I've seen a few people on FB asking "Why on earth are people hoarding toilet paper?" or else "Why are people panic-buying toilet paper?". My intention here is not to put these people down, but to try to unpick what I think is going on here.
In Facebook bubble world, the hot-takes in response to these questions are mostly "people are selfish and only think of themselves" or "people are stupid and only do what they're told by the media". In other words "other people" (it's always someone else of course, nobody's owning up to wheeling out 100 toilet rolls themself) are the problem and they're simply conforming to the types that we already hold dear.
The other possible reason I can see is "because everyone else is". This is the herd mentality and it's a little different from "because the media told them to". It's hard for any of us (assuming we've money in our pocket) to resist taking a packet of toilet rolls whether we need it or not if we happen to see that the shelves are emptying. Arguably talking about it on Facebook in these terms is driving more unneeded purchases because we've all seen that everyone else is "panic buying" and we need to get in there ourselves.
We don't know, by the way that anyone is either "panic buying" or "hoarding" - these are phrases that we use freely though to explain why things aren't on the shelves. I think the likely scenario is much calmer. People are doing their normal shopping, heading for the bathroom supplies aisle and picking up an extra hand soap and a larger than normal pack of toilet paper, no panic or hoarding involved, just a shift in the pattern of demand.
I think all of these explanations are part of the picture, but not the whole thing. Some people are stupid, some people do behave extremely selfishly, unconscious purchasing happens all the time to all sorts of people - some people, for example, have all sorts of worries and feelings and habitually salve those feelings by buying stuff they don't want and don't need. We all know (and, at times, can be) those people.
Isn't it interesting though that we look first to blame individuals and try to discern why they are behaving badly?
Another way of responding to the empty toilet paper shelves is to ask "Is toilet paper just that supermarket product which is the most sensitive to fluctuations in demand? Is there something in the system of toilet paper supply that means that if people buy just a little more than usual, shops run out of it more quickly than anything else?"
All of which reminds me of a campaign a couple of years ago that involved buying up toilet paper to highlight the fragility of the supply chain with the idea that this would show us all how dangerous a no-deal Brexit would be. (Found it: Bog Roll Buy Up)
So is toilet paper the top of the list? Is there a list? A league table of products in order of their sensitivity to demand? And if there is such a list what's next? Initial ranting on Facebook, at least in the Guildford area, would suggest it might be pasta (though I'm suspicious of the screengrab illustrating this post which reports that Tesco has run out of pasta completely.
It's doubtless more complex than this - ie there will be products that are more sensitive to different kinds of crisis but I'd like to know if someone routinely does this kind of research so that we don't have to construct it experientially as the latest wave of apocalyptic disaster unfolds. If we have a good list we can measure the level of disaster by which shelves are empty. "Oh you think this is bad, I remember one time, you couldn't even get tinned tomatoes for love nor money!"
In the meantime, please stay safe, don't get into fights over tissue paper and please wash your hands, especially if you've run short of toilet paper and are having to "substitute".
Which items are sold out and described as panic-buying does seem to vary. I think you may be right about slight fluctuations in buying patterns having a much bigger impact overall, and the sensivities about supply chains, especially with the move, over decades now, to just in time systems. The buying and distributing systems in supermarkets, especially, are dynamic and very sensitive with constant data inputting. In the eighties, there was the move to ordering at the end of day the supplies that would be delivered in the morning. Previously supermarkets held a week's worth of non-perishable stocks and ordered perishables three times a week (the latter was considered a gross infringement by staff at the time). The cycle will be shorter now, especially with the development of huge distribution centres (acres, if not miles, of them) in the Midlands.
These may offer some insights:
Future of UK Wholesaling 2019
Grocery Retail Trends 2019
But I guess, at the end of the day, part of our psyche does love drama :)
I don't quite understand the hoarding of toilet paper. In no way does it make sense to buy a year's worth of T.P. unless you know you're having a bad year, in which case, your issues may be far worse than a mutation of the flu.
In any event, we haven't seen panic in my neighborhood yet. I did my normal grocery shopping, topped off my bottled water, which is normal hurricane preparation a couple months early.
hmm... maybe the toilet paper run is a subconscious message that too many people are butt hurt about something. Looking at social media, especially political Twitter and Facebook, people are looking for things to be offended about. It's ridiculous.
Damn i'm almost out of toilet paper!
May have to rely on the left-handed method!
I was in Sainsbury's today. The bogroll aisle (that my son used to call the 'safe aisle' as falling items would not hurt) was looking very bare, but it was being re-stocked. I just bought one pack of 9. That will last us a few weeks. I did not need handwash (we use soap), but the shelves were empty. I don't see the supply chain breaking down even if we do get thousands of cases of coronavirus.
My other half was at the local Chinese supermarket and saw a lot of people wearing masks, but I have seen hardly any.
Meanwhile my parents have decided to self-isolate after travelling to Italy even though they were not in the north. They do not need to go anywhere anyway, but they are in the high risk group and so are many of their friends.