A safe space to confess whether you panic bought toilet roll

[Peaceshout]

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?

Not quite a panic buyer, but I’ve always bought in bulk and had issues around food scarcity. Everything I already had in bulk, toilet roll, rice, beans, pasta, I did an extra bulk shop - so ended up with double bulk. I don’t feel bad over it as nobody’s buying routines could have been predicted or preempted really by anyone other than the government. Although, obviously not great for anyone wanting to buy a regular 4 pack at their usual pace at Sainsbury’s local. I think everyone pretty much lost their minds and I don’t blame most people for what they panic did during that time. Everyone’s worst depths of their mental health were exposed, and triggers people didn’t even know they had were pulled.

I think we can conclude panic buying is what other people did; we all were either prepping or buying extra just in case.

I'm amongst those that was already a bit of a nut about toilet roll, so didn't need to buy extra as i was well stocked as standard; so the empty shelf didn't make me worry. By the time I got dangerously low (with just 6 rolls left 🤣) the whole loo roll phenomenon had past so I could just buy as normal.

It's like when Bryan Adams was No 1 for 16 weeks. Everyone now claims they hated it at the time, despite it being very clear people evidently did like it.

I didn't panic buy... But I figured out by late January (as soon as we had the first cases in England) that lockdown would be inevitable at some point.
So I did then stock up on a decent amount of household supplies and enough of the childrens medicines etc. Including a big box of Who Gives A Crap loo roll.

I also tried to warn senior management at work at get them to agree to buy in things we would need to work effectively remotely....but they thought it would never happen....

It was a time that made me realise how little most people engaged their brains, because all so many people seemed blindsided by what happened, even though other countries were several weeks ahead of us.

In a modest way, in that normally I wait until we are down to the last couple of rolls before buying any more, but when the shelves were rapidly emptying I bought another multipack - which was not my usual brand and was expensive (probably why it was one of the few left on the shelf).

Interestingly, I read later on that the shortage was largely caused by most people doing exactly what I had done - buying one or two multipacks more than they normally do - rather than a few people buying hundreds of toilet rolls.

Same. I was fully prepped by end of January. Not over the top, but we had enough to ride out a few weeks of disruption

How are we defining "panic buying"?

I would say the people who were emptying wardrobes to fit their white soft treasure in would fall into the definition. Or filled rooms with stuff.

Anyone remembers the pics online where you could see box rooms full of tp and tins through the windows?

Does it count if I "panic bought" by accident? I had a weekly supermarket order and every couple of months I order a 12-pack. I bought one week and then didn't notice it was still on the order the following week, which was the week before the Covid panic buying ramped up.

Blame me for starting the panic if you like!

We had family in china, saw what was happening, and filled the pantry before the panic buying started.

No we didn’t (my mum bought a big box online though so that was my insurance ha) interestingly though we moved to a bigger house and ever since I have bought toilet roll and other items in bulk monthly on Amazon (about 45 rolls) and we are always 1 month ahead so we have 45 rolls stored most of the time and it does give me a sense of reassurance 😂 I’m sure I wouldn’t be doing that if the memories of that time weren’t in my subconscious!

I did.

I got a Cosco membership for the first time at the start of March that year, and what else is it for, if not to buy a giant pack of toilet roll, and 5kg of rice?

It was part "I'm at Costco, what can I buy" and part "better get a few essentials, just to be safe". We are rural and quite far from the supermarket, so I always like to have enough supplies to survive a good few weeks anyway.

It wasn't very good though, so still got some in the garage.

This!

So many posters who didn’t panic buy, but critically assessed the situation and concluded there might be supply chain issues (there wasn’t in Europe for loo roll, our loo roll doesn’t come from China), so sensibly and calmly stocked up. Stocking up is not stock piling.

I do think it was regional though, round here I never saw empty loo roll shelves. Lower stock than normal, but it was always available, perhaps not your preferred brand or colour, but there was loo roll.

Sanitary towels though - those shelves were empty. I think that was just the dictate that you needed to shop once a week only, and if someone in your house wakes up with a temperature, you all had to lock down for 14 days and no one should go out. Lots of mums of teen girls were buying enough to get through all household females having a period during a 2 week shut in.

I had a panic on here that I was due on and there was nothing available in the shops, a more sensible MNer told me to check every bag I own, including evening clutch bags and wash bags etc. raided them all and realised I always put one or two in each bag “just in case” and collected up enough for every woman in our street to have a visit from aunty flo at the same time. (Down side is I didn’t replace them all and now I don’t have emergency tampons/towels in my bags)

Not toilet roll, but I did buy a 5kg bag of farfalle (my least favourite pasta shape) on impulse the week before lockdown began.

Finally finished it at some point in early 2023.

No… I panic bought wine.

Five years on,I'll happily put my hand up and say I did fo some panic buying in March 2020. I was honestly terrified of not being able to feed my children. DH wasin France with the Army and they were seriously saying everything was fine (only to get a panicked phone call as they had just been told to pack up everything as they were leaving for the coast in an hour and they would get further instructions where exactly on the coast as the border was closing!) So I was worried about him, DD wouldn't stop coughing and the government kept changing its mind about everything. My panic buying was enough food to last us two weeks by the way, I'm talking piles of tins under the bed. I'm lasted us the time we then had to isolate when DH got back. Toilet paper was just one nine pack.

Didn't panic buy toilet roll but was a bit pissed off that people who don't need to eat gluten free were buying all the pasta and flour. Frozen gluten free food sat empty for weeks because people would rather buy that than nothing
And people with genuine allergies couldn't get the food they actually needed

We did! Went to tesco the Saturday before lockdown, early so I could parkrun after. There was no toilet roll on the shelves. We didn't need toilet roll at that time as had just opened a big pack.

I admit to losing my mind a bit and sent DH to get some from Farmfoods while I ran.

We opened that pack in August 2020. I am very sorry and will take any punishment I deserve.

I grew up in a developing country and lived in others so I've always kept a full pantry because I've dealt with shortages. When I saw the panic buying on TV in Hong Kong in Feb/March 2020, I went out and got all the staples, inc plenty of toilet paper, meds etc.

So when the pandemic hit, I had plenty of everything. Now though, I get 6 months of toilet paper at a time! COVID scars...

I didn’t panic buy but did have 60+ rolls of loo roll at the time. At the end of Jan / early Feb I’d done my usual Costco shop and bulk bought loo roll, cleaning products, tins etc so didn’t have to worry about any of that.

I do think this was the biggest driver - I found empty shelves terrifying, even for things I didn’t need. So yes, later when they had stock I bought (reasonable amounts!) earlier than I otherwise would.

Does anyone else still now keep larger stock levels of anything that was hard to get?

I didn’t panic about anything, but around Christmas when the Covid news broke in other countries, I started adding a little extra to the weekly shop. Yes, loo rolls, but also two bags of frozen peas instead of one, extra tins of pulses, the big bag of pasta instead of the normal smaller one. That sort of thing. By the time the panic buying had got going here, we had a cupboard in the utility room repurposed as an extra pantry. Between that and the freezer, we would have been fine for a few weeks. I kept those stocks going, using them in rotation, and still have a decent buffer of supplies. Now I know that if we both got ill, for instance, we would manage fine on our own.

The shortages weren't caused by people panic bulk buying, but by most people buying one or two extra.

Not specifically the things that were "hard to get" during Covid, and not large stocks of anything, but I do keep more supplies generally now. I live very near to good shops and I used to run on empty cupboards and "just in time" shopping. Now I like to keep a couple of weeks' worth of dry/frozen/tinned food in stock and restock before I run low, and "one open plus one extra" and buy another as soon as I open the "extra".

Haven't read through so apologies if it has been said already but everyone saying "no I didn't panic buy, but I just bought one extra than I needed" this is panic buying! It isn't necessarily a trolley full to the brim, it is buying more than you need before you need it. The supply chain isn't prepared for this and the shortfall happens.

Reminds me of the fuel shortage and my husband coming home to say he had seen a petrol station with no queue so he got some. I said about him panic buying fuel as the tank was 3/4 full and he said no, it wasn't panic buying, I was very calm 😂

Edited to add: I doubt many people will confess, because most don't view their behaviour in that way. It is the same as being 'stuck in traffic', really you ARE the traffic, part of the problem. But we don't view ourselves in that way. I find it very interesting

We didn't, but at the time I was living in a house share with 6 other people, so we used to use Groupon to regularly buy loo roll and other household stuff like cleaning products in bulk. We'd had a new delivery just a couple of weeks before lockdown so we didn't need any for a while.

We used to joke about selling it for £5 a roll!

No that is not "panic buying". It's sensible stocking up. Unfortunately sensible stocking up can also cause shortages, if many people do it at the same time.

But it's easier to sneer at people "panic buying" that than to do anything about the fact that we don't have a very resilient supply chain.