Misleading unit prices on Tesco’s website

Perhaps Tesco’s pricing irregularities are a distraction from something more sinister — they have sneaked a smaller diameter cardboard tube into their Luxury Soft own-brand toilet rolls! I made the mistake of buying a multi-pack of 9 only to find they would not fit my holder. I wonder if they tested them on their own-brand holder which they sell on Tesco Direct.

Sainsburys reduced their tube width two years ago but kindly marked the packaging to warn users.

If anyone from Andrex or Cushelle is reading this, please don’t ever change!

Usually, just considering diameter, the bigger the tube the fewer the sheets. However, for the ‘luxury’ or quilted tissues, a smaller diameter tube is required to carry a worthwhile number of individual sheets without making the whole roll too bulky to fit the holder or to fit between the holding bar and the wall. Toilet tissue width is a different issue and budget loo rolls – especially those sold in pound shops and other secondary retailers – often economise by having a narrower roll [as well as a bigger tube in most cases] so the cost-saving is deceptive. Personally, I regard Andrex as the brand standard and I judge all rivals against it in terms of sheet size, thickness and strength, tube and roll diameter, number of sheets per roll, absorbency performance, sheet perforation performance, and price. After a lifetime’s exhausting research and numerous unsatisfactory outcomes, I have yet to find a better product.

John, I have to take (t)issue with you regarding the reasons for smaller tube sizes. Tesco states in its website description that it reduces the cost of transporting the product and proffers no advantages for the user. Indeed. the thickness of the Tesco roll has shrunk in proportion to the new tube size so its ‘Luxury’ does not infer any extra cushioning or bulk.

However, I fully agree with you that Andrex sets the standard for quality and quantity, the Classic White proving to be much softer, more opaque and no thinner than Tesco’s Luxury Soft when comparing sheets laid side by side. It also meets all the requirements for width-to-wall space and fitting any holder as do other standard tube rolls, cushioned or otherwise.

To convince myself, I have just compared a roll of Andrex Classic White to the Tesco Luxury Soft and found that the latter has only 220 sheets (27.28m roll length) compared with Andrex’s 241 sheets (29.88m length). Admittedly, the Andrex is 6mm narrower but the total area of paper is still larger than that of its rival.

As ever, it’s down to price and practicality: if one prefers a cheaper, own-brand, toilet tissue then they should stick with it — and probably will.

Take a look at Aldi’s Saxon brand. Triple layers, Aloe Vera, £3.49 for 9 rolls, although it is 180 sheets per roll. It works out at 0.215p per sheet.

It feels better than any other toilet paper and is about the same price as most of the rest.

You have obviously have a degree in Business Studies, Stephen. Taking the same course, I took a look at the MySupermarket price comparison site and found that Waitrose have a special 2 for £7 offer on Andrex Classic White 9 roll packs. This equates to £3.50 /9 rolls/241 sheets = 0.16p per sheet.
Do you know if Aldi have followed Tesco and Sainsburys by reducing the tube diameter on their own-brand products? For me and many others, any savings made by buying cheaper paper would have to go towards buying a new holder, as I moaned about in my previous post.

Andrex toilet rolls were made narrower some time ago. At one time the roll would just fit into a wooden holder. Now it is comparatively easy to get a finger in beside the roll to push the spring fitting into the holder. I’d say they are around a centimetre narrower.

You don’t need to bother doing new tests, Matt — just copy and paste the above comments!

After discovering that the number of sheets on kitchen rolls is now less than it used to be – from 100 per roll down to 70 I now see that some shops are offering them with 50 sheets only. A sneaky way of raising prices ! I haven’t checked loo rolls but what’s the betting that they too are smaller in number of sheets?

I have an easy fix for them that requires no work on their part, stop shirking products! Or is that too simple?

The law you’re getting into here, is in my experience an ass.

I took similar offence with an Apple and Blueberry porridge due to the very small quantities of both and felt that the name was misleading and that it should be porridge with apple and blueberry.

Here is part of the reply I got from TS …

Under food labelling law, historically, flavour identifiers in the name of a food (or other description) refer to “characterising flavours, so yes you could use “apple and blueberry” in the manner you describe, in particular if the fruit content is from an extract. This is particularly the case in soft drinks. (but the flavours would still need to be the main characteristic!)

If it were a pie and there was more to the “characterisation” than the flavour or aroma then I would expect to find propper apples and blueberry!

Lastly the letters ed make a surprising difference – an “apple and blueberry flavour drink” need have NO apple or blueberry in at all, but only the characterising flavours, but an “apple and blueberry flavoured drink” MUST contain flavours from the real thing

lastly lastly (yes I KNOW) if there are equal amounts of apple and blueberry, then the blueberry flavour will dominate and it should be “blueberry and apple”

They even agreed that if only one molecule was enough to give the flavour they’d be quite within their rights to use that 🙁

So as I said , the law is an ass.

I was going to say they’re known for that tactic and they will have been an upto somewhere around the 30%. I remember during the Woolworths closing down sales huge 70% off signs with a very small upto, I only managed to spot greetings cards with a 70% discount everything else was no more than 30% most between 10% & 20%

And yes they were on Watchdog a few weeks ago. But I guess as they’re not doing anything illegal there’s very little that can be done, other than boycott then. Sadly they’re are no good laws about being underhand. They’re probably not even breaching the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Practices 2008, although they probably are breaking the spirit of it. 🙁

This is a practice that Tesco use a lot to con their customers,they frequently double the price then put it on “offer” at the usual price.better off shopping elsewhere.

I like that you tried, but the simple truth is Tesco just don’t care. I’ve picked them up on what I would consider to be dodgy practices several times and each time I just get corporate male cow droppings back.

Sometimes I wonder if the people that enter the data are just bored and having a laugh at the customers expense the number and type of inconsistencies and mistakes you can find.

Maybe their CEO should be asked to do his own convo to explain their contempt for the customer.