Those Ever Shrinking Toilet Rolls !

It is a fact of life that many canny shoppers have sharp price retention memories and a price increase sends them looking for cheaper alternatives.   The equally canny marketing people have become masters of creating an illusion by shrinking product sizes rather than increasing prices.

Most shoppers are unaware that the humble toilet roll now contains 180 squares of paper, where just a few months earlier the count ran to 190, and each of those squares has decreased in size by just 0.05 cm.   That is barely noticeable on each toilet roll, but the Australian market for toilet paper runs to $ 1.2 billion and spread across the country that represents a lot less paper.

Shoppers should be suspicious if they are offered toilet rolls at an unusually cheap price.  Another gimmick to create a " special " to attract customers is to manufacture the roll under lighter pressure to contain more air between each sheet.   If you squeeze one of these between your fingers, it will compress much more than a standard roll - but as they are offered in a muti-pack you will only discover this after you have brought it home.

The race is on to contain rising costs across the entire marketing spectrum.  Recently the makers of many chocolate bars marginally reduced their size while keeping the price even.   One whole row of four individual squares disappeared and this was not apparent to the casual glance.  This was claimed to be necessary to offset a rise in the world price of cocoa, but it is unlikely to be reversed when the world price again stabilises.

Often a size decrease is sold as delivering a benefit.   Some brands of canned cat food have recently decreased in content by fifteen percent.   It is claimed that many household cats are disastrously overfed and very unhealthy.   Those that make a can last a number of days are therefore rationing meal sizes from a smaller can - and delivering a benefit to their pet.

Another clever strategic move was to discontinue canning cat food in favour of individual meal pouches.  Not only does this involve ease of serving by simply tearing open the pack but the individual serve is adjusted lower than the bulk expected in a can.   It can even deliver a price premium for the convenience factor.

The ACCC has been promoting shoppers interests by requiring supermarkets to display pack information comparison as well as the general price on shelf displays.   This was intended to counter the tactic of generally oversizing the outer package of the product in relation to the actual contents to create the illusion of a size benefit. 

A grace period was allowed so this rather complex information could  be collated and displayed and that is now in force.   Shoppers should now be able to compare different brands and different pack sizes by how the products compare in relation to the price asked for an identical serve of whatever is offered.

Unfortunately, this is neither widely used or understood by most shoppers.  To achieve the intended purpose it needed to be widely promoted - and this has not happened.   Consumer groups have been strangely silent in bringing it to the attention of shoppers and it is evident that the ACCC lacks an advertising budget for this purpose.

This valuable source of information exists to take the mystery out of price comparison.   Now the remaining task is teaching the public how to use it !