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Because the shelves are empty, I'm guessing far more reasonable people are thinking to just pick up a single pack when they do see a store stocked. Just in cas
by SkyBelow 7y ago
Because the shelves are empty, I'm guessing far more reasonable people are thinking to just pick up a single pack when they do see a store stocked. Just in case they miscounted the amount they have at home. But when you count the number of items of TP on the shelves and compare it to the number of families, there is a large mismatch. Far more families than TP. So even a minority of those families making the quite reasonable 'buy one just in case, not like it will go bad' decision will quickly leave a store bare, meaning the rest of the day is filled with shoppers seeing bare shelves and thinking 'next time I see some, I should grab one just in case'.
While there are some panic buyers who are buying far more than just 1, I wonder if they are making as much an impact as all the non-panic buyers who are just picking up one just in case.
Maybe not, I could be off on the impact, but it does seem reasonable at first glance and explains why even purchase limits can have a hard time combating TP shortages in the short term.
- pnutjam 7y agoWish I'd taken a picture, but I saw multiple people standing in ridiculous lines to buy 2+ huge packs (lasts my family of 8 a month) of toilet paper, 2+ packs of paper towels (lasts my family of 8 at least 2 months) and 4+ cases of water (we go through about 1 a week). These people must not be regulars because they weren't using the scan and go app and were waiting in the huge lines for at least 30-40 minutes minimum. Many of them had nothing else in the carts.
- souprock 7y agoI suspect I go through about 4 rolls of paper towels per day with a family of 14. Clearly you have a low per-person rate of usage.
- pnutjam 7y agoAre you talking about normal paper towel rolls that are about an inch and a half from core to edge, or "super" rolls that are closer to double that size (and feel much denser). These are about the size of the bounty double rolls. I could go through several of the smaller cheaper rolls also.