Friday, 4 April 2008

The joy of toilet paper


Have you ever been in a public restroom stall and you reach for the toilet paper, only to find that:

  • The dispenser is about 12 inches from the ground, so you have to lean way forward and bend your arm and wrist in a completely unnatural way to try and grasp the paper?

  • The paper is in the dispenser or on the roll so tightly that you can only pull off tiny slivers about the size of a quarter -- so you try, vainly, to gather enough quarter sized pieces to use

  • The paper in in one of those round, multi-pegged holders, and the one facing down is empty but you can't get the handle thingy to turn so you can get a fresh roll within reach

  • The new roll has NO beginning, so you have to start digging at it with your finger nails to try and get it started but instead it just ends up looking like the cat was using it for a scratching post and you're left with a handful of scraps


How can one common and essential product be packaged in so many ways to make it darned near impossible to use? And why would they do this? The number of toilet paper dispensers I've seen ripped off of public restroom walls tells me that any cost savings anticipated is MORE than offset by the cost of replacing those annoying holders.

Why would anyone want to make such a basic necessity so tough to use? Are there people sitting around in an office somewhere trying to come up with new ways to wind toilet paper tighter, or lower the dispenser so far that we would have to lie on the filthy floor to reach inside?

Tell me...do people REALLY want customers walking around in their stores, and employees walking a round in their offices ...well, ummm...unwiped????

Your thoughts please!

1 comment:

Barbara B. said...

Yeah, what's up with that?!?!