What Everyone’s Getting Wrong About the Toilet Paper Shortage

[Thesauron]

It isn’t really about hoarding. And there isn’t an easy fix.

 

https://marker.medium.com/what-everyones-getting-wrong-about-the-toilet-paper-shortage-c812e1358fe0

[Shawnster]

Nope.  Sorry.  I stopped reading halfway through.  Maybe I should have continued.  I stopped when it said the reason is because people are home more.  The facts show the toilet paper shortage began before shelter in place or stay at home orders were issued.  We have it documented here on this DB.

 

It was hoarding.  

[pnutts]

New short supply. Jigsaw Puzzles. 😎

[Thesauron]

Nope.  Sorry.  I stopped reading halfway through.  Maybe I should have continued.  I stopped when it said the reason is because people are home more.  The facts show the toilet paper shortage began before shelter in place or stay at home orders were issued.  We have it documented here on this DB.
 
It was hoarding.  

Ah, but that’s the thing. That’s what people are getting wrong according to this article. People are not connecting the dots properly. The shortage began when people realised that other people were buying more because they were at home more. So the hoarding, even though it exists, was not the initial problem. The problem is logistics. Here the problem began when companies started to ask people to work from home because of governmental requests.

[Qapla]

That may be what happened there - but, here in Fl (and much of the US) the TP shortage started before any request for "shelter in place" and "work from home" started.

 

As soon as the first cases of COVID-19 were reported, people began buying TP, bottled water, hand sanitizer and a few other things - depleting the shelves in the stores. As the shelves started emptying in the big box stores, the panic buying kicked in and those items were bought out in most stores large and small. Then, as the panic buying of TP and sanitizer continued, it extended to other products. 

 

The shelves were empty of many common items before any mention or request to "stay home" was made. After the stay home orders started to occur, most other products were panic bought and store shelves became bare of nearly everything.

 

One article I read explained how panic buying caused panic buying which then caused more panic buying that led to more panic buying ... 

 

I'm sure there are many articles with all sorts of "theories" as to why the stores ran out of TP and each one says their "theory" is "the answer" ... 

 

Whatever the theory ... the fact remains that TP is in short supply and large demand for no apparent "reason"

Edited April 3, 2020 by Qapla

[Thesauron]

That may be what happened there - but, here in Fl (and much of the US) the TP shortage started before any request for "shelter in place" and "work from home" started.
 
As soon as the first cases of COVID-19 were reported, people began buying TP, bottled water, hand sanitizer and a few other things - depleting the shelves in the stores. As the shelves started emptying in the big box stores, the panic buying kicked in and those items were bought out in most stores large and small. Then, as the panic buying of TP and sanitizer continued, it extended to other products. 
 
The shelves were empty of many common items before any mention or request to "stay home" was made. After the stay home orders started to occur, most other products were panic bought and store shelves became bare of nearly everything.
 
One article I read explained how panic buying caused panic buying which then caused more panic buying that led to more panic buying ... 
 
I'm sure there are many articles with all sorts of "theories" as to why the stores ran out of TP and each one says their "theory" is "the answer" ... 
 
Whatever the theory ... the fact remains that TP is in short supply and large demand for no apparent "reason"

That happened too. It happened here as well. But here’s the odd thing: Not a lot of people said that they bought more toilet paper than they needed or usually does. Did you? Yet it disappeared. Without having any apparent correlation to the virus.

But I am sure that when some people saw things unfold, they began to hoard, and it meant meant more people did the same. Business owners began to ask people to buy with consideration or call for limitations.

The first case in Sweden was reported January 31. Toilet paper started disappearing 2nd week in March. Shelter in place or lockdown has not been introduced yet.

[Qapla]

It defies all logic ... 

 

Just another reason we know we are in the last days - we were told the signs ... 

Quote

2 Tim 3:1-5

But know this, that in the last days critical times hard to deal with will be here. 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, haughty, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, disloyal, 3 having no natural affection, not open to any agreement, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, without love of goodness, 4 betrayers, headstrong, puffed up with pride, lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God, 5 having an appearance of godliness but proving false to its power; and from these turn away

 

[Shawnster]

18 hours ago, Thesauron said:

The first case in Sweden was reported January 31. Toilet paper started disappearing 2nd week in March. Shelter in place or lockdown has not been introduced yet.

Doesn't this support the idea that the toilet paper shortage was panic buying?

 

Here's the timeline https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-pandemic-timeline-history-major-events-2020-3

 

It didn't hit Sweden until 2nd week of March, but TP shortage was noted in Germany in February.  https://jwtalk.net/topic/43737-the-mysterious-coronavirus-spreading-worldwide/?do=findComment&comment=710693  Feb. 29.  20 days after first death in China.  8 days after the first outbreak in Italy.  

 

March 2 Australia was seeing sortages https://jwtalk.net/topic/43737-the-mysterious-coronavirus-spreading-worldwide/page/37/?tab=comments#comment-710996

 

All these dates, based on the timeline, were at the beginning of the crisis.  Most schools around the world were still open and quarantines were not in place in most countries.  This panic buying was not because more people were using toilet paper.  It's clear the panic swept the globe because other people saw toilet paper was disappearing in other countries.  Panic breeds panic.  The TP panic buying bred TP panic buying.

[pnutts]

21 hours ago, Thesauron said:

panic buying caused panic buying which then caused more panic buying

Now it is outright theft including by governments.  protective articles are being stolen while being transferred from one plane to another. Happened to France and Germany.

 

The US is not innocent in this either, and probably most countries are causing bidding wars and using underhanded tactics

[Tortuga]

If the world governments put a strong laxative in the water supply, it would force everyone to stay home and use up the TP they have been hoarding..🤣

[hatcheckgirl]

I have to laugh at Richard's solution. 😆

 

4 hours ago, Shawnster said:

March 2 Australia was seeing sortages https://jwtalk.net/topic/43737-the-mysterious-coronavirus-spreading-worldwide/page/37/?tab=comments#comment-710996

 

All these dates, based on the timeline, were at the beginning of the crisis.  Most schools around the world were still open and quarantines were not in place in most countries.  This panic buying was not because more people were using toilet paper.  It's clear the panic swept the globe because other people saw toilet paper was disappearing in other countries.  Panic breeds panic.  The TP panic buying bred TP panic buying.

This was definitely the case here in Australia.  The PM and health officials had made remarks back in late February to have supplies on hand for 14 days, but at that stage he was still breezy about the outcome for Australia (pandemic not even called).  This is from a transcript with the national broadcaster from Feb 28:

 

"LANE: The federal government's emphasizing the need to be well-prepared, one Australian virologist has encouraged people to make sure they've got enough medication and canned food for a fortnight. Some supermarkets have already run out of hand sanitizer, for example. What's your message to people about stockpiling foods? Is that panicky or being prepared?

PRIME MINISTER: I think people should remain calm. And I mean, the government is going around, some essential issues, particularly when it comes to masks and things of that nature that that personal protective equipment for key workers in areas. And that's what the plan is all about. I think it's very important that people should feel assured about where we are. There's no need for them to take drastic or extreme measures or anything like that, they should go about their business. That's the best thing they can do also for the economy Sabra, they should continue to go out. They should continue to participate. They should enjoy life. I mean it's a beautiful day here in Sydney. I'm sure it is in many places also around the country, weekends coming up. People should go about their normal business and have assurance that the government is working with states and territories to ensure that we're well prepared.  We've got ahead of this. We're staying ahead of this and we'll get through it. "

https://www.pm.gov.au/media/interview-sabra-lane-abc-am-3

 

His comments about having a fortnight's supply on hand actually opened the floodgates of toilet paper and hand sanitiser panic, followed by pasta, mince and anything else cleaning-wise.

 

Remember this: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-07/two-women-brawl-in-supermarket-over-toilet-paper/12036218

 

 

That was March 7.  Things were out of control by then, just a few days after the PM said to stock for 14 days.  The panic bred panic.  And here we are in April, and tp is still scarce.  The panic was due to seeing the numbers here starting to spiral, and the PM telling us to have stock on hand for a fortnight.  No one was actually staying at home yet, and work from home was just starting to be implemented.

[Thesauron]

Doesn't this support the idea that the toilet paper shortage was panic buying?
 
Here's the timeline https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-pandemic-timeline-history-major-events-2020-3
 
It didn't hit Sweden until 2nd week of March, but TP shortage was noted in Germany in February.  https://jwtalk.net/topic/43737-the-mysterious-coronavirus-spreading-worldwide/?do=findComment&comment=710693  Feb. 29.  20 days after first death in China.  8 days after the first outbreak in Italy.  
 
March 2 Australia was seeing sortages https://jwtalk.net/topic/43737-the-mysterious-coronavirus-spreading-worldwide/page/37/?tab=comments#comment-710996
 
All these dates, based on the timeline, were at the beginning of the crisis.  Most schools around the world were still open and quarantines were not in place in most countries.  This panic buying was not because more people were using toilet paper.  It's clear the panic swept the globe because other people saw toilet paper was disappearing in other countries.  Panic breeds panic.  The TP panic buying bred TP panic buying.

It is panic buying, but it didn’t start like that at least here. It started when people was asked to work from home to a greater extent, which is not the same as quarantine. Then people started seeing such things disappeared. That is when the panic began, and it breeds hoarding. Of course, it has escalated from there. The shop owners had never seen this effect before and were not prepared for it. Even economists were taken aback by this scenario and didn’t know at first what was going on. It didn’t make sense. The writer of this article might be in to something. Economists agree that there is no shortage of toilet paper. At least here factories are still producing. The amount necessary just does not reach the stores, so in a way, it is a logistical problem.

(Quarantine in the way other counties have implemented it, will, by the way, probably not be implemented in Sweden since the constitution demands free movement of Swedish citizens. You can maybe quarantine an area, but nobody really knows how large it could be or how this would be accomplished.)

[Tbs77]

[Strawberrypeach]

[retroHelen]

Stuck for something to do in the lock-down:

 

[bushbard]

I hope we've found a solution around our suburb.