A customer has hit out at Waitrose after noticing the brand’s toilet rolls have reduced in size since six months ago.
Taking to TikTok, novelist Alex Rushton from Walton-on-Thames shared images of the supermarket’s nine-pack of ‘ultra soft bathroom tissue’ from six months ago next to one bought recently.
‘The rolls on the left I purchased six months ago, the ones on the right yesterday,’ Alex wrote on TikTok.
In August, the supermarket reduced the price of the product from £5 to £4, branding it as a move to help provide better value for money for customers, the Grocer reported. However, instead of making the product cheaper, the cost cut appears to have reduced the size of the product.
Despite still containing nine rolls, the package bought recently, which currently retails at £4, was notably smaller.
Outraged customers took to the comment section to share their thoughts, with some alleging that the quality of the rolls is also different.
One said: ‘Omg yes, my mum use to buy them all the time and has recently stopped. The quality is also different!’
‘I got a refund and won’t buy them again as paper quality is also inferior,’ a second added
TikTok user Alex Rushton from Walton-on-Thames took to TikTok to complain about the changing size of Waitrose’s toilet roll
A third wrote : ‘I complained and got a gift voucher!’ A fourth said: ‘Omg omg I noticed that too, I was like before it [would] last me couple of months and now [it’s] just a few weeks. Thanks for the video that explains.’
MailOnline has contacted Waitrose for comment.
In October, a new report laid bare the true extent of ‘shrinkflation’ in the US, and just how much Americans are being shortchanged.
Of almost 100 everyday products analyzed by LendingTree, it found a third had shrunk in the last five years.
‘People are already frustrated that things cost more,’ said Matt Schulz, LendingTree chief credit analyst.
‘Shrinkflation just adds insult to injury. It all adds up to a lot of Americans feeling squeezed every month to afford the basic things they can’t do without.’
Household paper products, which includes toilet paper and paper towels, saw the biggest change in size over the time period.
Some 60 percent of household paper products have reduced their sheet count, the study found.
In a side by side comparison, the packet from six months ago (pictured left) is noticeably bigger compared to the recent purchase (pictured right)
‘The rolls on the left I purchased 6 months ago, the ones on the right yesterday,’ Alex wrote on TikTok
12 mega rolls of Angel Soft toilet paper decreased from 429 to 320 sheets a roll, which is the equivalent of a 25.4 percent reduction in size – the most of any product.
While the cost of 12 Angel Soft mega rolls has dipped from $9.97 to $8.44, its price per 100 count increased from 19 cents to 22 cents, meaning consumers are paying 13.5 percent more per 100 sheets.
Another Angel Soft product, 18 mega rolls, was next with the biggest change in size – shrinking by 24.7 percent.
Beyond Angel Soft, Bounty Select-A-Size triple roll paper towels saw the next biggest decrease in size, shrinking 18.2 percent from 165 sheets a roll to 135.
It has also jumped in price from $19.88 to $22.18 over the time period.
After household paper products, breakfast items were the most likely to shrink, LendingTree found.
Family-size Frosted Flakes shrank the most of the cereals analyzed. It decreased by 9.6 percent – falling from 24 ounces to 21.7 ounces.
Next, family-size Raisin Bran dropped 7.9 percent from 24 ounces to 22.1. It also saw the biggest increase in price per ounce – rising from 15 cents to 23 cents.
Viewers took to the comment section to share their thoughts on the TikTok – and many were disappointed
LendingTree researchers compared Walmart prices and product sizes from 2019 and 2020 to August and September 2024 to find out which items had changed the most.
The majority of Americans have noticed or experienced shrinkflation, the report found.
Some 71 percent have noticed at least one incident in the last year, while 57 percent have experienced multiple incidents.
Schulz, from LendingTree, said businesses prefer shrinking products over raising prices, as they know that customers do not like it when this happens.
‘Shrinkflation is a sneaky little way around that,’ he said.
‘Rather than bumping up the price of something, businesses make the product smaller while keeping the price the same.
‘If done smartly, customers may not even notice. However, the problem is that when they do, it leaves the customer with a bad taste in their mouth because it feels so deceptive.’
