Page 7 | A safe space to confess whether you panic bought toilet roll

Peaceshout · 2025-10-28T23:16:44+00:00

It’s been several years since the pandemic, lockdown, and those early months when the toilet roll disappeared from the shelves in bulk. Yet despite it all being bought, I’ve never met anyone who panic bought toilet roll. Instead, most people are critical of the toilet roll panic buying. Someone is lying. Given the time that’s elapsed, now is the time for the panic buyers of toilet roll to come out, admit it, and tell us whether they still have any left in the shed. No judgment, no criticism, just a safe space to unburden yourselves. AIBU?

PortSalutPlease · 29/10/2025 06:04

I didn’t panic buy anything however I did have to buy 3 times as much of everything whenever I went to the shops as I was working frontline nhs on the Covid wards and a. Wasn’t exactly replete with shopping time, and b. Didn’t want to risk exposing people more often than I had to in the event I was incubating Covid.

LifeSucksBigFatBalls · 29/10/2025 06:01

lazyarse123 · 28/10/2025 23:44

We didn't but I worked in a small supermarket so saved some when it was delivered. We all did it but weren't supposed to.
I figured if I was doing what felt like putting my life on the line I wasn't going to run out of anything we sold.
On a serious note it was pretty terrifying to have to work when it felt like everyone was at home and no one knew how it would work.
The attitude of some people was awful. I had one chap in his 60s buy 2 packets of plain flour and 2 packets of sf flour and I asked if he really needed all that as it seemed a bit unfair. He said one of each was for him and one for his mum, yeah right. Not a good memory.

Really?
During Covid and you were worrying about a man buying flour for himself and his mother.
Christ !!!!

Joystir59 · 29/10/2025 05:59

Ive always had loads of toilet roll in the house so 'panic buying' it was already my norm, and still is.

LifeSucksBigFatBalls · 29/10/2025 05:59

Not really.
I kinda thought worse case i can use a flannel or have a quick shower

I did have more hand soap than needed though

windintheoak · 29/10/2025 05:56

MYOB12 · 29/10/2025 05:17

I work in a shop and people definitely panic bought toilet roll. And paracetamol. And pasta. Other things too. At one point we had to limit to 2 items per person but they just sent multiple family members in.

We were still getting deliveries in, and the same quantities of stock, but it was cleared off the shelves faster so we often looked empty.

Well, of course. Two adult children in the household - separate and all get limited items in everyone's own transaction. The limits were often designed for a family of four in mind. I had double that, so it felt justified.

youegg · 29/10/2025 05:55

No, DH works in a grocery store so was about to be on the front line of a pandemic for minimum wage. At least one of the bonuses was to be able to select our groceries from deliveries straight away on a daily basis rather than run the supermarket gauntlet so shortages didn’t affect us so no need to stockpile.

Mikart · 29/10/2025 05:40

No. I did buy a lot of chickpeas and tinned tomatoes though

Richardscaryisscary · 29/10/2025 05:31

I bought a couple of extra packs as we very rarely had much to spare.
I will confess to still having a mahoosive bag of pasta in the cupboard and we did stock up on basics like tinned soup and flour, not excessively so though.
It has made me plan more going forward. Our cupboards used to be fairly bare and I'd be shopping daily on the way home. I always have a good stock of staples now and we could last maybe a fortnight at a push.

Beesandhoney123 · 29/10/2025 05:28

VoltaireMittyDream · 28/10/2025 23:52

I was already hoarding toilet paper as a matter of course 😳 Lockdown was when I first realised it wasn’t normal to have like 6 months’ of bog roll stashed in the cupboard under the stairs just in case.

No idea why I was doing that - I stopped after Covid! These days I’ll sometimes even let us get down to the last roll before buying more. Quite thrilling! Makes me feel like I’m living dangerously.

I totally get this. Sometimes we almost run out of milk. It causes havoc. It's not like anyone in the house has ever had to wait for the milkman and the shops are all shut!

So it feels like quiet anarchy letting things get low. Life on the edge.

racquel86 · 29/10/2025 05:20

No I didn’t but I don’t feel I really understood the extent of lockdown as I’m a nurse and my life continued as normal, albeit with a mask on 🤣

MYOB12 · 29/10/2025 05:17

I work in a shop and people definitely panic bought toilet roll. And paracetamol. And pasta. Other things too. At one point we had to limit to 2 items per person but they just sent multiple family members in.

We were still getting deliveries in, and the same quantities of stock, but it was cleared off the shelves faster so we often looked empty.

namechangetheworld · 29/10/2025 02:03

No, but we were those awful people who went around several shops and stockpiled baby formula for DD2 because I was absolutely terrified of running out.

Remaker · 29/10/2025 01:23

I didn’t, but I was so sick of having to traipse to 4 different shops to find any when we needed it. So I took out a TP subscription from a local company and now a box of it arrives every 3 months and I never have to think about it.

CinnamonJellyBeans · 29/10/2025 01:22

I was stocked up with everything while coronavirus was so new that people were making jokes and memes about it.

Laura997 · 29/10/2025 01:13

GarlicHound · 29/10/2025 01:02

No, and I ran out a few times. I did see several men, on different occasions, wrangling trolleys out of Aldi with loo roll stacked higher than their heads. Even after it was rationed, my local shops often had none.

I didn't need to panic buy anything else, as I keep at least two weeks' worth of food in at all times. This is because I'm often too unwell to get supplies in, and it served me well then too. The only thing I couldn't get was bread flour! Tried everywhere and everything, ended up ordering a catering pack of absurdly expensive Caputo 001 online. Bloody brilliant flour, but they were charging as if it were gold dust!

I'm generally fairly good at predicting human behaviour, but I did NOT anticipate a pandemic prompting half the world to take up sourdough baking 👀

Ha! Yes I think everyone did. It was our last supermarket visit in February when I said to DH, shall we get a bread maker. Again - no stock issues. We bought one, we got all the stuff in to make bread and it was great. But I do remember flour being one of the things we couldn't always get in our online deliveries post lockdown.

I thought I was being all unique and clever getting a breadmaker - when I bought it I did not predict that everyone would have the same idea a month later! So not unique or clever just more of a worrier I guess 😂

And yes bread flour was the thing in those online orders that were hit or miss on whether it would actually turn up.

mummymetalhead · 29/10/2025 01:10

I’m a bit of a prepper so had a few multipacks already and didn’t worry about loo roll at all.
I also had a milkman and hired a weekly fruit and veg delivery from a local greengrocer. All in all we were really lucky to have these things.
The fruit and veg box was huge so every week I’d leave loads in the box on my garden wall and send a message to our street WhatsApp group for neighbours to come and help themselves.

BreakingBroken · 29/10/2025 01:07

I'm well known amongst my friends for maintaining a high standard of dry goods.
I buy Costco toilet paper and maintained two 30 packs at all times, now with less disruption to the supply chain, I'm back down to maintaining 30 at a time.

sleepwouldbenice · 29/10/2025 01:05

No because i knew we had a few at the caravan (stored locally) and we could cope with alternatives like kitchen roll
I think i did with hand sanitiser though, I still have quite a bit....

GarlicHound · 29/10/2025 01:02

No, and I ran out a few times. I did see several men, on different occasions, wrangling trolleys out of Aldi with loo roll stacked higher than their heads. Even after it was rationed, my local shops often had none.

I didn't need to panic buy anything else, as I keep at least two weeks' worth of food in at all times. This is because I'm often too unwell to get supplies in, and it served me well then too. The only thing I couldn't get was bread flour! Tried everywhere and everything, ended up ordering a catering pack of absurdly expensive Caputo 001 online. Bloody brilliant flour, but they were charging as if it were gold dust!

I'm generally fairly good at predicting human behaviour, but I did NOT anticipate a pandemic prompting half the world to take up sourdough baking 👀

Laura997 · 29/10/2025 00:59

Well I'm a bit of a natural prepper.....back in the Jan of 2020 I was watching China (and then later Italy) and saying to my DH - this is really bad.....and I started getting prepared.

I started quietly accumulating toilet roll popping in a 24 pack to the shopping trolley in Jan - I bought 4 of those from Sainsburys in Jan. This was way before the panic buying started. Supermarkets were operating as usual. Shelves were stacked. There was no supply chain disruption at that point.

By the time the lockdown was announced end of March - we had everything in and hadn't been to a supermarket for about 3 weeks. A completely full freezer, a whole pantry completely stocked, all the toiletries we would need. I'd bought 4 20kg bags of dog food, and more tins of dog food than I could count - we were ready. By end of February I didn't step into a supermarket again for 6 months.

I scheduled a regular slot with Asda to deliver every 3 weeks - it was all very calm for us.

We were absolutely fine, didn't run out of a thing but nor did we have so much that we were drowning in it.

So I guess I did 'panic buy' toilet roll but I did it way before the panic buying started. It just felt like I was being sensible at the time and making sure that we were completely stocked up - incase something happened. At the time I was doing this - I didn't know exactly what 'something happening' would be, if that makes sense? Panic buying wasn't a thing - I just saw myself as 'getting ready'.

Once all our store cupboards were full - we used the loo roll and we didn't order anymore in - we didn't need it. Mostly I felt like being prepared meant when it all went down we had actually removed us from being a burden.

I think people did buy extra loo roll, I think they just don't associate themselves as 'panic buyers' because they weren't punching people to get it or walking out with trolley loads of the stuff.

PrimSec · 29/10/2025 00:47

I did, inadvertently.

We had always bought loo roll online, a pack of 9 whenever it was needed. When lockdown started, online delivery slots became impossible to get and the website very temperamental. As soon as I managed to get in, I booked 3 slots spread over a few weeks, and had the website auto generate me a standard order. The intention was to secure the slots and change the orders after. Unfortunately, despite regularly trying, I was never able to log back into the system. So 3 orders containing 9 loo rolls then came in quick succession. Felt terrible and offered them around to neighbours, but everyone apparently had enough!

windintheoak · 29/10/2025 00:45

Yes, I did, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. I thought panic buying was a silly thing to do but figured, if I didn't hoard some, the hoarders might make it impossible to get, so I better make sure I had some extra stored. I have a large family, one with a bowel condition. I prefer to have toilet paper here. There were many times I found the shelves bare of toilet paper, so it seemed sensible enough. No regrets.

saltandvinegarchipsticks · 29/10/2025 00:42

I always buy it in bulk so I certainly looked like I’d panic bought, but I hadn’t.

Umy15r03lcha1 · 29/10/2025 00:37

People were panic buying in the shops. I went on Amazon and had a bale delivered next day. I shared it though.

Bertielong3 · 29/10/2025 00:23

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