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.
It's because it doesn't clog toilets as much. If you stock two ply in an office, people will do unspeakable things with their literal shit, and it's just not good times.
I worked in one place that switched briefly to more home-style twoply, and we very quickly switched back. It wasn't because of the cost. It was because of the poop. Everywhere. All the poop.
Commercial fixtures need higher pressure than a home fixture, and sometimes the office building can not provide proper pressure, combined with wanting under a gallon of water per flush and well bad things happen
I generally restock on paper goods like that ever 3-6 months, not weekly...
One benefit is that I use a fraction of the amount of toilet paper.
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.
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.
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)
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.
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.