My mother indicated yesterday that at her bridge game earlier in the day, the ladies at her table were talking about stockpiling toilet paper. One of the ladies said that her daughter heard from someone (on the internet) that all of Australia’s toilet paper comes from China and Australia is about to run out of toilet paper as China isn’t making any because of the coronavirus shutdown. Some of the others were planning to go shopping after the bridge game to stock up so that they didn’t run out.
I said to my mother that this wasn’t the case and that Australia produces a bulk of its local supply. She was aware of this and tried to tell the others but they were hell bend on believing the internet myth.
It appears that myths (fake news) are perpetuated and exacerbated by the fear of the unknown.
I have only the bare minimum of storage so I buy what I need, special or not.
Two women were filling their shallow trolley with packs of dried soup this morning. As I went past, they had at least 30 boxes and were still going. Selfish.
I had thought this morning of suggesting that Murdoch’s rags could be put to better use but then I became concerned that they might actually work in reverse.
Whilst at our local Supa IGA on Tuesday, I saw a sedan and a small van with Protection Plus Security signage and markings deceptively similat to police patrol vehicles on them. Both drivers were carrying Glock pistols.
I thought that they must have been talking to management about doing their banking or upgrading their store security.
I now strongly suspect that they were organising armed guard escorts for the toilet paper deliveries to the store.
That is priceless. Love it.
The rest of my comment is based on local experience. I went to my local town after not shopping for over 10 days and found that both Coles and Woolies were well stocked except for Woolies which was pretty much depleted of TP. It’s probably more of a comment on the number of people who use Coles vs. Woolies in my town, or that Coles was resupplied before Woolies. Anyway, apart from TP, every other shelf and aisle looked normal. Maybe the panic hasn’t quite set in for most rural areas. Or maybe, like most people who live around rural towns, we need to have a supply of foods on hand anyway because we can not just waltz up to the supermarket at any time.
It is always good to be prudent, I think Panic Buying is when you buy in such quantities you resemble a dooms-day survivalist. As for toilet paper, I wouldn’t be surprised if the media or social media ran a story about a Coronavirus hot-spot running out of toilet paper & suddenly everyone equates the virus with that quintessential comfort product. Maybe this would be a good time to consider a bidet toilet seat.
Even with real shortages of face & surgical masks a little imagination will pull you through. Googling novelty face masks result in a positive as with ‘Headskinz’, you know, those things commando’s use to cover their face from the TV cameras. Visit a dress fabrics store for T-shirt material or just hold a hanky up to your face around strangers.
… got this through from Woolworths a few minutes ago …
from the ‘you just can’t make this stuff up’ corner …
An important update on toilet paper and other essential items
Dear XXXXXXX,
I’d like to update you on the shortages we’re seeing in toilet paper and other essential items.
As you may have read, or seen for yourself, these are unusual and challenging times. We know it can be frustrating when we don’t have the products you need, or when delivery or Pick up windows are filled more than usual.
We’re working very closely with our suppliers to get products onto shelves as quickly as we can. The makers of Kleenex, Sorbent, Quilton and Woolworths own range of toilet paper have all increased their production to meet this very unusual demand.
For example, the makers of Kleenex are now manufacturing 24 hours, 7 days a week at their Millicent, SA factory, as are Sorbent in their NSW and Victorian facilities. And the makers of Quilton have tripled their normal production across their factories in Queensland, NSW and WA.
It’s worth noting that the vast majority of products aren’t affected and most stores aren’t seeing significant shortages. But to make sure everyone has access to essential items, we’ve introduced some common-sense limits to a few products. We’ve limited toilet paper to 4 packs per transaction and large packs of rice (2kg and over) to 1 per transaction. Where available, hand sanitiser is now at the Customer Service Desk and limited to 2 per transaction.
We’re constantly monitoring the situation and will do our best to keep all products freely available to everyone. However, if we see new shortages, we may introduce other limits. We’ll only do this if we think it’s absolutely necessary and to help make sure all customers can access the products they need. We’ll keep you updated in our stores and on our website as things change.
Our team members are doing the very best they can, so please support them, and each other.
Thank you for your patience and understanding as we work through this together.
Maybe I should drive over to Woolworths in the morning if Coles havent had an overnight. The woman on the service desk told me thats normally what happens, overnight delivery along wth the food.
I think that the expectation is that delivery drivers will be spread very thin: both because everyone else will want home deliveries AND because they will be just as susceptible to infection as the general population (if not more because of their frequent interactions) and themselves will be isolated/quarantined. Overseas media is predicting home deliveries will at least double but there has been little or no recruitment of extra drivers/vehicles in preparation for this.
It’s possible that there will be a point where the virus is so widespread, the principle of isolation will only apply to those highly likely to have the infection, vs the current quarantine of all those who have had contact. The latter is taking out 10, 20, or more active and necessary/useful staff/workers when their roles are essential. We still need the lights on.
Can we sustain quarantining more than 5% of any part of the population at one time without paralysing the nation? Perhaps we will need to fall back on good basic health measures to minimise the rate of transmission, and ease the burden on healthcare? The virus will not simply turn up and be gone from a community in two weeks. The Spanish Flu epidemic came through in two-three waves. Each affected communities for months, before coming back again and again.
Fair enough… but as my dad also pointed out (wisdom of the older generations I suppose) a lot of people will likely have unaffected friends and family who could do grocery runs as well.
If only people would access services like that on a “needs” basis rather than a “wants” basis, so that the services were still available for people who did actually need them, we’d be ok.
But from the looks of the toilet paper shelves at Woolies, people are spectacularly incapable of putting the needs of others ahead of their own wants.
