Richard Thorne grins as he waves his hand under a toilet paper dispenser in a women’s restroom. The machine spits five sheets of tissue into his grasp.
A year in the works, the electronic tissue dispenser is being rolled out to the masses by Kimberly-Clark Professional as it seeks to capture more of the $1 billion away-from-home toilet paper market. The company believes most people will be satisfied with five sheets — and use 20 percent less toilet paper.
“Most people will take the amount given,” says Thorne. Waxing philosophical, he adds, “People generally in life will take what you give them.”
Americans typically use twice as much toilet paper as Europeans — as much as an arm’s length each pull, Thorne says. The company decided the best length is about 20 inches — or precisely five standard toilet paper squares, though the machine can also be adjusted to churn out 16 inches or 24 inches, depending on the demand.
As they say in the article, call it a final frontier — of cheapness.
“People generally in life will take what you give them.” – sounds like a description of American voters.
#1, you didn’t read the memo Democrats/Republicans have been circulating ? Voting for a third party candidate is a “wasted vote.”
This ‘invention’ is the ultimate in laziness.
Now people don’t want to even pull TP from the roll themselves.
What’s next, a self-wiping toilet?
Well of course we use more toilet paper.
I mean, all those dubble bbq bacon cheeseburgers have to go somewhere.
Visit the buffet at the Burrito Barn and five sheets will not be enough.
So a six-sheet user dissatisfied with five sheets will instead take ten. It will only take maybe 25% of users doing so for it to be a net loss.
Few years back when Russia first openned up, I was in Moscow and I went to a public restroom. They had ladies in them that sold you toilet paper for 5 cents a sheet or whatever it was. Somehow I got to my stall without meeting the lady and the stall naturally had no TP. I looked in my wallet and I had a few rubles. At the time I think a ruble was worth from 1-2 cents. It felt weird to use “money” but when money is cheaper than TP, and you have no TP, what are you gonna do?
So did I.
5 sheets? Reminds me of mre toilet paper.. never enough.. at least they don’t charge per sheet… yet…
In the future we can use U.S. currency for the same purpose. It is just a matter of time before we have to pay the financial piper for all of our profligate spending.
3 – Isn’t that called a bidet? Or, in Arkansas, a garden hose.
Americans typically use twice as much toilet paper as Europeans
That’s because Americans don’t like to get shit on the hand, Europeans don’t really care I guess. But then again Europeans are generally dirtier and less hygienic then Americans, so I guess it makes sense.
I though Mrs. Crow said we only needed 1, so why five. Ok I will stand back as I get flamed for the bad joke.
I used to sell jansan and this is not anything environmental this is just spin from some ad exec .
In the jansan industry the companies dont care about the environment they care about usage every time you wipe your butt at their business it costs them money , and they dont like paying for you to wipe. We sold control systems in the paper industry for 20 years this is nothing new just some ad spin on an old idea
That’s less than what you get in a pay toilet in Bolivia. There you get 6 sheets.
Is this 1 ply, 2 ply or three ply?
BFD. So I’ll wave my hand under the dispenser four times to get my full 20 sheets. Hah! Take THAT, Kimberly-Clark!
You could always wipe “Muslim style” and not use any.
Eideard, you gendercentric! You’re not considering the difference in usage between the sexes. Women use 3 to 5 times as much as men, a statistic I heard somewhere, but which jibes with my experiences on certain of jobs I’ve had where replenishing restroom supplies was one of my duties – that, plus living in a household with 5 sisters.
In light of that, I’m pretty sure the (deliberately) unspoken reason for this device is to passively discourage those females who pull off two arms-lengths at a time…
I think the biggest reason we use so much is because public restrooms use the cheapest, thinnest stuff they can find, so you have to pull more off to get the job done. I know I use half as much or less Quilted Charmin to get a sufficiently sized wad.
@gquaglia
yes and there is sex on the streets and u can join just by asking
So I’ll wave my hand under the dispenser four times to get my full 20 sheets. Hah! Take THAT, Kimberly-Clark!
Comment by OvenMaster
1: in the full story linked, there is an override
2: not in the story linked, but another I read, there’s a timer. So just sit down, get the first five and keep getting another five until you’re done.
J/P=?
Now we need an article on how to hack a toilet paper holder..
five sheets? obviously designed by a man. As said on the late great Third Rock the difference in the sexes is easily explained “they shake, we wipe”
Ya. Press the ‘reset’ and ‘feed’ buttons simultaneously and hold for 5s, and it’ll print Dubya’s latest speech…
Wow, judging by the stainless steel commercial construction… And what the market bears for that type of device… So people are gonna put in a $500 dollar device to reduce toilet paper construction by a little bit… So that over the life of the device it is a wash in cost savings.
But now you need to have an engineering degree to work as a janitor. So you are paying the guy $50 bucks an hour instead of $7. Sounds like it makes perfect business sense in future shock america…
My guess is the Japanese self wiping toilets offer better value.
Kimberly-Clark is in the paper business, right? Wouldn’t they want you to use more TP?
I wondered how long it would take before someone linked it to Bush. You have some real obsessed idiots around here.
I use 5 sheets just to blow my nose….
#27 – Wow… So a little joke on a blog where politics is often discussed makes one an idiot?
Isn’t there a forum on Newsmax for slack jaws like you?
#29,
You have to go easier on these guys. Their world is falling apart right now. They thought they were invulnerable to the comig impeachment, because Foxnews and Newmax told them so constantly for the last 7 years. They have a lot to digest right now, as the neo-con world view implodes.
Why right now, as i post this, congreess is mulling contempt of congress charges against Hariet Meijers and by proxy Bush. We are now just weeks out from the impeachment, and possibly (i hope I hope) a war crimes tribunal against Cheney and Bush.
The Rush Limbaugh conservative movement is on the virge of being totally crushed under the boot of democracy FOREVER.
So yeah, they are gonna lash out. And yeah, we are gonna have to pry some guns out of cold dead hands to drive the point home. So the Bush fanboys are going to be irritable in the meantime.