Re:The Great Toilet Paper Scare of 1973 (2014)
by lmm on Tuesday March 24, 2020 @02:44AM
(#22672568)
I think most people are happy to buy a 24 pack at the moment (and would probably buy multiples of smaller packs otherwise), and it's probably easier to distribute only 24-packs than a mix of sizes. I'm all for manufacturers prioritising throughput over convenience for the duration of the crisis.
Except that means that less households get supply, which forces them into more extreme measures.
People are happy to buy anything at the moment. Making sure each household can get supply seems like it should be a priority.
Re:The Great Toilet Paper Scare of 1973 (2014)
by andromeduck on Wednesday March 25, 2020 @12:33AM
(#22681959)
You're assuming people don't split with friends downstream.
Re:The Great Toilet Paper Scare of 1973 (2014)
by nl on Wednesday March 25, 2020 @06:17PM
(#22689004)
Not really.
I think that happens, but from observation it's a downstream event usually in reaction to shortages one of the friends is having.
Re:The Great Toilet Paper Scare of 1973 (2014)
by cletus on Tuesday March 24, 2020 @12:02AM
(#22671760)
There's another side to this. I've seen footage of this on the news. People will buy their per customer limits, throw it into their cars and queue up again. Rinse and repeat. The footage I saw of this was toilet paper. Some people.
Re:The Great Toilet Paper Scare of 1973 (2014)
by tehlike on Tuesday March 24, 2020 @12:15AM
(#22671851)
Costco does similar limitz I wish they used member id as the limit, not the checkout Id...
Re:The Great Toilet Paper Scare of 1973 (2014)
by manigandham on Tuesday March 24, 2020 @03:30AM
(#22672811)
Manufacturing output is already at 100%. They don't have much more capacity to add and TP is already cheap and fast to produce.
What they're doing is shifting production to focus on large bulk sizes and more TP instead of other paper items.
Supermarkets have introduced limits on the number of toilet roll packets you can buy (which is sensible).
However, last weekend I was at the supermarket when it opened, and I observed something I haven't seen noted elsewhere.
Manufactures seem only to be shipping enormous packages of toilet paper (24 packs). This means people buy 1 packet of 24 rolls, because that is all that is available. These huge packets also take more shelf space, which results in more shortages.
Some smaller, independent supermarkets have taken to re-packaging the rolls into smaller packets, which is a win/win for both the shop and the consumer.
But the manufacturer behaviour is interesting and unfortunate.