Toilet paper? What is this fascination with toilet paper? Before the virus panic hit, I just happened to buy a case of it at Costco. Even if my experimental cooking leads to prolonged cases of dysentery, that case will last us two months, easy.
Why toilet paper?
And how about bottled water? Is water not going to come out of the tap any more? Here in San Diego, our water tastes dreadful, but we can survive on it.
Yesterday, I found myself at that metrosexual, hipster, grocery store, Whole Foods, aka Whole Paycheck. I was looking for harissa, which is a North African sauce used in some French and African dishes I want to try. It's weird enough that I braved the land of Priuses, Volts and scrawny, tatted, man-bunned androgynes because I knew I wouldn't be able to find it anywhere else.
I discovered that even among the fully woke elites, shelves had been stripped bare.
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| ZOMG! They're all out of organic, sustainable, non-GMO, Himalayan mung beans! |
Saw a story yesterday where a psychologist was quoted saying that hoarding or panic buying sets in when people are getting contradictory information to the point where they feel out of control, and that grabbing the stuff makes feel more in control. He said that toilet paper was “mental comfort food”, which is why people buy quantities that are out of line with any actual need. Unlike a lot of what psychologists say, this actually makes sense to me.
ReplyDeletetoilet paper was “mental comfort food”
ReplyDeleteGood Lord.
Toilet paper is mostly invented.
ReplyDeleteStarted, I would guess, with people like me going "huh, they're doing two week quarantines on that kung flu thing, is my TP good?" (ours was fine, so I didn't buy another pack)
Then the news was desperate for a story, so they said all the TP was running out. Even if they had to empty the shelves themselves for the on site reporting. (Another trick is to take pictures of the gardening center, in areas it's not stocked for spring yet.)
So people who have a week or so TP on hand went "oh, that would suck to run out-- I should grab a pack when I hit the store next time, just to be safe."
Well, the stores only HAVE roughly a week's worth of normal sale amount TP.
So if just a third of folks grab an extra pack they're not SURE they need, they're sold out half a week early.
Then the news seriously freaks out about how TP is being "hoarded," so anybody who passes the aisle and isn't completely sure they've got more than enough, will grab a pack.
A significant portion of the "eh, I've got most of a pack at home, but better to be safe" folks then go on to FaceTube and screech at folks for "hoarding" and "panic buying," because of course their actions weren't either....
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Bottled water is nice to have on hand if you're sick, because you can close the lid.
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I wonder how much of the mountain of "hey, in this difficult time, we're still open" email was triggered by places where they're thinking everything is quarantined.
... toilet paper and beans?!?
ReplyDeleteVery funny!
Foxie, great analysis. I totally agree that the mad rush to the stores is a media-generated panic.
ReplyDeleteNo one will be held accountable.
I suspect that I have it (*), so I'm not going to work Monday lest I spread it to the sick and elderly people that we transport to/from appointments.
ReplyDeleteI'm now wishing that I had actually bought some (fresh) food when I stopped by the grocers Friday evening. But, I was planning to travel to Indiana for the weekend, and the frozen item I'd intended to buy was sold out, so I bought nothing at all.
It's strange. Under normal circumstances, I'm content to not leave the house for days. But, now that I'm practicing extreme "social distancing", I really want to get out.
(*) So far, I can't find out how to get tested.
Fingers crossed llion it's just a cold. I'm suspecting that it's a new strain of the flu, still serious but not much different to the usual flu epidemics. If it wakes up the world generally and the US particularly to the yuge problem China is, a lot of good will come from it.
ReplyDeleteOhio has setup a "Covid-19 response call center" (open 9 AM to 8 PM -- Wow! A whole 4 hours past bureaucrat quitting time!) ... but the line always returns a busy signal. The local Department of Health directs you to that number ... and then your call is disconnected.
ReplyDeleteBest wishes for a full and speedy recovery. Keep us all posted as you are up to it.
ReplyDelete