TP and bottled water

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Mar 072020
 

Yeah, this ain’t rational:

Panic shoppers line up around the block for hours amid coronavirus fears as stores are forced to tighten rationing of disinfectant wipes and toilet paper

An article from the Daily Fail describes and illustrates with a number of photos from Costco stores on the east and west coast that, apparently, a lot of people are freaking the fark out and buying mass quantities of things that they think they’ll need during the forthcoming plaguepocalypse. Somewhat rationally, disinfectants of various kinds – as I’ve mentioned – are in great demand. But so are toilet paper and bottled water. Why bottled water? Frak if I know. Things would have to get *real* bad before metropolitan water supplies either shut down or become tainted.  Toilet paper? Ehh, I suppose that’s not *quite* so loopy as TP has a long shelf life and is something you’re eventually going to need anyway… if you can stock up a reasonable amount at normal prices, then, shrug. But going buggo and buying a carload of the stuff is not only silly, it’s *rude.* A lot of people might be legitimately just about out of TP, and if they can’t resupply because you wandered off with a truckload of the stuff… well, there’ll be unhappiness. THIS ARTICLE talks to some shrinks to try to figure out why people go buggo for TP, and according to them the reasons are all (SURPRISE!) psychological.

But it’s not just the US. Australia and Britain are also joining in the fun:

‘It’s crazy’: Panic buying forces stores to limit purchases of toilet paper and masks

I’ve seen a lot of panic buying over the years as people go bugnuts over fears of a major winter storm, or a hurricane, or a petroleum shortage, or a gun ban or an ammo ban, and joy unbounded, now I get to add fear of a pandemic to the list. Curiously, I did some grocery shopping today and found that at a local grocery store not only was toilet paper fully stocked, it was on sale. But if things continue, then it’s safe to assume that these buying panics will spread further. The toilet paper manufacturers will of course bump up production to meet demand, but once things settle down I wonder if they might be hurt by this. Because there will be a *lot* of people with a *lot* of toilet paper and no need to buy more for months or even years. A healthy profit this year might not help if their sales plummet soon after.

Note: a whole buncha Tweeter posts after the break. some informative, most darkly amusing. Some refreshingly uncivilized Brits.

 

As an aside, I was mightily amused by the auto-ads that popped up atop the Daily Fail article…

 Posted by at 10:01 pm