Toilet paper is back on store shelves. But you may not recognize some of the brands. Demand for toilet paper has been so high during the pandemic that in order to keep their shelves stocked, retailers are buying up foreign toilet paper brands, mostly from Mexico. Major chains across the country, including CVS, Piggly Wiggly, Safeway, 7-Eleven, and others, are carrying the international brands, the AP reports. In recent weeks, a CVS in New York has been selling three Mexican brands: Regio, Hoteles Elite, and Daisy Soft. Mexico's Petalo was on the shelves of a Piggly Wiggly in Sister Bay, Wisconsin. And a Safeway supermarket in Fremont, California, had those same brands, plus Vogue, whose label says in Spanish that it smells like chamomile.
Stores said they needed to get creative and started working with new suppliers. But don't worry about popular US brands like Charmin—they won't disappear. Supply chain experts expect foreign-made rolls to be on shelves only until US manufacturers catch up with demand; Americans use much more toilet paper than other countries, said a professor at Syracuse University. A shopper in Londonderry, Vermont, was stopped by what he saw in the aisles. Instead of Charmin and Cottonelle, there was Vogue and Delsey from Mexico, as well as Cashmere from Canada, and King Blue from Trinidad and Tobago. "I didn't know any of these," he said. An online customer had Cottonelle replaced in her order by Vogue. Her review: The flowery scent was "kind of fun," but "Vogue is so thin, it kind of falls apart."
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