Don't shrink the Charmin, consumers say about smaller rolls

10/21/2013

CINCINNATI -- October must be downsizing month, because it seems every year at this time a number of packages in the grocery store suddenly get smaller. One notable example: Rolls of Charmin have shrunk.

Donna Cann of Pierce Township, Ohio, first noticed something different with Charmin when she recently handed an empty cardboard roll to her dog to play with.

It looked a lot smaller than she remembered.

So Ms. Cann found an older package of Charmin in the cupboard, and couldn’t believe the difference when she set the full roll, and the empty cardboard tube, side by side.

’’What I noticed was my toilet paper rolls are shrinking considerably,” Ms. Cann said.

In the bathroom, she said, the new roll flops around on the holder, making the wall holder look much too large.

She’s not the only user who’s noticed.

Charmin’s Facebook page was filled with comments from unhappy customers. One said “less wipe for your buck.” Another said “why oh why did you shrink the square?” However, the comments appeared to be removed after 24 hours.

How much smaller? Ms. Cann says a tape measure confirmed what her eyes told her.

’There’s a half inch difference in the rolls now,” she said.

A spokesman for Procter & Gamble, which makes Charmin, confirmed the shrinkage, but explained that the exact reduction is 3/8 of an inch, not a half inch.

She said it was done to “reinvest in the product “ with stronger tissue, so that “you don’t need to use as much. “ And she said there’s been no price hike, which was a top priority.