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Re:The Great Toilet Paper Scare of 1973 (2014) by maxden on Tuesday March 24, 2020 @01:39AM (#22672290)
I also think there are now a couple of new factors affecting it. With people staying at home, the demand of toilet paper has shifted to the home more. People might be limiting their trips to the shop and are bulk buying more. But I agree the hoarding is still creating a shortage of toilet paper (and pasta, meat etc). It will be good when people have enough and we see things stocked on the shelves like normal. Although with potential businesses closing or enforced self isolation, I can't see the shelves looking normal for a while. Been a run on bottle shops, Bunnings etc as well.

It's been interesting to see what gets sold out, there is still plenty of canned tuna etc, but no lemon juice (but there is lime juice). Didn't realise people used lemon juice so much.

Re:The Great Toilet Paper Scare of 1973 (2014) by Scoundreller on Tuesday March 24, 2020 @03:06AM (#22672693)
> With people staying at home, the demand of toilet paper has shifted to the home more.

This. TP consumption is unchanged per day. But the proportion of consumed TP that is consumed at retail must be up 30-50%. Nearly nobody is using their work/school/restaurant's TP that comes in giant rolls or in a cardboard box without a UPC code.

Same for tomato sauce: Most people don't want the 10# cans that food-service used to buy. Or the barrels that a pizza shop would buy. Grocery stores probably don't have a SKU for those. Could be a different packaging factory entirely.

Re:The Great Toilet Paper Scare of 1973 (2014) by divbzero on Tuesday March 24, 2020 @03:26AM (#22672793)
A local restaurant has been offering a roll of TP per take out order. I thought it was a nice gesture but hadn’t considered that it reflects this shift in demand from businesses to homes.
Re:The Great Toilet Paper Scare of 1973 (2014) by TeMPOraL on Tuesday March 24, 2020 @03:33AM (#22672820)
Yeah, I'm guessing that while it's for marketing value, they're not buying that TP - the source is their own stock which they can't use now that the venue itself is closed.