Walgreens and CVS Clean Up in Paper Towel Tests

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November 10, 2009

It seems consumers no longer have to pay more for strong and absorbent paper towels, with several Walgreen’s and CVS retail brands leading the way, according to the latest issue of Consumer Reports

Although Bounty Extra Soft ($4.15 per 100 sq. ft.) topped the ratings, store brands from Walgreens ($2.50 per 100 sq. ft) and CVS ($2.90 per 100 sq. ft.) cost roughly one-third less than Bounty, and scored very good in Consumer Reports' tests of 21 paper towel products. Very good and even less expensive than the drug store offerings are Costco’s Kirkland Signature ($1.48 per 100 sq. ft.) and Target’s Up & Up ($1.77 per 100 sq. ft.), according to the report in the December issue on newsstands now.

Paper towels come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some are embossed on one or both sides, perforated to create half-sheets, or "green"-- made of 100 percent recycled paper with some post-consumer content. Most are two-ply. There are also differences in number of sheets, sizes of sheets, and numbers of rolls per package so it's difficult to compare costs. Consumer Reports leveled the playing field by calculating cost per 100 square feet.

To measure absorbency, Consumer Reports saturated a sheet of each paper towel in water and determined the weight of the water it held per square foot. Testers measured scrubbing strength by wrapping a wet sheet around a sponge. Then testers had a machine move the covered sponge back and forth over ceramic tiles and counted the number of scrubs before the sheet tore. For wet strength, technicians measured how much lead a wet sheet could hold before it tore apart.

After rigorous tests, Brawny proved the most absorbent of all. One square foot held more than 2.5 fluid ounces of water on average, compared with about one-half fluid ounce for the least absorbent products. The toughest sheets survived more than 175 scrubs over tiles on average, compared with 15 scrubs for the worst.

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