What’s up with toilet paper?

[jesse_the_k]

My #1 podcast, 99% Invisible, unrolls the mystery

https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/wipe-out/

audio & transcript.

tl;dr Folks who supply workplaces don't know how to get their product to the consumer market. Folks who wipe at work now need to wipe at home.

Plus: why wipe at all? the benefits of water? the SF sewer district manager opines about "flushable" wipes. (It's a lie -- they're as persistent as nuclear waste.)

Comments

[magnetic_pole]

Yay, 99%! I love them.

There was an article in the NYT yesterday about how commercial food suppliers, similarly, couldn't get food to retail. And yet someone figured how how to get Covid chocolate Easter bunnies (complete with little face masks) to the market in record time...

The better half has been researching non-tp options like mad. Turns our almost everyone we know who's lived anywhere else has some good ideas. M.

[jesse_the_k]

And yet someone figured how how to get Covid chocolate Easter bunnies (complete with little face masks) to the market in record time

Oh, of course they did. I want to live in a different timeline.

[yourlibrarian]

There was a segment on On the Media that explained the supply chain issues as well as other products that have been similarly affected because of the consumer/commercial split. They also examined how past media stories had caused the very problem they discussed.

Earlier today I heard about how there's a surplus of chicken wings because of restaurant closures and no sports tournaments.

[jesse_the_k]

Surplus chicken wings! That's a great factoid — and they're always surplus to me, except for soup. I don't get the appeal.