Consumer Speak
Vicki Goodburn lives in Auckland, New Zealand, with her partner Andrew, three-year old son Louis and five month old daughter Eva. Originally from the UK, she has lived in New Zealand for the past few years. The couple run their own business, Eastside Electrical Limited.
The tissue products I use are kitchen rolls, box tissues, baby wipes and toilet paper.
Kitchen Rolls
We go through a lot of kitchen rolls due to having a three year old and a baby: there are many spillages to clean up. As we use so much, I tend to buy budget kitchen rolls from the local supermarket. I buy the supermarket’s own brand. As well as spillages they are also good for wiping hands and we also use them when our friends come round for a BBQ. Living in New Zealand, I don’t think our friends would know the difference between a good quality kitchen napkin, that’s not important to them, so cheap is good on this score! I can buy these in bulk and always have a good stock of them in the kitchen cupboard. I find they are cheap if buying budget and about the same as buying in NZ compared to UK.
Boxed Tissue
As I have a three year old who seems to pick up a runny nose wherever he goes, I’ve learnt that it’s wise to have a good quality box of tissue on hand.
I also buy this in the local supermarket but go for a better quality brand with aloe vera in to stop sore noses and the trail of mucus up my son’s sleeve (although you can’t always stop this! ) I only buy one or two boxes at a time for this, with as many tissues in it as possible. I’ve also learnt to keep it out of a child’s reach as they tend to help themselves and before you know it a new box has disappeared in seconds!
Baby Wipes
With baby wipes, I now buy a supermarket’s own brand. With my first child I did start out buying the branded wipes but these are so expensive (especially in NZ) and I have tried many different brands.
” Once I changed to the supermarket’s own brand for my son, I have continued to use these for my baby with no ill effects. They are fragrance free and definitely do the job.”
I also use them as make up wipes if I’m away from home and haven’t brought my own, and I find that they are fine. I buy these in packs of two with 80 wipes in each and I always have a stock of these in the bathroom cabinet. I also find they are very useful for wiping after toilet training rather than toilet paper. I think these wipes are very economic and I always have a pack in my bag for whatever reason.
Toilet paper
I always buy a good quality toilet paper – there is no point going for the cheap option here as the paper is thin and you end up using more anyway. The only problem is that our three year old uses a lot more of it or flushes it down the toilet – he’s getting the idea now! I buy this at the local supermarket and it may be a fraction more in NZ then in the UK. I buy in bulk.
Having a family of four and starting up a new business means that we have had to be more economical and tighten the purse strings, but some things you just can’t skimp.
Patricia Pena Jara owns a seven-room hostel in Valparaiso, Chile. A fluent English speaker, she runs the busy hostel with a little support from her neighbour. On her time off, she likes to explore new horizons and travel as often as possible. Patricia’s hostel is located on one of the numerous and picturesque hills of Valparaiso, a major Pacific port city 130km West of the country’s capital Santiago. The widow and muse of a renowned professional artist, she has turned the three floor hostel into a place with old Valparaiso memorabilia.
Following the devastating affects of the 8.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Chile in February last year, Patricia says that despite minor damage, everything is getting back to normal.
The quake affected large parts of the country, and the pulp and paper sector was not exempt. Chile produces some 8-9% of the world’s pulp supply, and the impact of the earthquake on the sector resulted in a severe pulp supply shortage around the world.
My hostel is a budget type place and I usually stock my bathrooms with toilet rolls that I can get on sale in supermarkets. Obviously these are brands supplied from local manufacturers that also provide discount toilet paper with the supermarket name on it. The most popular supermarkets in Valparaiso, Santa Isabel and Unimark, have plenty of low cost but reasonable quality own brands that also satisfy me economically.
I buy kitchen rolls of the same kind for myself because I am always very busy and disposable kitchen towels are very handy to have as a staple in my household.
I do keep pocket tissues in the hostel, but only for myself. I’ve probably picked up this habit from my travels. When I travel I like to have a good quality European tissue with me, strong, but not scented or medicated. The nearest equivalent product I can find here is our Chilean brand Elite. Most of our supermarkets have a good choice of tissue products.
