Friday, February 18, 2011

Cost cutting: rolls of toilet paper? Really?



It was bad enough when suddenly Cheerios boxes were thinner by 20% than they used to be. Same price, less content. There was a rash of that when the economic downturn really hit. I saw that it was probably necessary, but found it discouraging.

Today, I discovered that the same brand of toilet paper that I've been buying forever (Scott) has made their rolls 3/8" narrower than they used to be. That may not seem like a problem, except that the toilet paper holder at work is one of these designs:


And the roll simply doesn't fit! It falls right out of the holder:


Here's the difference in the old and new sizes. It's quite significant. In the words of Wayne Campbell: "Shyah, as if we wouldn't notice! "


Luckily, I have a machine shop, and I'm not afraid to use it. And I have some inventory of copper tubing of just the right diameter: