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Scott’s Tube-Free Toilet Paper Trick

In the never ending ways that toilet paper manufacturers have found to downsize their products, Kimberly Clark, the maker of Scott Tissue, came up with a new one.

Lauren B., a regular Mouse Print* reader, says she tried Scott’s new tube-free Naturals toilet paper and her whole family swears there is less on each roll.

A quick look at the packages of Naturals with tubes and Naturals without tubes reveals they both have 440 sheets per roll, the sheets are 4.2-inches by 4.0-inches on both, and both packages contain a total of 205.2 square feet of paper. It turns out that Lauren mistakenly thought that all Scott toilet paper had 1000 sheets, irrespective of the variety being sold. But her inquiry raised the question of whether the only difference in the case of Scott Naturals was that one had a tube and one did not.

As it turns out, a little secret was hiding in the fine print.

*MOUSE PRINT:

The tube-free version is only one-ply, and tube version is two. That difference would also suggest that you might have to use more sheets of the single-ply version than the two-ply one.

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Unexpected Rebate Twists

More and more manufacturers and retailers are finding ways to save money on rebates.

Example 1:

Menards, a home improvement chain, is offering an 11%* rebate on everything:

That asterisk after the 11% goes to their fine print disclosure:

*MOUSE PRINT:

“Rebate is in the form of merchandise credit check.”

As Nadine B. told Mouse Print* when she saw their ad, “the fine print says that it’s not cash, as most of us expect with a ‘mail-in rebate.’ It is for merchandise credit, meaning it can only be used for future purchases at Menards.”

While this type of rebate is common at office supply stores like Staples that send out reward checks good only toward future purchases at the store, it is rare to see it in this type of store.


Example 2:

To encourge people to try Grain Berry products, the company is making a buy one, get one free offer via rebate, with a twist.

*MOUSE PRINT:

You’ve got to include the envelope and postage to get your free coupon.

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No Joke: Ralphs Dropping Double Coupons on April 1

Ralphs, one of the largest supermarket chains in Southern California, is announcing major changes to its reward program this week. They have been teasing customers with advertisements like this:

There is one change, however, that they are not taking out full page ads to promote. Rather, they have buried the announcement in the fine print about something unrelated. And trust me, shoppers won’t be excited by the news.

*MOUSE PRINT:

They are dropping double coupons, a program they instituted over 20 years ago. [For those in parts of the country that don’t have supermarkets that offer double coupons, it works this way. The store will give you twice the face of the coupon when you buy the item, subject to certain limitations.]

Bargain hunters will be very unhappy, not to mention aspiring “extreme couponers”.

On Wednesday, March 28, please visit Consumer World for more details about what Ralphs’ dropping of double coupons could mean for shoppers across the country.

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