5 ms·

Not sure there ever was a real shortage in toilet paper. I mean sure the stores ran out at some point, but that's mostly because you can only realistically have

Not sure there ever was a real shortage in toilet paper. I mean sure the stores ran out at some point, but that's mostly because you can only realistically have so many toilet paper in the store at once, so if people buy more for whatever insane reason then it's going to run out soon. The supply didn't ever run into any issues as far as I can tell.

javagram 5y ago
There was still supply of “toilet paper” but not of the kind that was sold in the store. Normally large amounts of commercial paper was sold but that wasn’t in grocery stores and sales stopped because of offices closing. Things got figured out eventually both as panic buying subsided and some commercial paper (single rolls, etc) was diverted to the grocery store supply chain.
- scott_s 5y ago
  Correct; there was a market shift, where all of the demand for commercial toilet paper went to consumer toilet paper. Because of that shift, there was a real shortage in consumer toilet paper. Unfortunately, the myth that this shortage was entirely an induced panic seems to have caught on. For more, see https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2020/4/3/21206942/toilet-paper-coronavirus-shortage-supply-chain https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2020/4/3/21206942/toilet-paper...
  - bsder 5y ago
    > Unfortunately, the myth that this shortage was entirely an induced panic People don't get that even a 25% jump in consumption is going to take quite a while to rattle through our optimized supply chains. Everything has been optimized to the penny for exactly the consumption as it exists--and not a whit more. Inventory anywhere is seen as a dire business failing to be eradicated. As such, there is zero cushion against even small demand changes. Maximally efficient is minimally robust.
raspasov 5y ago
There might have been a short-term panic over-buying plus the fact that everybody all of a sudden was staying home (and *ahem*, going to the toilet at home more) as opposed to going to the office. That's just a hypothesis, I haven't looked at any data. But your point is essentially correct, I assume it just takes a bit of time to shift the supply from commercial/business channels (delivering to office buildings in the city) to consumer ones (delivering to stores like Costco, Walmart, etc).
- bdcravens 5y ago
  I don't believe it's that pragmatic. There's a great sense of the unknown, as if society will totally shut down. After all, you don't see people shop the same way when they plan to be home for a while (vacations, kids not going to school during the summer, etc)
  - lazide 5y ago
    It can be both. I personally think of uncertainty like the exponent of the function for buying. More uncertainty, higher value exponentially.
- klyrs 5y ago
  > ... staying home (and ahem, going to the toilet at home more) as opposed to going to the office. From what I understand, this was the real driver of the shortage. The toilet paper manufacturers had to retool for home-size rolls to meet demand, where they were previously making tons of office-size rolls. Highly efficient manufacturing processes don't turn on a dime.
  - syshum 5y ago
    The shortages came too quickly to claim it was just WFH unless people generally only buy enough to get by for a week at a time.. I generally restock on paper goods like that ever 3-6 months, not weekly...
    - 5y ago
pedrocr 5y ago
Having gone through that on the supply side it was a manufactured crisis. When news organizations were still waiting for the first COVID19 cases to happen in their country they would run fluff stories from other places. A very common one was the toilet paper shortage. They probably got some intern to write it sloppily so in some it wasn't even clear that the photos and examples were from a different country. That drove people to rush to stores and hoard creating a self-fulfilling phrophecy as no grocery store will keep too many days of stock of toilet paper as it has too much volume. That this then happened in more places made it even more of a story and it sort of snowballed. The fact that people were now at home and using different types of paper than what offices use was as far as I can tell a very small factor, it was mostly panic hoarding.
jessaustin 5y ago
The rational reaction to the TP event was to install one of those bidet seats on one's toilet. I haven't bought a roll since.
- rolleiflex 5y ago
  Except right at the same time the bidet seats were also out of stock everywhere. I scored one by being slightly earlier to wake up to what’s happening, but I know many friends that weren’t able to pick one up.
- chihuahua 5y ago
  I'm glad I finally got one, it's an amazing improvement. I waited for a long time because I thought I needed an outlet to plug it in (for warm water), but it turns out that cold water is totally fine. So you just attach it to the existing valve right next to the toilet. It's fairly easy and not expensive (< $100)
- mschuster91 5y ago
  Serious question - how do you get your butt dry without toilet paper? I got a bidet seat too and my TP consumption hasn't gone down, but at least my butt finally feels so clean now...
  - yourapostasy 5y ago
    > ...how do you get your butt dry without toilet paper? Towel, or get a bidet with an air drying option (but few models have effective dryers, so shop carefully). I have yet to find a comparison of embedded energy costs between bidet dryers and a supply of cotton towels, but I wager towels will win out when taking into account bidets breaking down. As far as I can tell, they're very repair-hostile designs, and would love to find a manufacturer that stocks all the parts for their models for a long time.
jjav 5y ago
> Not sure there ever was a real shortage in toilet paper. I mean the shortage was very real and lasted a long time. Here (outskirts of Silicon Valley) I couldn't find toilet paper in any local store at any time for a few months. Later I was able to buy one (max limit) only at closing time when they started stocking shelves, at any other time of day there was none to be had. The shelves were mostly empty of paper into 2021. It's only the last ~6 months that it is reliably available again.

javagram 5y ago

There was still supply of “toilet paper” but not of the kind that was sold in the store. Normally large amounts of commercial paper was sold but that wasn’t in grocery stores and sales stopped because of offices closing. Things got figured out eventually both as panic buying subsided and some commercial paper (single rolls, etc) was diverted to the grocery store supply chain.

scott_s 5y ago
Correct; there was a market shift, where all of the demand for commercial toilet paper went to consumer toilet paper. Because of that shift, there was a real shortage in consumer toilet paper. Unfortunately, the myth that this shortage was entirely an induced panic seems to have caught on. For more, see https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2020/4/3/21206942/toilet-paper-coronavirus-shortage-supply-chain https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2020/4/3/21206942/toilet-paper...
- bsder 5y ago
  > Unfortunately, the myth that this shortage was entirely an induced panic People don't get that even a 25% jump in consumption is going to take quite a while to rattle through our optimized supply chains. Everything has been optimized to the penny for exactly the consumption as it exists--and not a whit more. Inventory anywhere is seen as a dire business failing to be eradicated. As such, there is zero cushion against even small demand changes. Maximally efficient is minimally robust.

raspasov 5y ago

There might have been a short-term panic over-buying plus the fact that everybody all of a sudden was staying home (and *ahem*, going to the toilet at home more) as opposed to going to the office. That's just a hypothesis, I haven't looked at any data. But your point is essentially correct, I assume it just takes a bit of time to shift the supply from commercial/business channels (delivering to office buildings in the city) to consumer ones (delivering to stores like Costco, Walmart, etc).

bdcravens 5y ago
I don't believe it's that pragmatic. There's a great sense of the unknown, as if society will totally shut down. After all, you don't see people shop the same way when they plan to be home for a while (vacations, kids not going to school during the summer, etc)
- lazide 5y ago
  It can be both. I personally think of uncertainty like the exponent of the function for buying. More uncertainty, higher value exponentially.
klyrs 5y ago
> ... staying home (and ahem, going to the toilet at home more) as opposed to going to the office. From what I understand, this was the real driver of the shortage. The toilet paper manufacturers had to retool for home-size rolls to meet demand, where they were previously making tons of office-size rolls. Highly efficient manufacturing processes don't turn on a dime.
- syshum 5y ago
  The shortages came too quickly to claim it was just WFH unless people generally only buy enough to get by for a week at a time.. I generally restock on paper goods like that ever 3-6 months, not weekly...
  - 5y ago

pedrocr 5y ago

Having gone through that on the supply side it was a manufactured crisis. When news organizations were still waiting for the first COVID19 cases to happen in their country they would run fluff stories from other places. A very common one was the toilet paper shortage. They probably got some intern to write it sloppily so in some it wasn't even clear that the photos and examples were from a different country. That drove people to rush to stores and hoard creating a self-fulfilling phrophecy as no grocery store will keep too many days of stock of toilet paper as it has too much volume. That this then happened in more places made it even more of a story and it sort of snowballed. The fact that people were now at home and using different types of paper than what offices use was as far as I can tell a very small factor, it was mostly panic hoarding.

jessaustin 5y ago

The rational reaction to the TP event was to install one of those bidet seats on one's toilet. I haven't bought a roll since.

rolleiflex 5y ago
Except right at the same time the bidet seats were also out of stock everywhere. I scored one by being slightly earlier to wake up to what’s happening, but I know many friends that weren’t able to pick one up.
chihuahua 5y ago
I'm glad I finally got one, it's an amazing improvement. I waited for a long time because I thought I needed an outlet to plug it in (for warm water), but it turns out that cold water is totally fine. So you just attach it to the existing valve right next to the toilet. It's fairly easy and not expensive (< $100)
mschuster91 5y ago
Serious question - how do you get your butt dry without toilet paper? I got a bidet seat too and my TP consumption hasn't gone down, but at least my butt finally feels so clean now...
- yourapostasy 5y ago
  > ...how do you get your butt dry without toilet paper? Towel, or get a bidet with an air drying option (but few models have effective dryers, so shop carefully). I have yet to find a comparison of embedded energy costs between bidet dryers and a supply of cotton towels, but I wager towels will win out when taking into account bidets breaking down. As far as I can tell, they're very repair-hostile designs, and would love to find a manufacturer that stocks all the parts for their models for a long time.

jjav 5y ago

> Not sure there ever was a real shortage in toilet paper. I mean the shortage was very real and lasted a long time. Here (outskirts of Silicon Valley) I couldn't find toilet paper in any local store at any time for a few months. Later I was able to buy one (max limit) only at closing time when they started stocking shelves, at any other time of day there was none to be had. The shelves were mostly empty of paper into 2021. It's only the last ~6 months that it is reliably available again.