When a Michigan reader put a new roll of Northern toilet paper on the roller, she said, "I couldn't figure out why there was so much room at either end." Northern has gone south, shrinking each sheet from 4.5x4 inches to 4x4 and the number of sheets per roll from 300 to 286. A customer-service rep at Georgia Pacific blamed "the cost factor in today's economy" and said the shrinkage prevented a price hike.

For more goofs, glitches, gotchas and howlers from Selling It, Consumer Reports'   long-running feature dissecting promotions, ads, packaging and marketing, click here. And to see how Consumer Reports judges toilet paper, check out this video from our Home and Garden department.