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Price controls are the reason no retailer had extra warehouses full of toilet paper and hand sanitizer. They can only make short-term decisions when we don't al

Price controls are the reason no retailer had extra warehouses full of toilet paper and hand sanitizer. They can only make short-term decisions when we don't allow long bets to pay for themselves.

goodside 6y ago
Toilet paper also has relatively high storage costs and low shipping costs compared to other goods, which skews things. It obviously doesn’t spoil, but it’s physically large for how cheap it is and presents a fire hazard in bulk quantities. A typical consumer could actually afford to fill their home with stockpiled toilet paper until it becomes unlivable if they really wanted to, which isn’t true of most consumer goods. There’s also subtleties related to the segregation of consumer and commercial toilet paper markets.
- sokoloff 6y ago
  TP has relatively high shipping cost, especially as compared to its value. Dimensional pricing (charging by volume) is what kills you trying to ship TP.
  - goodside 6y ago
    For consumers you’re definitely right, but I don’t think this is true when buying by the truckload. Paper manufacturers produce both very high-density products (office paper) and very low-density products (toilet paper). Office paper is so dense that you have to ship it in trucks that are half-empty due to safety regulations on truck weight, so I’d expect a customer that needs both products can receive toilet paper in the same truck without much marginal increase in fuel consumption. I don’t work in the industry though, so I admit I’m mostly speculating.
ghaff 6y ago
Do you seriously believe that Scott Paper would keep warehouses of TP laying around if only they knew that they could charge $5 a roll if there were a shortage for some reason? Honestly, large manufacturers/retailers are probably the least likely to price gouge because, laws aside, any extra profit that, say, Home Depot can make by selling snow shovels for $50 before an unexpected early blizzard is 1.) Trivial for their overall bottom line and 2.) Likely to result in a very expensive reputational hit.
- xyzzyz 6y ago
  Correct. The result is of course that after a blizzard, if you didn't line up in front of Home Depot at 4 AM, you have no chance to get a snow shovel.
  - sokoloff 6y ago
    https://aliimmam.com/2013/11/03/i-want-to-be-just-like-mommy/ https://aliimmam.com/2013/11/03/i-want-to-be-just-like-mommy...

Price controls are the reason no retailer had extra warehouses full of toilet paper and hand sanitizer. They can only make short-term decisions when we don't allow long bets to pay for themselves.

goodside 6y ago

Toilet paper also has relatively high storage costs and low shipping costs compared to other goods, which skews things. It obviously doesn’t spoil, but it’s physically large for how cheap it is and presents a fire hazard in bulk quantities. A typical consumer could actually afford to fill their home with stockpiled toilet paper until it becomes unlivable if they really wanted to, which isn’t true of most consumer goods. There’s also subtleties related to the segregation of consumer and commercial toilet paper markets.

sokoloff 6y ago
TP has relatively high shipping cost, especially as compared to its value. Dimensional pricing (charging by volume) is what kills you trying to ship TP.
- goodside 6y ago
  For consumers you’re definitely right, but I don’t think this is true when buying by the truckload. Paper manufacturers produce both very high-density products (office paper) and very low-density products (toilet paper). Office paper is so dense that you have to ship it in trucks that are half-empty due to safety regulations on truck weight, so I’d expect a customer that needs both products can receive toilet paper in the same truck without much marginal increase in fuel consumption. I don’t work in the industry though, so I admit I’m mostly speculating.

ghaff 6y ago

Do you seriously believe that Scott Paper would keep warehouses of TP laying around if only they knew that they could charge $5 a roll if there were a shortage for some reason? Honestly, large manufacturers/retailers are probably the least likely to price gouge because, laws aside, any extra profit that, say, Home Depot can make by selling snow shovels for $50 before an unexpected early blizzard is 1.) Trivial for their overall bottom line and 2.) Likely to result in a very expensive reputational hit.

xyzzyz 6y ago
Correct. The result is of course that after a blizzard, if you didn't line up in front of Home Depot at 4 AM, you have no chance to get a snow shovel.
- sokoloff 6y ago
  https://aliimmam.com/2013/11/03/i-want-to-be-just-like-mommy/ https://aliimmam.com/2013/11/03/i-want-to-be-just-like-mommy...