"Select a size" when it's just standard paper towel roll. Literally the same way it's always been.

NataliePortland@lemmy.ca to Mildly Infuriating@lemmy.world – 51 points –

Wow! New feature! Now you can CHOOSE how many paper towels you grab from the roll!

51

Tell me you're young without telling me you're young.

Paper towels, for most of my life (I'm old AF), were as long as they were wide. Square, they were. Bounty originated select-a-size by perforating them twice as frequently, so they were half as long as wide. Others eventually followed suit and now youngsters think that's how it's always been.

To be fair to OP, they really should've stopped advertising this as a feature years ago. It'd be like if sliced bread was still advertised as "Now sliced for your convenience!" or whatever.

They still sell the square cut rolls though. This lets the buyer know it is the narrower cut.

How else am I to tell the difference between a full size and select a size? I buy full size for the garage and select a size for the house they serve two purposes so eliminating the standard size wouldn't be the solution.

Buy shop cloths my friend.

It's not a fabric product, still paper towels, just they're made for automotive/shop use. I swear by them and they have no "select-a-size" option. They're also thicker and come apart less than normal paper towels.

You're talking about the blue stuff on a roll, right?

I have some and they are select-a-size.

And Bounty always claimed to be the most absorbent brand of paper towel, so the move was like saying "you only need half as much of our paper towel compared to other brands."

Not sure how actually absorbent they were; my family always got Brawny.

Burly Paper Towels are the best and the mascot is dreamy.

Iโ€™d let him split my wood if you know what I mean.

I saw a documentary about Burly Paper Towels once. One of their most loyal customers got to meet the mascot Chad Sexington. Turns out he was a loser and I heard he's a boozer.

Yeah I remember when they started advertising them like that. Back when the towels were about twice as long between perforations.

Yup. I remember when we had to tear our own half sheets of paper towel. Kids today have it too soft, and absorbant.

Oh to be young again. This is fairly new. The old standard size was 2 of these together, a square.

And I've seen plenty of the older square sizes still being sold, so it's still necessary to mark the different sizes

I'm always shocked when I get the old style as who the hell needs that much paper most of the time?

I do. With the select a size version, I almost always pull at least two.

Theyโ€™re perforated to half the size that paper towels typically used to be. Itโ€™s common now but wasnโ€™t in the past.

I want them perforated about every 12.7mm so I can truly select what I need.

I've noticed that the sheets that are "select a size" seem to be using this to list a lower per sheet cost.

So if you're trying to compare prices in the supermarket it comes in at half the per unit pricing of normal sized paper towels while being the same size roll or smaller and costing the same or more.

It just feels like they're trying to cheat the system a little rather than trying to create a new product or be more useful.

For reference, this is Brawny paper towels where the sheets are perforated the other direction, allowing you to actually tear a half sheet. This is what โ€œselect a sizeโ€ should mean.

Oh sweet summer child, paper towels used to only come in large square sheets.

These smaller โ€œselect a sizeโ€ didnโ€™t become common until around the year 2000.

Only 3 options? Does Brawny think it's illegal to grab 3/4 of a sheet?

This picture clearly demonstrates that the original picture is, in fact, select-a-size since they are 1/2 size instead of full size.

That's not select-a-size. That's just tiny ass paper towels. Select-a-size towels have no perforations and you cut them with scissors.

i saw an ad for toilet paper in a 100 year old magazine, bragging: now with less splinters!

This stuff happens when a market is actually healthily competitive. Marketing just makes up random bullshit because consumers are stupid.