It's the result of a kneejerk panic response and bad information.
The TP thing started with misinformation passed around in Australia that toilet paper was maufactured in China and thus would run out. Untrue, Oz makes its own, generally. Once mass panic sets in though, people don't listen to reason or facts.
The media reported heavily on the hysteria a world away without making the point people were acting on bad information and now people in multiple other countries are convinced that, because some people are pancking and hoarding TP, they should too. There is literally zero thought going into this, just dumb animal panic.
I went to my local Lidl last night and the whole aisle waas stripped bare. There was a pile of multipack TP elsewhere in the store with a 'Get It While You Can!' sign posted prominently above it. The pasta was mysteriously depeleted too. No other food item, just that. Funny, the papers have been reporting in the same way on pasta as TP too. Nothing much else was gone apart from the usual lack of hand gel and depleted liquid soap. Bar soap still there aplenty. I guess if the media were to report a panic on bar soap, suddenly that would become the musthave item too.
People can be fucking stupid.
