Toilet Paper Shortage of 2021

Couldn't you find a cob of corn in all of Iowa? You could have carried it around your neck on a string for use "on-the-go."
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During the pandemic, I went to the local general store in my town. They were selling 1 roll of Scott 1,000 sheet toilet paper for $5 each.
They had a limit of 1 per person. They were acting like they are doing the town a service by making sure each person could have "some toilet paper" to prevent hoarding. The only hoarding going on there was that general store hoarding all our money.
Ya they were doing the 1 roll per person thing here too..Dont work with 5 people in the house.
 
I was able to shop some different hours as first responder. I would get if available but I already had like 2 Costco/Bj's/Sams sized ones "spare". I would ask wife if her family/friends needed any and her answer was they wouldn't pay us. No mark ups, what ever I paid was it. I did share some with fellow first responders that couldn't get there at those times. I even took some orders for "hey next time can you get one for me?" sure no problem, I'll drop it by your house if I get one.

Also got some other food supplies for others that were afraid to shop. I pass 2 BJ's and 3 Costco's on my way home form work daily. Sam's is a bit out of my way. Stopping was no issue.

I learned from dad long ago to be prepared. Fuel up everything before storms including gas cans, spare propane for grill, always have a good supply of canned goods/pasta/canned chicken/tuna. Stuff we eat normally. Mark some dates and use oldest. next shopping trip, buy to replace stock. Make sure generator runs and run it at least every other month.

We lost power for over a week with hurricane Sandy and it got cold. I'd fire up generator, warm up house, everyone take a nice shower, get fridge/freezers cold and shut back down. Family wanted to run generator to watch movies.....OK....NO. Gas stations were limited due to no power and not able to get fuel. Not wasting on TV/movies.
 
One issue was they had no retail TP but those giant 1 foot diameter commercial rolls were surplus - no public restrooms. The local Tienda was selling them. Someone got them somewhere. Leave it to people who grew up in the 3rd world to figure it out. We’re all too spoiled and lazy.

I had lots so I didn’t buy any. The home made tortillas were still available also which is why I was there in the first place.
 
After the pandemic, I stocked my basement with a mini supermarket with canned food, and several year's worth of toilet paper.
My home gets it's water from a natural well, so we're prepared for any future pandemics or crisis.
I use a Sharpie marker and write the Month/Year on everything I bring into the house.
It helps me to rotate the stock and keep things fresh.
 
I despise the fools that were hoarding things then taking advantage of others by selling it @4x the price.
If you remember, at the beginning of the pandemic (before it got really bad).
Two brothers were traveling ALL AROUND Kentucky and buying up ALL the Perell and hand-sanitizers.
They planned on jacking up the price and making a nice profit.

Then the pandemic became alot worse and the two brothers began receiving death threats.
They ended up donating it to various places.
 
Trevor Noah had it right. I won't directly link a clip since there was some salty language, but his overall tone was pretty sensible when talking about fighting in stores over toilet paper.

People. What are you doing?
I really don't understand what people.
You do not need to panic over toilet paper.
Water I would understand, alright.
Food, medicine, yes.
But you can survive without toilet paper.
Don't forget you're in a bathroom
Oh how will I clean [myself] in this room with a shower?
I feel like people in first world countries don't know what to panic about.
 
When toilet paper supplies dried up we had a healthy stock on hand bought cheaply.
I got an emailed coupon from Staples for thirty bucks off an order of sixty or more, and they showed cases of commercial Northern available which came to around fifty cents a roll after the coupon, with free delivery, so I grabbed the offer. They tried to cancel a couple of times by delaying expected delivery date, but we got it.
Sometimes you get lucky.
This was kind of like where if everyone decided to fill their gas tanks at the same time fuel supplies would run out. If everyone decided to buy a six month supply of toilet paper at the same time guess what happened.
 
I have a funny story (at least I think so 😁 ) about this subject. We (family of 5) don't really stock up on anything per se, but do shop at Costco and so at times will have a healthy supply of TP, paper towels, that sort of thing. Well our supplies were dwindling in the midst of this TP shortage. Went to Costco (at the time they were letting old folks get in early and then limiting the number of people in the store) and alas while they had plenty of other things, no TP at all.

There is a random Weis supermarket (not where we usually shop, which were all out too) behind the Costco, so I figured I'd run in there and see what they had. Go to the paper products aisle which is almost entirely empty except for a single big cardboard box. I saunter over to check it out, and it's a 96 roll box of "Nittany Lion" TP. I looked both ways up and down the aisle thinking is this for real? Picked it up and took it to the checkout, said can I just buy this whole thing? Yes and I was on my way.

I don't recommend Nittany Lion TP but it's better than a rock or corn cob!

jeff
 
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