Early in the pandemic, toilet paper shortages pushed weary Americans to the fringes.
Out of necessity, millions tried rolls made from recycled paper or bamboo. And what they found surprised them. These alternatives were actually soft, far from the sandpaper-ish versions they grudgingly used at their office or in a public restroom. That revelation is shaking up what had been a stable — even boring — category that racked up about $10 billion at U.S. retailers last year.
Purchase patterns for toilet paper have historically been simple and lucrative: Shoppers found a brand, like Charmin, and bought it like clockwork every few weeks for years, even decades. But all those empty shelves made shoppers reconsider a product they had rarely given a second thought. That opened them up to emerging brands — some backed by venture capital — making claims about softness similar to those that had dominated the category for half a century, while adding a benefit for this era: saving the planet.
