Seen any good deals on toilet paper lately? This week, getting any toilet paper at all might be deal enough.
Shoppers in the Southeast and beyond have been reporting and sharing photos of empty shelves in their local stores, as their fellow shoppers grab all the necessities they can amid fears of supply chain disruptions caused by the dockworkers strike at dozens of East and Gulf Coast ports.
Now in its third day, the strike by nearly 50,000 members of the International Longshoremen’s Association has halted the flow of about half the country’s shipping. That means imported items aren’t making their way from the affected ports into manufacturers’ factories or onto retailers’ shelves.
And many shoppers have reacted as they are wont to do, by hoarding toilet paper. “Every single cart at Costco has toilet paper and water and they’re running low on both,” one user posted on X. “Is it 2020 all over again?!” Another witnessed shopping carts “loaded down with toilet paper and paper towels. They were bringing out additional inventory and people were lined up getting more.” Many wondered “why does it always have to be toilet paper?!” And another user lamented that “I really thought people were going to chill out after 2020 and understand that hoarding things just takes away from others.”
As many have stated, in an attempt to reassure panic buyers, the vast majority of toilet paper is produced domestically. So while disruptions at the ports may have the most immediate effect on fresh imports like produce and seafood, it’s not affecting products like toilet paper, which are trucked to stores and not shipped. Theoretically, if the strike drags on for months, the unavailability of imported pulp used to produce toilet paper could impact the manufacturing process. But that’s a long way away, and manufacturers and retailers say they have backup plans.
“We prepare for unforeseen disruptions in our supply chain and maintain additional sources of supply to ensure we have key products available for our customers when and how they want them,” Walmart said in a statement. “We regularly prepare for potential supply chain situations,” the Texas-based grocery chain H-E-B said. “Most products are not impacted by this strike. Our stores are receiving shipments and are in a strong position that allows our partners to continue to restock shelves throughout the day.”
The problem many non-panic buyers are facing, is how to react. Do you contribute to the panic by stocking up on necessities before someone else grabs them all, or do you take the high road and abstain – and risk running out of necessities because someone else grabbed them all?
“The best answer is to try and be proactive,” one Reddit user advised. “Don’t let your supply of things like this dwindle to the absolute minimum before buying more. If you restock when you have like, a month’s supply left, and you buy 2 months at a time, it means you’re able to go a whole month if needed before getting more in a situation like this.”
That’s advice that couponers and deal-seekers offered four and a half years ago, as they showed off their existing stockpiles while others panicked in the early days of the Covid pandemic. “Good thing we’re stocked up on diapers, wipes, food, water and more because we coupon – so we’ll be good for months,” one couponer said back when there was a similar run on toilet paper and other necessities. “Everyone laughed at my stockpiling,” another said. But once others ran out of what they needed, “ya’ll are going to be jealous that I have 20 boxes of pasta, 50 cans of soups and enough hand soap to disinfect the entire block.” Another online commenter stated drolly that, when the emergency passed, “coupon moms will be the only survivors.”
We are, of course, just a month away from a presidential election. So the strike and its impact, both real and imagined, have taken on political overtones, as many point fingers at political leaders, candidates, big business and the media for putting us in a situation where panic buying is happening at all. The worst part for couponers and deal-seekers who are already stocked up, is that deals may dry up in the days and weeks to come – as we learned several years ago, manufacturers don’t offer many coupons and retailers don’t put many items on sale when they’re in short supply and they’re already flying off the shelves at full price.
So here’s hoping you make it through the great toilet paper panic 2.0. And if you keep yourself well-supplied with necessities after this all blows over, you won’t need to panic at all whenever version 3.0 comes around.
Image source: Classic-Extreme6122/Reddit
Sadly, the current sitting president could resolve this port strike issue with the stroke of a pen by invoking the Taft-Hartley Act. But he won’t because he is really incompetent/senile and/or genuinely hates Americans.