Monday, 23 September 2013

The Issue of Use

I sometimes go back and read newspapers from a year or two....sometimes even ten years ago.  There's always an interesting article or two that you come across.

The Telegraph (a British newspaper) picked up on some analysis by the European Tissue Symposium (the guys in the EU who study toilet paper usage).

They've come to this interesting conclusion.  Brits are the heavyweight user of toilet paper....of the world.

The typical average British guy is using thirty-nine pounds of toilet paper each year....which ends up being double the normal average of a European....and even twenty-five times that of a Ukrainian guy.

Americans?  Well, we average around thirty-five pounds of toilet paper a year.

Is there really a story here?  It's hard to say.  Brits might have a hearty diet and need more paper than the average guy.  These Ukrainian guys?  Maybe they sit long there a long time and only go every thirty-six hours to the toilet.

Why collect data like this?  That's the problem with modern society....we collect data on just about everything.  We know that folks throw pencils away after they've used up only a quarter of the length of the pencil.  We know that folks typically buy gum at the gas station after they see the gum display at the cashier stand.  We know that "XXL" usually sells better than items marked "XL".

So you know who uses toilet paper more, and who uses it less.  And?