I think another issue with TP, specifically, is that people don’t have a sense of how long a given amount will last. I have no clue. I know we usually buy a new “big” package when we get down to 4-5 rolls. How often is that? I have no idea. Not as often as once a month, more than twice a year? And then it’s different because now we are all home all day. It makes it very hard to eyeball my TP stash and think “Okay, we are good for X weeks”. It’s really tempting to overcompensate.
If that’s the only way the store can keep from having empty shelves most of the day, I’ll fully support their limiting people to two rolls. But, even if we assume that two rolls would last a week (some entirely normal households have half a dozen or so people in them), I think it’s entirely legitimate not to want to have to go to the store every week. I haven’t been to a standard grocery store for two weeks, and may not go to one for another two. A month is longer than most people can readily manage, but I think quite a few people can wait for two weeks. (Some can’t, of course; some have no storage space; and some people can’t afford to stock ahead.)
We can estimate. Looks like about 400 squares per roll. How many squares do you use at once?
For a #2, maybe you use 16-20 squares, once per day?
Ladies, for a #1, how many squares do you use? Maybe 4 squares, 6 times a day?
I expect these numbers will vary widely from person to person, but for this estimate, let’s say women use 44 squares per day and men use 20 squares per day. So a couple confined to their home will burn through 64 squares per day, meaning you might reasonably expect to use approximately one roll a week; a 30-pack ought to get you through the next six months. If you have additional digestive tracts living in your home, then usage goes up accordingly.
Anyone else want to come up with their own estimate?
Stocking up is what you did in January and February.
Hoarding/panic buying is what you did around the 10th of March.
The difference is in the headlines.
It ought to be possible to figure this out fairly well within a week, though. Note the date, and the state of the open roll (in each bathroom, if there’s more than one). Note when you open the next one. Note when you open the one after that. Now you know how long a roll lasts under your current circumstances; and, if you’ve gone a week without noting starting a roll, then you know that a roll (in a given bathroom) lasts longer than a week.
And this situation’s gone on for several weeks already – more like a month and a half since I first started hearing of shortages. Wouldn’t most people have some idea by now?
For that matter, everyone who can should be trying as much as possible to have everything essential in stock, at any given time, for at least the next 14 days; because anyone who’s discovered to have been exposed may be expected, or required, to quarantine for that long. And this might be applied to such things as having had packages delivered by a driver who shortly afterwards tested positive.
So I wouldn’t say that keeping in stock a month’s worth, or even a couple of months’ worth, of necessary items that you actually use is hoarding. But buying more of an item that’s known to be in shortage when you’ve already got six months’ worth I still say is out of line.