Monitoring the quality of our T-rolls - Which regulator to our rescue?
They come in different shades of white. Sometimes you chance on multi-coloured imported ones and some that are pleasantly perfumed. I am talking about toilet rolls.
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These days toilet tissues are everywhere. In fact, they are abundant. Almost every corner shop has stacks of them, and different brands. Street hawkers carry them in abundance, just as a reminder to motorists, in case one forgot to pick up some from the shop. They come in family size packs for the entire household.
In the course of last week, I decided to take on the topic of toilet tissues, having regretfully observed over time how the quality of that essential commodity keeps eluding us. I visited three supermarkets and about half a dozen container or corner shops just to see the different brands of the commodity and how they are being patronised by consumers.
The varieties of brands are encouraging but what is discouraging is the scanty information on the transparent plastic wrappers. In some cases, no consumer information existed on the packaging material except disputable claims. I see them as clear case of non-disclosure on quality for the benefit of the user.
Are manufacturers taking undue advantage of the increasing demand for the commodity to short-change the consumer? With the assorted brands of toilet rolls that I came across in the shops during my visits, the scanty information provided by some of the toilet roll manufacturers lay claim to extra softness, while others claim they are soft and strong. Really? The sweetness of the pudding lies in eating it indeed.
While some manufacturers of the imported toilet tissues go to the length of stating the net weight of their product and also state whether they are 2-ply or 3-ply, our local manufacturers give no such information of the sort. The question that comes to mind then is, “are consumers supposed to have all that kind of information to guide them in their selection at the point of purchase?” Is it a right and if it is, who sees to its enforcement?
The reality is that due to the high patronage of the commodity, it has really become a seller’s market and so the manufacturers and distributors are having a field day. I have come to the realisation that toilet roll is one product that is not often advertised in the media. Perhaps, the manufacturers are able to push their products, competition or no competition. At one of the shops that I visited, the shop attendant confirmed that toilet rolls were among the products that sold very fast. I was not very surprised, looking at how many packs a household of just six people use in a month.
As a consumer, I have observed quality issues with almost all of the locally manufactured toilet rolls in town. Ordinarily, the alternative in cases of consumer dissatisfaction, is to try another brand and so I did. I have switched loyalty from the regular brand of toilet roll which I have patronised for years. At a point I thought the quality in terms of the thickness of the sheets, the size of each roll and the strength of each sheet was dropping.
I did not think I was getting value for my money. I decided to try one of the many brands on the market. I did not get much satisfaction there either. The sheets were shorter and lighter and tore apart in being used, meaning that they were not that strong. In a matter of three months, I had tried about four other locally manufactured brands with no real joy. I found the quality imported toilet rolls on our market too expensive. I decided, therefore, to go back to my very first brand, thinking to myself that after all, “the devil you know is better than the angel you do not know.” That is the choice I had to settle on.
In view of the fact that a substantial amount of the household budget goes into the purchase of toilet rolls, one should definitely be concerned with the quality of rolls that manufacturers are giving us. Sometimes I think that the Ghanaian consumer is the most cheated in everyday life. Talk about electricity supply, water, mobile phone services, Internet connectivity and the list goes on ad infinitum. So how do we get the best out of our toilet rolls? Do we have a regulatory body in charge of the supervision of toilet roll production in this country?
We certainly have quality issues with the kind of toilet rolls we are producing locally and even with some of the imported ones allowed to come into the country. Not too long ago, in those days of scarcity in this country, toilet roll was a rare commodity for which people had to queue to buy. How we survived through those days is also another story waiting to be told. Now that we have them in excess supply, we should not just accept anything, unmindful of the quality and compare the situation to those abnormal days.
As consumers with rights, we should be careful and not allow sub-standard products to be pushed down our throats. Certainly, somebody in the public sector has the responsibility of policing the import sector to ensure compliance with rules to promote consumer comfort and satisfaction. So, who is checking the quality of our toilet rolls?
Who comes to the rescue of the consumer because on our blind side, we are being sold low-quality toilet rolls? The time to rise up and do some quality checks on toilet rolls is really overdue and we plead in earnest for someone to come to the aid of the consumer.
Written by Vicky Wireko Andoh
Email: [email protected]
