I'm over 50 now, and newly injured at that (luckily also a bodyworker, so can keep it from getting to the replacement knee joint point). But as we men have fed comedy routines for generations, graduating from 'uncle' to 'grandpa' status by the kids du jour, has come with um, U-Hauls of baggage. Think I say FFS, probably 3 - 4x a day now Here's a selection of things that in-grow my blossom hairs: as a 20-something in mil, never once did I need to take precautions for keeping soap out of my eyes warshing my arrogant, pretty young '90s self in the shower Now, seems the combination of Neanderthal eyebrows w/ white antennae, wrinkles what channel the liquid pain directly to sockets, and the neighborhood's water pressure sinking to ridiculous levels, give me Omniman-from-Invincible eyes when he goes berserk... and must to go to bed with such. FFS... screams at clouds bought a windshield sunscreen for the XW60 when purchased a year ago. Perfect fit, it said (it did at first). Folds up into the size of a 45 vinyl record, it said (not exactly but still impressively close). Does neither of those things, Year 2. Shrunk at least an inch, you guessed it... from sitting baking in the sun... so falls away from the glass and lets the interior heat up. Wires which give it shape and allow twisting it compact,have also warped, due to doing this daily. Not cheap either, so not exactly eager to have to buy another for $60... but its quality is juuust enough that going to Wally's for an alternate, would defo get me worse (that's the store's whole purpose, after all). FFS... good for one year, really? why is my memory actually worse, on CPAP...? Wasn't oxygenation for a 30-yrs-depleted shriveled brain supposed to get back cognitive performance? I swear, huge things like appts, just sail clear over my head lately, not sure what the hell's going on. Missed two appts this month: one a doc appt, one a svc appt (to reprogram my new 2nd fob; both weren't critical, just embarrassing). I've never brain-farted an appt made myself, seriously since mil days. Even brought it up with the follow-up (yep, a CPAP one)... and they said to just monitor, since a year hasn't gone by yet. Well eff me, doc -- this is a major disruption in my life, if this condition suddenly starts to spread into my client appts the health food place I get a morning salad / tofu chili from, insists on using these paper, basically burger clamshell containers for salad (rules for takeaway disposables on Maui have become super-strict, which I'm a fan of). But being this place is an organic and sustainable haven of often dubious product marketing... the containers are an unlined, recycled compostable, which means they're essentially glorified compressed paper towel. What's worse they're so thin, if you use dressing on your salad, the oil will bleed thru in seconds. I don't eat until my workout is done, which can be more than an hour -- and I use EVOO and ACV only, as dressing... which destroys this stuff (have to both dbl-up the containers and line them with a couple of napkins). The paper bowl w/ lid for the chili will last literally all day with a hot oily dish inside -- why isn't there a slightly larger one that can hold a full salad I can use instead of this papier-mache symbol of bad food service post-covid? who decided paper towels and toilet paper, need to 1) be priced 50% higher than pre-covid, and 2) come with laughable quality in exchange? Never used to have to think about whether or not toilet paper was going to work, if I bought Charmin'. First the goofy wave perforations (probably to keep the new substandard paper from tearing doing its job), and then the tubes -- not even close to being the same length as the roll's sheets, and getting bigger in diameter when the rolls stay the same. Same applies to Bounty kitchen roll, a brand I've trusted for decades: did you suddenly contract your QA to prisons or some dystopic shens? last one Why the hell is a square, healthy meal, $20 now on Maui? That could buy my whole day's nooch pre-covid. A single Bartlett pear, $4? Even accounting for living in a resort destination (which has always been hilarious since the reefs began dying and shark attacks continue to claim people who insist on swimming in murky water, caused by huge mini-lahars washing river-adjacent comm'ys away -- and then the covid pandemic stressing services and rocketing premiums in even the biggest Wailea and Kapalua hotels... but y'all be y'all). These are L.A. prices. for not-even-in-the-same-universe-vs. L.A. food-truck quality, or even Honolulu trucks while we're at it. Only reason I feel this way really... is remember a time when virtually none of the American product quality issues were even close to being a thing... and tbh, Zoomers have picked up on it too, even if their memories of it are fuzzy from being tinier people at the time. Even in K-pop there's a nostalgia reflecting one in SK society for the simplicity and honesty of the Y2Ks and earlier burning up charts (like, all of NewJeans' discography)... not surprisingly, when a lot of the rot began here, resulting in the underwhelming, apathetic, s/m-ruled demagoguery of Now. Think the clouds have heard their fill for today, signing off What's made you say FFS lately (besides my posts)?
I used to work for $Large_Organization where some task force was actually convened from the offices of finance to reduce the expenditure on toilet paper. This was accomplished by switching to single-ply gossamer supplied on rolls narrower than the human hand. I'm sure this switch was not made in the private baths of the offices of finance or above, just for all the rest of us. The gossamer issue was surmountable if you remembered to pull from the roll about double the length you normally would, and fold it thick enough to stop your fingers pushing through. The width could be addressed by pulling a length again greater by about half, and mastering the W-fold, to produce a pad that wasn't narrower than your hand. I don't know if the expected savings were realized when the additional length usage was taken into account. If you ever forgot to roll off the ~ tripled length and use the needed origami folds, you could correct your mistake at the sink with extra minutes running hot water and soap. But I think the hot water and soap came from a different budget area, so that didn't stop the toilet paper economizing from being judged a success. It also provided a vivid visual image for what was happening to employee morale in that period.
i remember the plasticky/wax paper toilet paper in public restrooms. even george harrison complained of it in the abbey road studio bathrooms. todays is far superior, bu by the time you reach 70, you start to accept many of these things
Clear 99% uv rejection film on the inside of the windshield solves it without kludgey folding sunshades. In Central Texas you rarely see those things anymore. Google Calendar with reminders. I use calendars in the corporate world; they work equally well in the personal space. First world problems don't even apply in Maui. Inflation fueled by tariffs have consequences, especially for those on fixed incomes.
The toilet paper budget isn't being broken in the men's room. The bulk of the cost is in the other one. - - - As for cost, much of North America's tissue paper supply is very dependent on certain soft wood fibers from Canada, so is subject to the increased tariffs du jour. While not an inherent requirement, that is what many factories are set up for. Drastically changing the input mix would require considerable changes to the factory equipment, which can't happen overnight.
snaps fingers, points Egg-friggin'-zactly, Chappy! Gaww do I hate a roll that requires more sheets to actually use for purpose, but provides you w/ no more (and suspect even fewer) sheets than pre-covid. Priced higher, gives less paper, requires more frequent replacement -- sure Charmin', your bog roll's superior value Some of the opinions here seem to pin the increased obvious profiteering on TP to the tariffs... but this crap (durr hurr) has been going on since covid, and tbh at least here, don't see it getting significantly worse... just b*tching about something I encounter and have encountered, every time I've drop a deuce at home since covid. If the tariffs are threatening even further quality deterioration, then the money the companies have been making since covid could be a temporary buffer before it does get noticeably worse. Just gotta go thru existing stockage until it reaches up-to-date, yecch Which is... how much to install on Maui? Way too much, and far more than in TX, that's for sure -- if it's even available. Also leery about plastic sheet + adhesive layers on the inside of my windshield -- bubbles, deterioration, affected by cleaning fluids, etc. Physical screens what don't last are annoying, sure... but if installing this stuff is $300 and gets hazy in a year and needs redone, nothing gained, and no need to yank it out at expense, if I sell the car shrugs Funny thing is, I use GC. Had to turn off reminders as for some reason the same notification would repeatedly chime despite acknowledging it -- effing annoying. That was a phone ago tho... so will give this a try, thanks You obviously don't live on Maui My line of work pays great per hour, but the hours aren't great per month... so in order to stay afloat to care for my mum, I take EBT. If that's First-Worlder to you... perhaps try living someplace else in the country everything has to be shipped in by container ship or air, cost burden on the consumer. May be a bit less flippant about it Hey thanks for stopping by. The brand is Canvcle, obvi one of the nonsense-name PRC brands. Initial quality is pretty good; wish now I'd spent the bit extra to get the side window shades, too... here's the 'Mazzy listing... If you do buy this... a couple of things to watch for, besides the fact it shrinks so much in a year: the elastic band's held on with just a few stitches, and began to fray about a month in... so I had to go in with a needle / thread to reinforce it -- never gave a problem after that. Commented on it in the review for the screen, so the mfr knows by now; hopefully yours will come better stitched than mine. found taking your driver's side screen (on the L side of the cut w/ the velcro, which faces towards you) and inserting it into the space between the glass and the A-pillar, holding it in place with the visor, makes for best fit... then doin same w/ the R side (making sure the little flap on the far corner isn't folded and letting in light), hold with R-side visor... then finally fasten the velcro around the mirror mount post, so it won't fall out of place. Takes a bit to master but when you're used to it, will take about 10 secs max to fit the screen EDIT: was just looking at the ratings for a suggested alt: the Proadsy (another nonsense-name brand) seems to have better ratings and more of them than the Canvcle -- thinner 4-layer vs. 6 layers, but if it tested well in AZ summer heat, it's probably good for anywhere else in teh country besides Death Valley $5 cheaper too...
Didn't anyone else notice that TP properties, softness, thickness, plies, sheet dimensions, sheets per roll, roll and spool diameters, strength, etc., were already ready quite variable since . . . at least since I turned old enough to shop for myself. Probably long before then too, I had noticed some variability even in what mother brought home during my childhood. "Number of sheets needed" for a job isn't a fixed number, but strongly depends on the properties, which vary considerably between well-to-do homes vs tight-budget-homes vs institutions. Early in my householding years, the partner's shopping criteria (within a certain category of softness) was only price per roll. In that era, she always brought home small-diameter rolls. At some point my questioning about the shopping criteria finally sunk in, and the average roll diameter increased. After we were established enough to no longer on a tight budget, then things became more consistent through habit. = = = = TP was a topic mentioned in a news article about Ghislaine Maxwell's numerous special privileges at the new 'country club' where she moved a few months ago, after the Epstein Files returned to the headlines. A place that is technically off-limits to anyone of her, uh,'degree'. All the other inmates 'guests' are given 'just' 2 free rolls of TP per week, any extra must be purchased at tourist-trap profiteering prices. Apparently this is a very tight limit for this class of 'guest' (the article didn't specify what roll size is supplied), so TP is very highly valued and personal rolls are carefully protected. As a special privileged guest, Maxwell is allowed an unlimited free supply. = = = How many sheets of TP are in a roll? That varies enormously. Some institutional 1-ply rolls have 1000 sheets. At least one size of Charmin Ultra Strong Regular 2-ply has just 52 sheets, while another Charmin product (Forever Roll) as 1700 sheets. Across the market there are many many points in between. The Charmin case in our garage, from Costco, has 220-sheet rolls. With this great variability, it is very easy for makers to roll in some occaisional shrink-flation, as they do on so many other products.
This analysis omits brand loyalty... and thus comparing only what I was used to, vs. seeing it noticeably change worse. I've used Charmin since at least the '90s, when ETS'd from mil. Back then all tubes were same diameter, same length, same wall thickness... standardised. Likewise if you wanted to gauge what value was, you'd look at sheets per roll or square feet per roll, as this showed how much paper you were buying per tube. Again, standardised. Not berating anyone who had to shop store brands to save a few cents per roll; that's been the American family story immemorial, at least for us blue-collars whose parents don't buy their kid into top universities. But in my Hawai'i-raised Asian fam, we shopped big brands mostly. Maui didn't have big box supermarket chains in the '70s & '80s, so everything was mom-&-pops selling major brands: Kraft, Heinz, Best Foods, Oscar Meyer, Hormel, etc. (realise '80s were a long time ago... but I'd grad HS and left home for boot camp, before the close of that decade).
See the edit I made, about that Proadsy alternative. Not-insignificantly cheaper, and if it does shrink like the Canvcle (which may actually be due to its higher number of layers), you're out $5 less
People on tight budgets shouldn't keep brand loyalty on commodities. I seem to remember changes over a longer look-back period. The continental U.S. place where I grew up, still doesn't have big box supermarket chains. Unless one considers a family-owned IGA affiliates or similar as "big box". On the bright side, no McDonald's either. The nearest McDonald's is over 60 miles away in one direction, well over double that in the other directions.
Roll diameter may affect chiefly how often the rolls have to be replaced. This may affect the morale of the people charged with checking and replacing them. Roll width affects everybody's morale.
I was thinking in terms of price per sheet. Or per use. When chasing specials and sales, even in the same product line, buying the lowest price per roll doesn't necessary produce the lowest price per use. And the marketeers seemed to be taking advantage of this.
This was explained in the next paragraph -- we didn't have a choice growing up, so always bought name brands for lack of options... and by the time I were on my own and on the mainland, paying a premium for names wasn't a hardship until much later -- in this post-covid world. Didn't mind back then, as I got something in return. Not anymore. Good for you, fuzz... Does it have store-brand commodities? Then it isn't mom-&-pop --> local supes (like Foodland, Star, Times, or O'oka), which is all we had. Obvi mainland supes will have evolved a bit faster... but that's where my own preferences (justified up until the avalanche of covid) were set. And eff me, I do miss my too-short years having access to military commissaries, both overseas and CONUS -- talk about getting the absolute best bang for buck for a skint private trying to ramen / Mini-Ravioli their way thru every month's tiny paycheck Re: McD's: that outfit is a pox on the earth, societa non grata imo. Despite begrudging acceptance of it being sometimes the only consistent road food quality you could get driving cross-country (barely in '90s... who knows now)... they crossed a line raising their prices to those moronic levels 2y ago. Backtracking on it now, big surprise... but did anyone seriously think that was sustainable? There's no way I'd pay $8 for a Filet-O'-Fish before overhead markup (the only sandwich I can still stomach there... significantly more expensive than mainland). Iirc, $5 for the same thing in L.A. or Portland or Seattle -- with all the markups we already suffer, rather have a Jollibee's chicken sandie if I'm g o n n a slum it once a month ).
They have both major brands and "small-box"-brands and generics quite distinct from the major chains' in-house brands. And they were mom&pop, who we knew long before they became almost-neighbors. After they passed, the next generation eventually sold out to a fledgling 'chain' that now spans 30-ish miles, serving a handful of towns with a combined population under 7000 (plus rural outliers). For someone who also sees McD's as a pox, you sure know a huge amount about their modern menu and pricing. My partner won't set foot in one outside of a restroom or caffeine (tea, not coffee) emergency, or if the available mom&pop grocery store is already closed for the evening or holiday or sabbath and circumstances prevented earlier restocking of the cooler.
Google is your friend... speaking of poxes. McD's prices are a search away I've not eaten at the store since roadtripping living in WA 15y ago... but my mother still enjoys a FoF sandwich, and that can be had thru drive-thru. Mum still thinks one needs a phonebook to get by in 2025, so you'll forgive me if I make an effort to get her what she wants Re: store-brands. My replies have been explanations of why I used store brands as a kid fuzzy, not criticising your use of them, or reason for such. Speaking of OFFS
