Don't consumers have more food waste than restaurants? I believe I read something about that a while ago.

You're right for TP though. Imho that was simply a reaction to people understanding "you might have to be quarantined at home" as "you can't go out or get things delivered during that time, ever", and preparing adequately. Once they have their stash and/or realize that quarantined doesn't mean post-apocalyptic head-for-the-bunker, they'll relax and return to normal rates. It's important to quickly stock the shelves though, empty shelves make people nervous, and they'll overreact when they're nervous, buying more than they need ("the government and companies can't handle this situation, better stock up") and thus increase the problem.

Any future movies that take place in an apocalypse and don’t reference toilet paper are going to have real fidelity issues.

There was also a "everyone else is stripping the shelves bare, I better get some" reaction. I've tried to avoid buying more than I think I genuinely need, but my idea of what I genuinely need definitively shifted when I saw I could not easily get relative essentials near me because other people were buying as much as they could possibly get.

I've stuck with a relatively conservative 2-3 week supply of noodles and rice, and the kind of toilet paper supply I'd normally buy anyway but where I'd previously be ok with waiting until I had a couple of rolls left before reordering. But that is mentally more effort than just panic-buying - I'm ok with 2-3 weeks because I've kept a close eye on supplies and know I can still top up, but if I'd just panic bought everything I could get my hands on I wouldn't have needed to put the effort into keeping track.

And even millions of people trying to be similarly restrained but accounting for the reality that others aren't still has a massive negative effect.

Overall I agree with you that it needs to bottom out soon, though. And I also very much agree about the psychological effect of keeping shelves look stocked.

> Yeah, but the office was buying it at Costco too, and now they aren't.

office depot delivers TP with the copier paper and kleenex. IME that's been more common than costco for any business large enough to have an office manager.

So office depot can sell it to the public, or the shipments can be redirected to costco. It's a pretty minor adjustment either way.

Well,if people would only be buying to consume it.Ebay has pages and pages of listing of toilet paper now. How I hope we'll beat the virus sooner than all those bastards trying to sell it.

I think a lot of people were also building a "if I'm sick for a month" stash. But yeah, once past that things return to normal.

There seem to be articles saying that COVID-19 sometimes manifests with digestive symptoms first, and those symptoms are usually (85%) diarrhea.