The toilet paper challenge. Costco vs Walmart.
So you think that you just cannot beat the prices at Walmart? Sure, their prices are competitive. But do you realize you are also getting less for your money? At least when it comes to toilet paper, you are.
I’m a Costco-lover. Every other week I go to Costco and stock up. I normally buy Charmin Ultra Soft at Costco, but since I was running out before my next Costco trip, I had to stomach a trip to Walmart. Costco is not all that close to home, but Walmart is five minutes away.
When I was stocking the toilet paper cubbie, I placed a Walmart roll next to the last Costco roll, and below is what I saw. These are both the same “version” of Charmin — the Ultra soft. Not the Ultra Soft Mega nor the Ultra Soft Ultra Strong. Just the regular Ultra Soft.
It’s so typical of Walmart. They will cut corners in any way they can to make those extra pennies add up to billions of dollars — even if it means wiping out the size of the rolls….
(NOTE: Compare only the height. The Costco-bought roll is almost used up, so do not compare the width or diameter. I am curious to compare the two in width/diameter now. Tomorrow is my Costco day, too. I will update this post after I pick up the Costco pack.)
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I’m a big fan of the Marathon TP at Costco.
I think their slogan should be, “Marathon Toilet Tissue. When you’ve got the Marathon Runs.”
Ha! And “ewwwwwww.”
If you count the squares you will find they are all going to be less than what is advertised. It might say 500 squares of double ply paper, but there will be 450 or so, and the last 10 and the first 20 will be so loosely wound or glued to each other so they are not usable.
I’ve wondered about that but I sure wasn’t going to count all the tp “pieces.”
And I’ll bet the manufacturers count on that, too.
Oh I’m sure they do.
Did you get much snow up there? We got 8 inches here — and I mean 8″ here at home. We live in the valley south of the city which rarely sees snow. Usually it’s a dusting or doesn’t even stick. Then to wake up to this! The boy across the street is out having a great time.
Not much snow. 4″-5″ on the ground from a few days ago, but the streets are mostly clear and dry at the moment. I think more was due today but I haven’t seen any yet (knock wood).
Oh, THAT snow! The snow that’s dumping several feet of new snow in our SW mountains. It’s not likely to make it to Denver, with the Divide and all. Our snow rarely comes from that direction.
Lol. You’re only 6 hours north of me. Durango got quite a bit of it. It did seem to stay more south, tho, as some of the southern towns that never get snow did this time. Roswell did.
They’re saying some of it may come in here tomorrow night. But the topography is a BIG factor. South and west sides of the metro can get a foot and we’ll only get a couple of inches here (I’m about 3 miles east of I-25).
Ayup. Same here. The foothills and east mountains usually get the brunt of it. I’m down in the warmer, more agricultural area in the river valley that rarely sees snow. It was quite a shock to wake up to 8 inches.
Is the city equipped to deal with that kind of snow? Even here 8″ would be a mess.
Seems to be. The foothills, which are along the eastern edge of the city, often gets an inch or so. With it being hilly, they get taken care of. Especially since it’s the wealthy area, too. Plus the canyon in from the Sandias is butt up next to the city, too. And they’re often hit there, which can be very dangerous as that is the route from the river basin that the city is in UK to the high desert. Plus, it never stays long here. The sun trends to melt everything fairly quickly. We still have some snow, about 4 inches deep or so. But the roads all melted of during the day.
I lead a somewhat feckless life on most days, but I have not come to the point where I am going to count the squares on toilet paper, that is just not cool (I will assign the task to one of the grandchildren and pay them a quarter).
Lately I have however noticed that soft drinks in the can are progressively getting smaller, but the price remains the same.
DS
Lol. Definitely sounds like a grandchildren task. I’ve not noticed the sofa cans, but I rarely drink sofa from cans.
It’s not necessarily the stores; it’s Charmin. Compare rolls from the same store. The mega rolls are a lot fatter, but they’re also narrower, so you aren’t really getting that much more tissue. You’re just getting a fatter-looking roll. Also they change the diameter of the tube inside. A larger diameter tube gives you less paper on the roll, of course. It’s just another way manufacturers are changing packaging to try to fool us. Rather than raise prices, which we’d notice, they change the packaging to give us less product (while hoping we don’t notice).
The stores put in the order and Charmin complies. Walmart doesn’t want to raise their prices to match other stores, so they come to an agreement/contract with Charmin to cut back on the size so there is less product but naturally do not advertise this. So they can promote their lower prices, which is true. A pack of 2-ply, 500 ct (for example) is $x less. But what the consumer doesn’t realize is there is less product.
It doesn’t surprise me to learn Walmart orders “special” product, since the outlet malls do the same thing. Sure, the prices are lower, but it’s not the same product you buy elsewhere at “regular” prices. I consider shopping at Walmart only when there’s nothing else within 20 miles.
Ayup. And that’s exactly the way it is here. Where I live is more rural and there are very few places to go within 15 miles. Sadly Walmart is about the only option. And since it is just 5 mnts away…. I have changed my shopping places enough, tho , that I only need to go to Walmart once a month for a few items I can’t find anywhere else. At least not easily.