The Good Old Days?

How many of you remember the old-time toilets? You know, the ones that were built about 50 feet from the house so the stink wouldn’t be noticed. The ones where you had to get dressed to go out when you had to go. And sometimes in the rain the roof might leak a little, or a lot, and the seats would probably be wet, and it was always cold, always. And the Sears Catalogue was a must, and if you got too interested in the newspapers you would find someone pounding on the door wanting to know if you were still alive in there. Good old days? I don’t think so. Glad to see those days gone? Well, some of it may be coming back. Do you remember when the rolls of toilet paper were large enough to serve a family for several days, when the cardboard center was just big enough to fit over the holder and the roll itself would be so big you could just barely fit it onto the spindle? Those were the real good old days.

Take a look at a roll of toilet paper now. The cardboard center takes up most of the roll, and it is so flimsy that the roll is lopsided because it won’t hold its shape when they roll the paper on it. And as far as the paper itself, well it has nothing on the old Sears catalogue. Most of it tears the skin right off your bottom if you’re not careful. And notice how thin it is. Even the two ply wouldn’t keep your hands clean. So as a result, you have to use more which makes the manufacturers very happy I presume. If you get a roll now that lasts more than a day for a normal family, you have probably been gone all day long shopping. Probably after more toilet paper.

I can’t say that they are all like this because I suppose that if you could afford more than what is being sold at the corner store you might find some of the good old stuff. But you would have to pay much more than I am willing to take out of my budget for stuff that just gets flushed away. Are the companies losing so much money that they have to cheat the customer? Do they think we don’t notice? I know that I am probably older than most modern consumers, and maybe they think that this is normal, but it is so obvious to me that we are being cheated that surely others must have noticed it too.

If a company makes chairs, they wouldn’t be able to convince the consumers that by buying a stool they were getting a chair, especially if they were to raise the price to what you would normally pay for a chair. Anyone would see the difference. Why do the makers of toilet paper think that they can automatically put some sort of junk on a roll and call it toilet paper and expect us to go on our merry way and not say anything about it. Perhaps they think that they have us in a position where they can give us anything they want and we will have to accept it because we don’t have any alternatives any more. And maybe they are right. What else could we use? It is either use the stuff they sell or go without, and that is not an option either. My wife won’t tolerate a messy bathroom.

I don’t want you to think that I am a chronic complainer, I’m normally a pretty laid back guy. I can understand why companies have to raise prices. I understand the process that when the worker gets a cost of living raise, the extra wages have to come from the consumer and the price of the product has to be raised accordingly. That is basic. I also understand the concept of a quality product which is the very basis of a successful company. I just don’t understand why the prices have gone up while the quality has gone to the dogs. If they didn’t have captive consumers so to speak, I am sure they would be out of business because it isn’t just one company that is doing this, they all seem to be doing it. The commercials are the same, touting the softness and so forth, but the product sure isn’t.

We are careful buyers. I will readily admit that I am far from being rich. Right next to the poverty level as a matter of fact and trying to live on a fixed income. Does that mean that I have to use the trash they are selling because I can’t afford the expensive stuff that might be around , as I mentioned earlier in this paper? I don’t think so. I may have to use it, but I don’t have to like it.

I don’t want to cheat anybody, but I don’t want anybody to cheat me either. If they can’t make money on a roll of toilet paper unless they make it mostly cardboard and cut way back on the quality and the size of the paper hoping that we would be too dumb to see what they are doing, then there is something wrong with the company. Have the prices gone up ? You bet your boots they have. Why are we paying more for so very much less ? Because they have us right where it hurts. If you have a septic system like I do, you can’t just flush anything down them. But notice how most of the paper you buy now just sits on top of the water. I don’t know as that is very good for the system either. I might just as well be using that catalogue except they don’t send them out anymore. And we are not allowed to have an outdoor toilet, at least not if they find out about it.

I guess this is progress in a way, it is better than having to go out in the snow in the middle of the night, but I wish I could think of a way to let the producers of these shoddy products know that we aren’t all as stupid as they seem to think. It is a hard product to boycott, but if anyone thinks of a way to do it, let me know. I don’t like being cheated.