Shrinkflation Hits Your Bathroom: Toilet Paper Rolls Are Smaller

Nope you’re not crazy. Writer Mark Dent over at the Hustle has found that yes, your toilet paper is probably running out more quickly.

He began by going on eBay and tracking down a package of Charmin Ultra from 1992 with 170 single-ply sheets per roll. By comparison, a regular roll today has 56 sheets and even a “double” roll 154.

Dent connected with consumer advocate Edgar Dworsky, whose collection of vintage TP goes back even further. In the ‘70s, a Charmin roll had 650 single-ply sheets, but began shrinking consistently over the years. It was down to 400 in 1979.

Roll size tells one story, but another marker of shrinking TP is how much it weighs. Dent writes that a four-pack of Scott, which advertises 1,000 sheets per roll, weighs about a pound, down from 2 pounds a decade ago.

The takeaway is that consumers are paying more money for less product when compared to years ago.