that my toilet paper roll was shorter until they kept falling off my dispenser…which is designed to hold the original size roll. Sneaky!
Comment by Rhonda — December 9, 2008 @ 11:47 amOne can only go so far downsizing the width. Anyone want to wager that they start downsizing the current 4 inch length in the forseeable future?
Comment by Frankie — December 9, 2008 @ 12:03 pmWow this is some very sneaky stuff. It makes me get the runs just thinking about it….
Comment by Armando — December 9, 2008 @ 12:11 pmi knew it!
Comment by shelly — December 9, 2008 @ 1:39 pmi have a regular holder in one bathroom. the other bathroom holder has a “bump” on each end that holds the roll. in the last 6 months, i’ve found that the rolls fall out of the “bump” holder. now i have to go buy a new holder.
I’m glad that someone is paying attention to the companies that have been downsizing a variety of products. I noticed that bars of soap that used to be over 4 ounces apiece have been reduced to 4 ounce or less. Toilet paper has shrunk. Laundry detergent is being sold in smaller bottles, and to cover up the difference, manufacturers are calling this detergent “ultra” or “extra concentrated,” while in reality, the quality of the product has not changed.
More recently I noticed that my favorite low-carb pasta “Dreamfields” has been downsized as well. It was sold in one-pound boxes until recently. It’s now being sold at a weight of 13.25 ounces per box. What a rip. When I first noticed the discrepancy I thought that I was seeing things until I went to a discount store (which apparently sells older and discontinued products) and found Dreamfield 1-pound boxes whereas mainstream grocery stores sell the smaller size.
I don’t have a problem with a company making an honest profit, but to make all these changes in a sneaky way is just plain wrong. Whenever that happens, I just take my business elsewhere. I no longer buy Dreamfields Pasta. I don’t buy toilet paper that has been shrunk either. I don’t buy small bars of soap. I don’t buy “ultra” laundry detergent. I don’t buy teensy cups of yogurt that aren’t large enough to feed a fly. I don’t buy what amounts to snack-size cartons of ice cream.
I think enough of myself to not allow these companies to rip me off. Perhaps a boycott is in order???? We need to stand up to the corporate bigwigs who will steal us blind just to save a buck.
Comment by Diana Manwaring — December 9, 2008 @ 4:10 pmScott has already changed the 4″ size. The package I bought the other day
states the size as 4.5 X 3.7.
Edgar replies: Gert, they changed that two years ago (look at the first link in the story above). That was a shortening of the sheets, down to 3.7″ from 4.0″. What hasn’t happened yet on their 1000 sheet rolls is that they have not made them narrower. But I bet that will be next.
Comment by gert — December 9, 2008 @ 4:29 pmThis is not all the manufacturers fault. The grocery stores are the big culprits here. The large chains charge manufacturers ’slotting fees’ in what amounts to saying if you want us to put your product on the shelf you will pay us a fee. These funds drive the cost of the product up considerably and YOU pay for it. With all of the rising costs out there some grocery chains (actually most) have told manufacturers that they would not accept price increases, so manufacturers have had to shrink packaging to adjust for not raising the price.
Ok people, enough manufacturer bashing. These are compnaies that employ (mostly) american people. These people need their jobs and are consumers as well. They are not out to rip you off, they just want to stay in business. If you want to blame someone blame the grocery stores.
Comment by Chris Bittle — December 9, 2008 @ 5:26 pmWe noticed the ‘toy’ size Edy’s ice cream awhile ago and began buying the regular size store brand in protest. Then we noticed the ‘toy’ size slices in the ‘hearthstone’ wheat bread and, the next time in the store noted that the Arnold brand whole wheat bread was 1 lb and 8 ounces while the Hearthstone was 1 lb and 4 ounces. I was amused to notice that the Hearthstone shelves were full and the Arnold shelves were empty. (They may have gotten away with it had they made the loaves shorter instead of skinnier) Keep up the good work.
Comment by Trackerjack — December 9, 2008 @ 7:49 pmDear Edgar,
Comment by Paolo — December 10, 2008 @ 2:25 pmThanks for your uncomparable job. On behalf of the Italian Consumer’s association named Confconsumatori, your research is holding a great value and a motivation for a general monitoring action on general consumer’ products here in Italy. May these informations that with patience, You collected on this website, help in strenghtening the prevention of such unbearable conducts.
Sincerely,
Paolo Sorlini
Confconsumatori Legal Staff
Milano-Italy
Until the consumer gets their buying under control enough to become a real force in reasonable quality expectation and fair value for their money, industry and corporate heads will continue to drain their ever greedier bottom line from our pockets.
Chances are we’ll eventually be directed to purchase our tissue rolls at the Post Office, -next to the other postage stamps!
Comment by Ron — December 10, 2008 @ 4:43 pmKimberly Clark did this to our commercial TP. We had to replace many dispensers since the TP would fall of the roll. Finally they supplied us with reusable plastic adapters to extend the roll. The excuse we got was with the high cost of trucking they are able to better fill there truck with the resized boxes which makes for more efficient space use. Whether this is true or not I don’t know but I wonder if they ever considered making the rolls “larger” to better fill there trucks…..I doubt it!
Comment by Jeff — December 12, 2008 @ 3:53 pmI’m tired of the whole thing. Every time the consumer turns around he’s getting scammed on everthing from
Comment by Jimbo — December 12, 2008 @ 5:03 pmhealth insurance and automobiles to toilet paper and tooth paste. Its all about providing less for more money.
Maybe we should all send our toilet paper back to Cottonelle because they are all full of it.
My personal pet peeve — the Barbie-sized toilet paper. What a joke! Except that it’s not funny. I shop by square feet and sale prices, but if it weren’t a necessity, I’d boycott!
Comment by Lisa — December 16, 2008 @ 10:35 pmDon’t be surprised if they soon start offering the new JUMBO size. Since they are going to have a hard time making sheets smaller, they’ll change the 50-cent price per roll for 200 sheets to maybe $1 for 500 sheets…a real bargain, right? Then they’ll discontinue the smaller units and whittle away the length from 500 sheets to 450 to 400 to 300 back to 200, still at $1, or more when they can get away with it.
Comment by RS — December 17, 2008 @ 12:51 amAs people’s butts get bigger the paper gets smaller. Something has got to give.
Comment by JIM RICHARDSON — December 18, 2008 @ 7:27 pmIt never ceases to amaze me that in the search for the almighty dollar, we, the consumer, get the shaft at the end of it all. God forbid that companies ever make less money than last year. Rampant consumerism and greed have conditioned everyone to expect more and higher profits every year. I am sorry folks, but continual profit growth is unsustainable! There is no shame in a level profit margin!!! But oh no..we have to make more, satisfy the investors with increased profits. Gee..lets just raise prices..oh wait..people won’t buy an overpriced product. So instead lets incrementally shrink the size or quantity of out product and they will never know the difference!! We execs are so smart! Now give me my 20 million dollar bonus so I can take my private jet to my chalet in Switzerland for my birthday party. Ill be laughing for the whole flight at you pathetic stupid consumers.
Comment by Blake — January 1, 2009 @ 4:03 pmI have no idea where this will end. Manufacturers can only think that the American public is ignorant and stupid by selling us less and less for more and more. What’s next? Will we only have think about a product before we are charged for it?
Comment by Perry — January 1, 2009 @ 5:24 pmBlake, I couldn’t have said it better. Thank you!
Comment by Perry — January 1, 2009 @ 5:25 pmTHERE IS REALLY NOTHING THAT WE AS CONSUMERS CAN DO ABOUT THE DOWN SIZEING EXCEPT NOT BUY THAT PRODECT, SOONER ARE LATER WE WILL JUST HAVE TO PAY THE COST.GREED SEEMS TO OVER TAKE MOST OF THE COMPANY’S NOW.
Comment by valerie c — January 1, 2009 @ 10:46 pmNot only are the rolls of toilet paper getting narrower, but so are the rolls of paper towels, too! Over the past year, I have exclusively purchased paper towels distrubuted by a major grocery store here in the midwest until P&G’s Bounty went on sale this past week. Immediately – as I put up a new roll – I noticed that it did not fit very snugly on my holder. In fact, it slid back and forth very loosely. In addition, every time I pull a sheet off, the whole roll falls off onto the counter! Sure enough, I pulled out a old cardboard roller from the recycle bin and the Bounty roll is a half an inch shorter! Wow, so how much can they shave off before it really gets ridiculous?
Comment by Cindy — January 6, 2009 @ 1:18 pmI have been noticing this downsizing for YEARS. Many years. It was all over the news a short while ago that grocery prices were going up and that it will be the first increase in many, many years. What the heck? When something (i.e. coffee) goes from 16 oz. to 13 oz. to 11 oz. that is a HUGE price increase. Yes, the shelf price may still LOOK the same, but it is STILL roughly a 30% INCREASE.
They have been cutting boxed and canned goods for a very LONG time. When you see NEW and IMPROVED look out! All that means is that they’ve found a NEW way to IMPROVE their profits by sneaking HUGE PRICE INCREASES by way of LESS PRODUCT for the consumer.
Pasta is now another example. One pound (16 oz.) is now 12 oz. A 25% PRICE INCREASE.
As Blake said above: “God forbid that companies ever make less money than last year. Rampant consumerism and greed have conditioned everyone to expect more and higher profits every year. I am sorry folks, but continual profit growth is unsustainable!”
GREED, GREED, GREED is all it is. It’s Exxon all over again, but in the grocery industry.
Many years ago, when my children were younger I would make one box of Rice A Roni as a side dish, but all of a sudden one box was not enough anymore. At first I thought they were just eating more, but then noticed that there simply wasn’t as much in the pan as before. My first thought was to buy another box, but since we lived on such a tight budget I was not able to do so and said to heck with that. They’ve already snuck in a huge price increase without my knowledge, I’m not going to buy 2 for the price of THREE. I then started looking at the store brands which hadn’t changed (at that time) and found not only did I get much MORE and at a much cheaper price, but it tasted as good, if not better. However, now even the store brands have followed suit in their product shrinkage.
As for the toilet paper, the ONLY toilet paper I USED to by is the Scott 1000 sheets, but noticed that they did last as long as they used to either. I then switched to the Dollar General brand of their 1000 sheets, which was MUCH CHEAPER and lasted MUCH LONGER. I’m sure they’ve downsized theirs now as well.
I have cut my coffee intake a long time ago, and went from buying a pound (16 oz.) a week to 11 oz. every other week. I do not buy brand name boxed goods and most times do not spend money on toilet paper. I collect those 50 cents off coupons, which my grocery store DOUBLES and buy the $1.00 pkg. and end up getting my toilet paper for FREE. I just simply cannot even afford to BUY it anymore. These companies will cut, cut, cut, which means to RAISE, RAISE, RAISE prices and people just simply cannot afford it. There are items that everyone HAS to have like toilet paper, soap, shampoo, deodorant, etc. etc. and these companies think that they can charge whatever they want because we HAVE to have it. Yes, we will buy those products because we HAVE to, but many of us will cut back on the usage tremendously. My family has definitely learned how to RATION everything.
As far as the junk food (ice cream, chips, etc.) huge price increases due to product shrinkage, I just quit buying any of that stuff.
Someone above mentioned something about a bidet. In the long run I’m sure that a bidet is much, much cheaper than toilet tissue, even when you add the cost of water in.
I’ve learned a long time ago how to make my own personal bidet. Just take an old shampoo bottle and fill it with water, open the cap and squirt. Voila! Instant FREE bidet. I still use my FREE toilet paper, but can even stretch that as long as possible.
There are far too many people just barely making it from what used to be week to week, to what is now day to day. When is this greed going to end?
Comment by D'Ann — January 20, 2009 @ 11:40 amThey’ll keep downsizing the size of the sheets, the number of sheets on the roll, etc. With Kleenex (another Mouse Print item), the manufacturers will come up with the same “We’re standardizing the sheet size and count across the industry.” Whatever! Unfortunately, TP is something we need. Paper towels, on the other hand, we don’t need nearly as much.
Invest in dishcloths. At Wal-Mart I bought a pack of 7 for $5. Less than a multi-pack of Bounty. One color for the kitchen, one color for the bathroom. Use, toss in with the laundry you’re doing anyway, and reuse again. (I wash these in hot with the socks and underwear; everything else I wash in cold to save money on heating the water.) If you have old washcloths, use these instead of buying dishcloths.
Comment by Lisa — February 3, 2009 @ 9:39 pmI’ve already switched to the janitorial supply in town. I get a case (96) of the cheap stuff (which has been downsized as well) for about the same price as a 12 pack Charmin. Maybe if enough people followed suit someone would get the message.
Comment by Jeb — February 17, 2009 @ 1:08 pmthis isn’t anything new unfortunately. i’m 34 and first noticed this happening in the early 90s – it’s been common since. last thing ever to happen in business is raising the price – reduce quanity, reduce quality, reduce overhead (first 3 not in order), THEN RAISE PRICES. The only way to keep consumers buying your stuff – if we see it we’ll change brands – i know i do – and as for buying diff brands after u see the underhanded changes – good luck – they all follow suit with the deceptive practices.
Comment by hate but get used to it — March 17, 2009 @ 10:22 pmYes, this has been happening since the early 90’s. However, I have not seen a comment on the messed-up perferations between the individual sheets….
Used to be able to rip a paper towel or tp right off the roll – now a days, notice how the companies seem to purposefully make the perferations ‘incomplete’ so when you try and rip one section off, instead three sections come off. This seems to be the latest in underhanded marketing tactics that I have seen over the last 2-3 years.
It amazes me that no one has mentioned this…as it casues people to use 2-3 times as much of the product than one would intend to use, thus they sell more…
Comment by Busman842 — April 30, 2009 @ 2:17 pmI switched from Charmin to Northern for this very reason — the shorter rolls did not fit in any of my toilet tissue holders. Just now I unwrapped a new 12-roll package of Northern Toilet Tissue and here they have gone and done the same thing — They have gone from 4.5 inches to 4.0 inches wide. and then advertise that their product is “Mega – more than 2-1/2 X more sheets than our regular roll.” Give me back the “regular roll” please so I do not have to change out the toilet tissue holders throughout my entire home! I continually hear about “these hard/challenging economic times.” which I think is just an excuse to rip off the consumer! What’s a consumer to to do?? There is no alternative now that Northern (Georgia Pacific) has decided to join the rip off companies.
Comment by Diana — September 20, 2009 @ 5:32 pmGeorgia -Pacific’s Northern Bathroom TP had been my choice for value ,texture and volume but the other day upon pulling out first roll , I noticed it’s lightweightness. I examined an old cardboard holder leftover from the week before and did a height measurement . No need for that ,the package told the tale (4.0×4.0in. ) as opposed to old package wrapper I strill had(I’m messy)
Comment by Rudy — September 22, 2009 @ 8:19 pm4.5x 4.0in. It read on that package of Northern , confirming my suspicions. Ripoff?
I actually took these midget rolls of Quilted Northern back
Comment by D — October 13, 2009 @ 2:15 pmto the store. I thought I just got a bad batch. Not so, as a
strolled the grocery store to purchase a new 24 pack I noticed a
whole colony of these midget rolls. Very sneaky
I discovered Quilted Northern was narrow just a few days ago and went to the internet to see what people are saying about it. Most on the shelves seem to me 4.2 inches while Northern is 4.0 inches. That’s too narrow so I’ve been buying a brand that’s wider. I’ll not buy anymore Quilted Northern, even if all brands go to 4.0 inches because Northern is the first, or one of the first, to downsize. We had been buying Quilted Northern for years and years but no more.
Comment by P — October 17, 2009 @ 2:58 pm