I guess I just don't get it. Why toilet paper? Why the run on toilet paper? All these people panicked about coronavirus - did they not anticipate needing toilet paper before this virus? What have they been using literally every day of their life?
When I was a kid there were some fuel shortages. This led to lines around the block at petrol stations. In fact there wasn't really a great shortage. But because people worried about a shortage, instead of filling up when the tank was empty, they filled up whenever they saw a petrol station. Suddenly the places needed 50-100% more fuel, and the places which could get by with a weekly tanker delivery now needed one every 3-4 days. But before they could arrange it they'd run out of fuel and put a sign up saying so. Seeing this sign, drivers would rush to the next petrol station and line up, and...
This is consumer behaviour. A slight perception of a possible shortage in the stores actually creates a shortage in the stores. Meanwhile, exactly nobody has their car putter out with an empty tank and have to be left on the side of the road, exactly nobody is sitting at home on the toilet looking at the empty roll and wondering what to do. It's just that instead of being content with having 3-4 rolls sitting there waiting by the toilet, they want to see a 24 pack.
A run on the banks can happen the same way, history shows. If a rumour goes around that your bank will be limiting cash withdrawals soon, some people will rush to withdraw all their money, the branch will run out of cash, news that it's run out of cash will get around, so then more people will rush to other branches to withdraw their cash, and then the fractional reserve laws will kick in, and the bank will have to call in some of its debts, and - then the bank executive or the government steps in and limits cash withdrawals.
If it weren't bog rolls it'd be something else. Pasta and rice are getting wiped out here. Which is funny, really: even in refugee camps people get rice
and beans. There's plenty of tinned fruit and vegies, stacks of fresh fruit and vegies. Do people think they will live on pasta and rice? No, they're just not thinking.
As they said in Men in Black, a
person is smart,
people are stupid.