Why is it specifically toilet roll that's running out?

[Eckhart]

Pasta is too, but less so, it seems, and not as soon. Given that snot and poo aren't prolific symptoms of COVID -19... why toilet roll?

My friend in Australia said it was because the Chinese were buying it up and sending it back there .Apparently their factories had been either shut down or had been manufacturing face masks so now there is a huge shortage in China.To be compared with the time the Baby Milk Powder was tainted in China.The Chinese came in large numbers and cleared the shelves of Baby milk here in Central Europe and Australia.After many parents here were unable to buy milk for their babies purchase was restricted to two boxes per person.It was being re- sold at a huge profit on the black market in China.

Where I am, the shelves are empty of toilet roll, tissues, handwash, hand cream, medicines, pasta, rice and noodles

Also there were only 3 tins of the milk formula my baby has yesterday.

Bread flour unavailable for 2 weeks now
Once the shelf looks empty an instinct kicks

Tinned mushrooms are the go to stock item here!

Pasta and rice are low but clearly being restocked, loo roll a bit lower than normal but nothing special.

I was wondering about the pasta. Are people just going to eat plain pasta for a week? Why not just do an ordinary food shop with your usual nice things? Our food shop usually lasts a week and current advice is self isolate for 7 days.

If you are told not to go out, and can't go shopping, it is a horrible thing to live without.

I'd rather hose down in a shower

Pasta keeps though and can easily get jar sauces that last ages.

You dont have to eat it plain

The sauces were still on the shelves today! But all the pasta gone!

I thought it started in Japan due to misreporting of resources being diverted to be used for facemasks. Then other countries ran stories of the empty shelves and people didn't want to be in that situation.

@MilkLady02 Current advice is not to panic buy. I don't think people are following current advice.

I thought this too, hand sanitizers I can understand as they have a clear link but loo roll?

I’m attributing it to a herd mentality- people see others doing it or see empty shelves and copy others as they think they’re missing out; people want to feel like they’re doing something productive as they may feel lost due to the lack of guidance, so they feel like they’re taking control etc. Others are preparing for an extended period of staying at home. There isn’t a clear link but I can sort of understand now.

The sauces were still on the shelves today! But all the pasta gone!

That's strange. It proves that people just follow the crowd and see other people doing it.

If I was going to bother to panic buy I'd buy bags of pasta and a few jars of sauce.

NFI crazy isn’t it .

@Eckhart
Good point!

It’s gone crazy! I’ve just cancelled my online food shop for tomorrow because most of it was unavailable so there was no point having it. I was only trying to do my normal weekly food shop, no panic buying here. I’m going to have to go searching the supermarkets tomorrow now in the hope of finding what I need. If everyone just behaved normally it would all be ok. All the panic buying is just causing extra problems and stress for people. All the manic panic buyers are really pissing me off. So bloody selfish.

I bought one extra pack of loo roll with each weekly shop over four weeks. Have avoided panic buying and so depleting the shelves by staggering it. For the last week we haven’t been able get any though, so dipping into the reserve ones now . I am sure the shops will catch up, there is a limit to how much anyone needs, or has space for. I wanted extra as the dc in particular seem to use stupid amounts of the stuff, and so when we are all home we get through a lot in a week , and I am trying to have enough food and necessities to keep us all going for two or three weeks minimum.

Well they say (proved later to be false) that the same raw materials are used to make masks as for toilet paper..

I assumed it was because of a fragile supply chain. There was a fair bit of reporting about it in the context of Brexit.

“Khurram Iqbal, managing director of Manchester-based Nova Tissue Ltd, told Metro.co.uk as little as a week of delays could put suppliers in deep water. Mr Iqbal said: ‘Given how heavily reliant the UK is on imports of the main raw material needed to produce both toilet tissue and kitchen roll (jumbo reels), it is only natural that customers are concerned about keeping stocks of paper products high.”

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/metro.co.uk/2019/08/14/toilet-paper-shelves-empty-no-deal-brexit-causes-supply-delays-10572133/amp/

People are stupid, that’s why

*The sauces were still on the shelves today! But all the pasta gone!
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That's strange. It proves that people just follow the crowd and see other people doing it*

Well, no. Perhaps the shops just didn't have the right amount of sauce to go with the pasta in stock. You wouldn't buy sauce if there was no pasta left. People will have bought ingredients to make their own sauce too. Not an indication of had mentality, necessarily.

@Alwaysreadyforbed Care to elaborate, or just here to judge?

I asked the same question on another thread and got told it was bloody obvious. No, or I wouldn't have asked why . Anyway, apparently at times of strife, ensuring you have plenty of loo roll in stock brings comfort. It's not just limited to the current virus pandemic, happens with other things as well.

@wowfudge Has loo roll squirrelled its way into people's lofts and basements during other crises, then? I've seen food run low before, but not this.

My local supermarket had no : water, paracetamol, ibuprofen, calpol, cereal, eggs, long life milk, pasta, rice, spaghetti, passata, tinned veg or fruit