Stocking up for a couple of weeks of supplies is fairly sensible under any circumstances; ice storms can take out power lines, which can strangle a city for a couple of weeks, hurricanes, etc. Even without a major storm, it can be difficult for many people to get around in winter conditions, and stocking up can minimise the risk of falling on an icy sidewalk for example.
It’ll be interesting to see how long the panic buy-empty shelves-restock-panic buy cycles keep going. It’s not like coronavirus increases the TP usage, so eventually the hoarders are going to run out of room to store it. (Unless they hoard and sell it on a bum-roll black market.)
There’s a Seinfeld episode for every occasion.
I used to roll my eyes a bit when I would go in some older people’s homes and see 6 month+ supplies of nearly every consumable product that had long shelf lives, food, paper products and cleaning supplies. Early on, I assumed they just couldn’t keep up with what they had or didn’t have but I slowly learned that they were simply being wise and conservative. Now, in my advanced middle age, I looked up and kind of naturally keep pretty well stocked. While I go to the grocery a couple times a week, it is mostly for fresh produce and dairy and I like being surrounded by all that food.
On my Saturday shopping trip to a couple Fred Meyer’s(Krogers owned grocery and department store) outside of Seattle, there was some paper products available while Seattle groceries were completely sold out and a lot of the “in demand” cleaning stuff was gone at the Black Diamond and Issaquah Freddy’s. Some significant holes in the canned goods sections with “out of stock” signs on them.
One thing that was going on in both stores that looked like significant belt tightening. They had gotten rid of several tables/islands in the produce section, making it roomy enough to drive around in a small car and they had removed several isles of shelving in the food end of the store and spread out the isles to like 8’ wide. It is great having all that room, but… I’m thinking they’re having trouble stocking some of the shelves or anticipating a big slow down in some upbrand food items(think recession) and better to hide empty shelves than let them sit around looking empty.
What’s the difference between hoarding TP and just buying it normally these days?
It seems damn near impossible to find TP in anything other than “hoarder pack” anymore. The kind with the math on top telling you how to convert the super-sized rolls into normal rolls.
Once you know people are buying up all the toilet paper in your area, it’s perfectly rational to buy toilet paper now, rather than waiting until you need it. You would not be to blame for that.
But if you rush to social media (or your job at a news website) to tell a hundred (thousand) people that OMG TOILET PAPER PANIC, you are to blame for that, whether or not you frame it as scolding.
Unless you’re passing on useful, dry, fact-based, new information, at this point, it is not a mitzvah to talk about coronavirus at all.
This last week “self-isolation” has been in the news so much I think it must already be a good candidate for a word of the year list.
I know if I had to self-isolate I would want plenty of food and toilet paper, so I reckon people are just trying to be prudent, but coming over as obsessive.
“. . . .toilet paper does absolutely nothing to protect you from coronavirus.”
WHAT?
I’ve been lied to!
I think that’s more of a brown market. 
Made in UK from components sourced from all over the world. The plastic wrapper in the very least is from China. There’s a chance some of the chemicals used to turn wood into soft paper are imported as well.
I just ordered some TP last week with no ssues, but i do have a recurring subscription through Amazon for various things and the only thing that was impacted was the Nido powdered milk i like to buy for my coffee.
Yes, and to that I would add, some people may be picking up extra for their friends and neighbors who don’t have cars or can’t get out to shop. I actually went out and bought extra TP back when they were first telling folks to have 2 weeks of supplies on hand, because I do all my shopping on foot and it takes an extra trip to bring home more than usual. And I bought some extra-extra because at that time my neighbors were out of town, and I had visions of them possibly coming back to find store shelves empty of TP, so I wanted to have some to give to them if needed.
If you do get sick, you are advised to drink extra fluids. Thus you will use the toilet more often. If you are female and drinking extra fluids, trust me you WILL go through more TP than usual.
Well, in that case I guess it would be wise to panic buy everything. Right now. 
This might be behind a paywall:
Some highlights:
The height of Hawaii’s toilet paper hoarding, though, may have been the Great Toilet Paper Run of January 1974.
Store managers recounted trying to talk sense to their customers, who madly snatched up as much toilet paper as they could. One manager was so distraught he yelled at the reporter, “I don’t want to talk about it!” and the paper printed his quote to illustrate his frustration.
But there was one story that year [after the panic died down] about a big retailer that ended up with a warehouse overstocked with toilet paper. Then, somebody came up with a brilliant ploy. The store announced that it was going to sell only one roll per customer. The perception of shortage kicked the whole thing up again, and the store sold out four containers in five days, at full price.
You are a very kind neighbour.
So, how much is two weeks’ worth of TP? We bought a Costco 36-roll bulk pack a week before the panic, and it seems like it’ll last a couple months for two adults.
That’s the problem with teenvirus. It has an incubation period of 12 years, then it’s symptomatic for another 6. Fortunately, affected individuals tend to stay away from the young (although it tends to spread to this group) and elderly, who seem to be immune aside from the permanent mental scars.
You can’t have a rational discussion with someone who is in a panic to “save their life”.
All the essentials, yes. You can probably hold off on things like Funko collectables.
