Many readers have reported the Grocery Shrink Ray strike on Northern toilet paper, but today Jack and Richard sent us photographic evidence, and even calculations of exactly how much paper consumers are losing out on.

At left is a side-by-side roll comparison sent in by Richard. The width of each roll has been decreased from 4.5 inches to 4 inches.

Jack notes:

Both say “24 Double Rolls = 48 Regular Rolls” but the previously purchased rolls have 300 sheets each that are 4.5 inches by 4 inches. The new packages have rolls that contain only 286 4 inch by 4 inch rolls. The older rolls had 900 square feet, while the new ones only 762.6 square feet.

So let’s see – on each roll I get 137.4 fewer square feet, 14 fewer sheets, and each sheet is half an inch narrower(!), yet the price is approximately the same (about $10 a package on sale, if you have a coupon). Good job, Northern, you’ve just convinced me to start buying the store brand, or at least some other brand that doesn’t try to short me on the size of the rolls.

Apparently, the difference is fairly obvious once the new roll is placed on a spool, so we’re not sure who Georgia-Pacific, maker of Northern, thinks they’re kidding.

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