NEW PRODUCTS Wet toilet paper barely registers at the cash register

Consumers are rejecting moist toilet-paper rolls.
DALLAS (AP) -- When it comes to toilet paper, it seems consumers prefer dry over wet.
That's what corporate giants Kimberly-Clark Corp. and Procter & amp; Gamble Co. learned two years after launching moist toilet paper roll products.
Both companies had big expectations for the wet roll products, and they had plenty of research that showed consumers yearned for damp toilet paper.
But consumers have put the lid on the idea.
Cincinnati-based P & amp;G decided a few weeks ago to stop selling its product.
Kimberly-Clark, based in Irving, says it will continue its product, Cottonelle Fresh Rollwipes, but declined to say if will expand its distribution. Currently, the product is sold in half of the country, including Texas.
Dave Dickson, a spokesman for Kimberly-Clark, said sales are "insignificant."
The two rival companies introduced contraptions that dispensed wet tissue on a roll in July 2001.
Kimberly-Clark, whose stable of brands includes Huggies diapers and Kleenex tissues, announced in January 2001 that Rollwipes were on the way.
Sales forecasts
The company forecast Rollwipes sales of $150 million in the first 12 months. It also proclaimed that it had created a category that would reach $500 million annually within six years, including Rollwipes' competitors.
Four months later, P & amp;G, which already battles Kimberly-Clark with Pampers and Puffs, announced a similar but cheaper product, Charmin Fresh Mates Rolls.
P & amp;G cited surveys saying that almost two-thirds of adults had used wet toilet paper, baby wipes and other means to keep tidy.
The product flunked in its only test market, the South. Its demise, in August, was not announced.
Analysts say cost or a certain embarrassment factor may have unraveled the wet roll concept.
Kimberly-Clark's Rollwipes starter kit was originally priced at $8.99 for the dispenser, a bulky beige gadget that attached to the toilet paper spindle along with four refills.
The product was introduced as the U.S. economy hit the skids, which didn't help sales.
The kit now costs $4.99, with two refills.
P & amp;G introduced its Charmin Fresh Mates Rolls starter kit with a retail price of $2.49 to $2.99, including one roll.
A bigger problem
P & amp;G soon discovered that embarrassment was a bigger problem than price, P & amp;G spokeswoman Celeste Kuta said.
Kuta said that while consumers have become more fastidious in the bathroom, they don't like others knowing about it.
That extra roll hanging off the spindle might cause guests to think that "there must be something wrong with me if I have to use these," she said.
P & amp;G said it will now focus on folded moist wipes in tubs, which can be discreetly placed in a bathroom or quickly hidden in a cabinet if guests appear.
The financial fallout from the wet-roll war is large, but not unprecedented for firms as large as P & amp;G and Kimberly-Clark.
P & amp;G never disclosed a ballpark cost for its entry, but Kimberly-Clark boasted spending more than $100 million for manufacturing equipment, research and development.
Rollwipes have been a money-loser. "I can't speculate on when we'll reach a break-even level," Dickson said.