There's no "too late" (coming from someone who's in Madrid, Spain, which in terms of the pandemic might as well be the future).

The reality is that one or two weeks from now at most most idiots will have toilet paper for months and you'll be able to buy normally again.

Goods considered non essential, however, might be scarce since those shops will close as the workers are told to stay home. For example, I'm doing a lot of studying and I'm out of sheets of paper. Office supplies stores are closed, and buying that on Amazon feels like overkill and a little socially irresponsible, so I have to make do without them.

Check your house for random silly stuff you might miss if you're stuck at home.

When I go to the supermarkets the missing things are snack foods, beer, ice cream, etc. People have a lot of time to kill and those items arent replenished as much since they're considered non essential.

One of the nice things around here is stores like Walmart that sell groceries (so they are considered essential) also sells everything else (such as office paper).

Out of curiosity, I just checked and amusingly, depending on your local store, you can get it through their grocery pick-up service too. Probably also delivery, but I don't live in an area where they do that.

I’ve heard that in Italy they are closing departments of stores that aren’t selling life sustaining items, even if other parts of the store are.

That's what they've done in Bavaria. They apparently missed some shelves at the discounter I was at yesterday, and the cashier reluctantly told me that he couldn't sell me that pack of contact lenses I'd picked up in the health and beauty aisle (contact lenses are usually available on the shelf in Germany). He thought I might be able to get them at a pharmacist.

keep in mind that a store is just a frontend for several supply chains. The workers making the product might stop, the transporters might as well, and even the workers that refill the shelves might stop refilling non essential goods.

Our crockpot cord broke, just a normal power cord that a standard computer monitor would use. However, amazon is quoting April 21st for a basics replacement while bestbuy said they probably would have it for pickup tomorrow but then delayed...so no crockpot food until I can get a dumb cord that comes with every computer monitor.

FYI https://www.digikey.com/products/en/cable-assemblies/power-l...

They have them at the store.

According to an online check, not target or Walmart, but they just might not be listed in their online inventory.

My only pair of shoes are falling apart. Thanks for the reminder to get "non-essentials".

Target and Walmart sell shoes if you are in the states.

Anecdata from Australia here - my main supermarket has only once had toilet paper in the last two weeks, and the one time I saw it there were security guards to ensure the elderly were able to get them as priority. It's meant to be coming back online according to TV, but I've not actually seen it at my local supermarkets.

However: a smaller independent market has almost always had some toilet paper, and according to our newspapers that's because their chain introduced a rule of checking ID at purchase to confirm you live in the same suburb, if they didn't already recognise you as a regular customer. I assume you've tried all options, but wanted to mention that if you've not considered smaller local indie retailers. Good luck!

The USA doesn’t really have indies in a lot of locations...maybe the Chinese grocery stores but I know I’m not getting TP there. Here it is just Safeway, QFC, Walmart, and Target, each is stocking TP in the morning before it is completely sold out after an hour.

What's this obsession with TP? Worst case can you not just take a shower or buy a bidet?

One does not just "buy a bidet" to solve that problem...

Between plumbing and installation alone it's a very expensive solution to what should (under normal circumstances) be a simple purchase.

Just use a towel or water, or whatever. This American obsession with toilet paper is very strange. I lived in Africa for two years and guess what they do there? They dip their hands in some water and wipe their butt with their hands. I wouldn't necessarily recommend this, but like, people need to get a grip and realize how many "essentials" aren't really essential at all.

You could use a portable bidet or a peri bottle. I'm very sure you could DIY a peri bottle out of some household items, to be honest, and it shouldn't be hard or expensive.

"plumbing"? "installation"?

It's connecting two screw fittings, and then installing toilet seat (two bolts + nuts). If it's a particularly fancy model you may have to plug it in.

This is about as complicated as replacing a furnace air filter, and takes about as long. If you get someone to do it for you, you're paying for them to drive to your house, not the actual time installing it (which is trivial).

Until you posted this, I thought they required a hot water supply line, and power for other features.

A cold water only bidet would save on bathroom tissue and coffee...

If it needs hot water you can always split off of the sink that is undoubtedly next to it.

But most bidets that do warm water do not use a hot supply, because it takes too long to heat up. Most use a tank or tankless in the seat, and just need a normal 120v plug.

I imagine he's referring to the type you can buy on Amazon and attach to your toilet seat.

This viral video of women fighting over it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1nEnOmC6IQ

Funny thing: our apartment maintenance crews are working overtime unclogging toilets because people have run out of TP and didn’t realize you shouldn’t flush paper towels and baby wipes down the toilet. Bidets aren’t a thing here, I have no idea how I would even install it, it’s not like there is an extra waterline coming out of the toilet.

The bidets are for a normal home toilet that has a waterline coming out of the wall below the tank and a flex connection/pipe that goes up to the tank for fill.

You shutoff your water, disconnect the toilet fill line, add the bidet connection in-between with a T connection, and hook your toilet back up. They share the same supply line.

And it's very cold water depending on your geographic region and time of the year. Not sure I'd want to try it in Alberta during the winter.

If you have water coming to tank you have the capabilities to split it already fir either portable bidet or hand bidet aka small shower head.

I've heard it's because it's the most visible item, as opposed to a pack of beans, for example.

You can also ration your intake of food when it starts to become more scarce. People do this every day due to income constraints during non-Coronavirus times.

It's a little harder to ration your bowel movements. It can be done, but it's a lot less beneficial than forced fasting.

on the bright side, forced fasting has the effect of rationing your bowel movements, so win-win :)

It’s just panic. The best I can think is there was a TP panic during the Nixon years.

Last I heard, bidets were OOS as well...