Last month, we reported on the case of the shrinking toilet paper. KPRC enginner Julie Woellert noticed her “Quilted Northern Soft & Strong” was getting “Soft & Strong & Small.”
She even brought some rolls from home to prove it.
Georgia-Pacific, the company that makes Quilted Northern admitted that it has lopped off half an inch from their rolls, decreasing the width of the roll from 4.5 inches to 4 inches. But what about the third smaller roll? We measured it 3.5 inches.
A Georgia-Pacific spokesperson asked that we send them the roll so their R&D department could have a look. After a few weeks, I called to find out what they discovered.
Spokesperson Anna Umphress told me that the folks at Georgia-Pacific determined that our squatty roll was a fluke. They say a machine chops the individual rolls from one looong roll. The machine pulls the roll forward four inches and makes a cut. Umphress said her team believes the machine must have only pulled the roll forward 3.5 inches to make the roll our engineer found.
Georgia-Pacific says only one other customer called with a 3.5 inch roll.
Woellert is still a skeptic. I suspect she’ll be opening all of her toilet paper with a ruler from now on.
“Can you imagine how much money they could save by putting one 3.5 inch roll in every 10th package that comes off the line?” she asked.
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This happened to me as well. I was recently laid off and in an attempt to save money I switched from Charmin to Northern. I live in an older house that doesn’t have a toilet paper holder, so I stack the rolls on a paper towel holder. The difference was incredible! Low and behold, there was a short roll. Only one in a 18 double roll pack…and I thought about how much money they would save. Crazy, isn’t it? Thanks for making me understand that this wasn’t a fluke!