Evil Toilet Paper And One Hundred

If you haven't noticed it, you will soon. It's happening all around you. What am I talking about? Getting less for your money, of course.

I noticed it a while back when I was putting a new roll of toilet paper in the holder. I took the empty tube off and set it on the vanity next to the new roll. There was a height difference of about 1/4 inch between the two rolls. The new roll had come from a just-opened package, so some time between purchasing the two packages, the company started making the rolls shorter (or narrower, depending on your perspective) and charging the same amount. I always buy one specific brand of toilet paper, but I'd be willing to bet that all brands are making their rolls smaller. In fact, stop reading this right now and go look at the toilet paper in your bathroom. Even if you don't have an old roll to compare it to, you'll notice that there is more room to slide the roll back and forth on the holder than there used to be. Seriously, go look. Am I right or am I right?

Whether we need wider toilet paper or not isn't the issue (and really, I don't want to know about the scientific testing they do to determine how wide toilet paper should be, I'm still dealing with the bathroom habits of the cartoon bears in those commercials), it's all about getting what you pay for.

Toilet paper isn't the only product getting smaller. I noticed that the pretzels I buy now come in a 15 oz. bag instead of a 16 oz. bag for the same price. Ditto with tortilla chips. Ice cream is smaller now, too. What used to be a full quart is now labeled as .75 quart. We don't eat a lot of ice cream so I have no idea how long ago that happened. I'm sure most of the products I buy are shrinking even though I haven't noticed.

What's funny/evil about it is that they don't seem to make the packaging any smaller, just the product inside. I don't think they want us to notice we're getting less. When was the last time you saw "Now 25% Less" promoted on any package? If you feel like you're going through groceries faster than you used to, you probably are because you're buying less but spending the same amount.


One Hundred

This post is sort of a milestone for me. It's my 100th post. When I realized that I was coming up on 100, I thought I should chose a topic that was special in some way; a really funny story, perhaps or something deep and moving. Then I considered a favorite recipe or cocktail. In the end, I chose toilet paper. Go figure! It's what was on my mind today and that tends to be how I chose what to blog about.

I would have thought that I'd be out of ideas for blog topics by now, but that couldn't be further from the truth. I find myself mentally composing blogs all the time. Some of them get posted, others never make it past editing when I decide they aren't as interesting as I thought they would be.

I appreciate all of you who read my blog and take the time to comment. I'm happy to have followers as well as those who stumble into my "Willoughby World" by some other means. If no one was reading it, I probably wouldn't take the time to write it and I do enjoy writing it.

Of all the different things I've wanted to do in my life, one thing has never changed. I've always liked to write. Truth being told, my husband gave me this laptop for my birthday a few years ago so that I could write the book I've always wanted to write. It's a story that's been kicking around in my head for years, gnawing at me to put it on paper. Every now and then I take a stab at it, but I'm my own worst critic and end up editing it into oblivion. Writing this blog keeps my creative juices going and gives me some hope that someday I might just be able to finish that story.

Thanks, again, for stopping by. I hope you'll keep coming back!