> Not to mention the famous toilet paper debacle. This is the kind of false narrative that spreads like wildfire because it rests on a morality play we all lov

> Not to mention the famous toilet paper debacle. This is the kind of false narrative that spreads like wildfire because it rests on a morality play we all love about how a small number of those people are ruining it for everyone else. In reality, the toilet paper shortage was caused by people using their home toilets instead of office ones. Office toilets use different toilet paper (those giant rolls of pretty scratchy paper). Those rolls are manufactured on different lines, shipped through different supply chains, and sold in different stores. Paper companies have incredibly thin margins, and it took a while for them to retool and shift over to the new reality. The shortage was just the dip while that was happening. Basically, sales of product A (residential TP) skyrocketed while product B tanked (office TP). No surprise that it became hard to find A in stores. Hoarding didn't have a significant impact. (Think about it, how could it have? The shortage was a few weeks long. Think about how much toilet paper a small number of hoarders would have to have to cause a shortage of that scale. Did they literally fill their entire house with rolls?)