False Economics

Whoever is responsible for maintenance in my office building has recently decided to change the brand of toilet paper they buy. I guess it's because the new one is cheaper than the old one so they think that it'll save 10, 15, 20% on the loo roll budget.

Wrong.

There's a good reason why the new stuff is cheaper than the old stuff. It's not as good. It's so much thinner than the old paper was that you end up using twice as much as you did before, thus creating a false economy.

It's a problem that I've seen time and again in various offices and companies. Someone thinks that cheaper is automatically better for the balance books and makes a decision that ends up costing the company more. The same applies at home, too. Why buy cheap batteries if you have to replace them so often they end up costing more than the expensive ones?

As I'm sure BW will tell you, if you want good value, you have to look at quality as well as price.