From Vox, November 10:
The wild, nonsensical world of toilet paper math, explained.
Whizy Kim is a reporter covering how the world’s wealthiest people wield influence, including the policies and cultural norms they help forge. Before joining Vox, she was a senior writer at Refinery29.
It’s a truism that everything’s bigger in America — just look at the cars and houses. But perhaps nowhere is the virtue of bigger is better more bizarrely apparent than how toilet paper is sold. Wander into the bathroom products aisle at the supermarket and you’ve entered a topsy-turvy world where numbers shape-shift. A pack of 18 mega toilet paper rolls, for example, magically transforms into 90 “regular” ones. The labeling emphasizes this greater number in large font, lest you foolishly think 18 simply equals 18. Another pack might insist that 12 even-thicker rolls of toilet paper are the equivalent of 96 normal rolls.
The advertising is clear: You’re getting a lot of toilet paper. That should be good news, since if there’s one rule of thumb everyone should live by, it’s never run out of TP. We saw anxiety around this eventuality reach new heights in the early days of the pandemic, when crowds of people fought to snap up as much toilet paper as they could, leading to a shortage and extreme price gouging. Americans’ enormous vehicles and palatial abodes may in fact exist in service of conveying and storing gigantic bulk packs of this bathroom essential.
There’s some irony, then, that for all the trumpeting of gargantuan sizes, toilet paper rolls are generally getting smaller. It’s a key example of the trend of manufacturers charging the same price (or even slightly more) for less product that’s been dubbed “shrinkflation.” It makes it more difficult than ever to figure out if you’re getting ripped off. None of the three major toilet paper manufacturers Vox reached out to responded to a request for comment.
“I really can’t think of any other category that’s as confusing as toilet paper,” says Neil Saunders, managing director of retail at the consulting firm GlobalData. With dubious numerical claims about how much a “mega” roll is really worth, brands can promote the perception of value without actually having to show their work. Figuring out the price per toilet paper sheet is a hassle, but it would show how much more expensive the product has become.
“The consumer wouldn’t like that, so they all keep it a bit opaque,” Saunders says.Get ready for some back-of-the-toilet-paper math...
....MUCH MORE, so much more.
