The run on toilet paper is the most unlikely phenomenon to come about due to the Corona virus threat. Why in the world would people raid the store shelves of the stuff?
This ranks right up there with the tulip mania described in the interesting book, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, whereby gullible people were bidding up the price of tulips simply because others wanted them.
Here's the funny part. There is no shortage of toilet paper nation wide. But the product just isn't in the stores. According to CBS, America has plenty of toilet paper. Stocking empty store shelves is the hard part. Transportation pipeline is where the choke point developed. They just can't get it from factory to store fast enough to satisfy the demand. And boy! Is there demand!
And those people slow to the game will wipe out the store shelves as soon as they are restocked. It could continue until every last person in the country has more than he/she has space to store it.
You can't reason with a panic.
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1:21 PM 3/18/2020
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