PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) – With so many sizes and brands, toilet paper can be a very personal decision for some. 10 On Your Side is helping viewers “flush out” the facts on a “square deal” for your backside.
In the United States, the toilet paper industry is not regulated, meaning there are no actual federal standards — individual companies can set their own quality and production standards.
“I did not know it was not regulated, I did not know that, oh my goodness,” one person said.
While walking through the aisles, you can see labels like XXL, mega or jumbo, but is the consumer actually getting those extra sheets?
“They’re creating value through a variety of words, whether it’s mega or jumbo,” Nicole Hoffman, founder of Retail Minded said. “I think that they’re creating the illusion of more sometimes. I know there is actually not always as much as we perceive as consumers were it to be when it comes to the paper. And I think, you know, there’s a lot of ways to look at that. There’s shrinkflation.”
It’s not all a lost cause though — it’s possible to actually do the math to crunch the numbers.
“For sure you can, you know, because they tell you how many sheets are in a roll,” Hoffman said. “That’s the one thing we can at least know how many sheets are in each role. Now, if we want to talk about the flip or the plate, the dimensions, there’s a lot more detail to that.”
Hoffman suggests for people to read the fine print on the packaging in order to get worthy information.
Don’t want to do the math though? Don’t worry! You can plug all this information into this toilet paper value calculator. All you have to do is enter the number of sheets and the price.