I think the lack of TP can be explained by panic buying, and the fact that it's manufactured at the same rate as it's consumed. You have a large stockpile on the shelves, and it gets purchased at the same rate it's used, and likewise gets replaced at the same rate it is used. Minor fluctuations are absorbed because the stores have many weeks of supply on hand at any given time, so the available supply on shelves stays around 90-100%. For whatever reason some people panic bought TP, that led to more people panic buying TP until the entire stock at every grocery store was depleted. Now that TP can only be replaced as fast as it's produced, which is about as fast as it's normally consumed, and instead of fluctuating around 90-100% supply, it's fluctuation around 0%. People are legitimately purchasing it as fast as it's produced and shipped to stores, because that's how it normally works, it's just extremely noticeable now because the baseline has been temporarily set to 0% inventory. The perceived scarcity is probably driving all consumers to purchase even more than they need for the immediate future which only exacerbates the problem.
I don't know what the normal timeframe of TP usage is normally stocked by stores, but it's going to take at least that long for things to level off. For example if the normal average inventory of TP in stores would last 1 month, it will take at least 1 month to restock the supply if no one continued buying it. I have no idea about grocery store TP stock baselines though, so maybe someone that works in a grocery store can provide more insight.
I also imagine this is going to create a similar phenomenon to when people lived through the great depression or some other tragedy, where they permanently alter their behavior in seemingly irrational ways like hiding money in their mattress and walls. Totally foreign and bizarre to me, but I imagine living through some time of economic collapse when there was a run on cash and banks were failing would probably permanently rewire parts of your brain. My kid in 15 years is probably going to be talking about and making fun of his crazy ass dad that always keeps a permanent rotating 9 month supply of toilet paper in the basement, and I'll have to explain to him the trauma the entire world went through in the great TP panic of 2020. And he'll be like "dad, you're fucking crazy! There is TP available everywhere! There is no TP shortage, you can always just go buy more when you need it!". And I'll just shake my head at his sheltered innocence as I continue shoving rolls under my mattress and hiding them in my walls to be sure I'm prepared once my 9 month supply shelf runs bare.
