Toilet paper shortage across Australia

[Golddess0]

Does anyone have any helpful suggestions regarding this recent insanity happening Australia wide, every store I’ve visited over the past three days is out of tissues, toilet paper and kitchen paper, even baby wipes (wet ones)!

our supplies are rather low and it’s a concern on what to do regarding our guests 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

Judging by the media I think the shops will restock pretty quickly and eventually people will stop stockpiling when they can't fit anymore toilet rolls into their houses.

Good luck @Golddess0 and I hope you don't run out before the above happens

[Sharon1014]

@Mike-And-Jane0  Hilarious 

https://twitter.com/i/status/1235003502943817729

[Emilia42]

@Golddess0 

I'm sorry but I think this is too funny. The same thing is happening in the US. As if our world thinks that toilet paper is as great a necessity as food and water. But it does pose a problem for Airbnb hosts. Can you order toilet paper online? Ugh, people have probably drained that supply too.

[Marg11]

This is real. 50% of Australian paper products are manufactured in China, sometimes with our exported softwood. In Western Australia stocks of Australian paper products are trucked for 2 days from South Australia or further east, 3-4 days. We have 9 double rolls left for our 2 guests arriving Friday for 3 weeks plus 2 rolls in our wc and ? in the flat with our current guests. We can manage without tissues and paper towels so will we need to cancel guests?

[Anonymous]

@Marg11   If you were the guest, would you rather be asked to furnish your own TP, or have your booking cancelled on you?

[Sharon1014]

@Marg11  We don't replenish the initial supply (of anything) for longer stay guests.  6 rolls of loo paper, 1 double length paper towel roll, 1 box of tissues to begin, then they have to replace themselves.  Just point them to the nearest supermarket, suppliers are restocking distributors asap given the crazy spree people have been on.

[Marg11]

Thanks, for all the tips Hosts but not sure if I want to teach guests to use a bidet. Our sewers can't take fabric or newspaper and not sure our water supply would handle a shower after each visit. 

Our guests arrived expecting a tp shortage but we had been able to purchase our usual bulk supply plus tissues. They were delighted!

[Michelle53]

Shelves are empty in our big retailers, too. I was at our local warehouse store (Costco) on Sunday, doing my weekly shop, and it was beyond crazy.   I went back there yesterday, forgot to get cat litter, and the shelves were lower-stocked than I've ever seen. Staff members were overheard commenting they'd never seen anything like it.   People were checking out pallet-loads of bottled water. I'm not really sure why - our city water is perfectly drinkable. 

Anecdotally, a few weeks back, I bought toilet rolls for my guest suite, in error. I actually should have purchased paper towels. So I have stock of both, now.

For myself, I buy the recycled jumbo industrial rolls.  Cheaper, and last longer. 

The price gouging, though, online, is abysmal.    eBay, always a source of amusement and irritation,  has listings for face masks for thousands of dollars.  Amazon pulled down hundreds of thousands of listings for making false claims or price gouging. 

[Lawrene0]

One of our local firefighters was off-duty yesterday and shopping at Costco, about an hour away. He said a fight broke out over the last bale of toilet paper in the store. A fight! The last bale! I thought he was joking. This is Canada; I have never seen a fight in a store. I have never seen an empty shelf at that Costco. And then I read the news...

As @Anonymous suggests, if it comes to it, I will ask my guests to bring their own TP. Chances are it will be no problem because they will have it stockpiled!

[Michelle53]

@Lawrene0  I saw some of the video of Costco shopping lines over the weekend.   Sorry that panic has also invaded Canada !     

Worst case scenario, people will have to use newspaper.  I guess we will get bad ratings for that.

[Sarah977]

@Michelle53  Leaves. Stacks of cut-up fabric scraps. A pail of water with a drying rag.

It's actually quite scary to think what would happen in a massive worldwide crisis, I mean one that didn't just involve people panicking and stockpiling things that are really unnecessary for this situation. There's such a fine line between humans acting civilized and reverting to barbarians. Lord of the Flies.

[Michelle53]

@Sarah977  I remember reading somewhere that our supply chains are built on constantly-circulating delivery vehicles, with everything planned for just-in-time delivery, and that, if there was an oil shortage, we'd be three days, or something like that, from empty shelves. 

Edit: I think the veneer of civilization is already thin amongst Costco shoppers,  particularly when trying to find parking in the parking lot. 

One time, I pulled up to fill up gas - it was one of those very rare days when half the pumps were available.  It took me a minute to dig in my briefcase for my wallet.  Meanwhile, an individual in a giant white pickup pulled up behind me, and started to yell out the window "This isn't a f****   parking lot".    At which point, something in me boiled over, and I got out of the car and started swearing a blue streak at the guy. He left. Other patrons applauded.  

[Sarah977]

@Michelle53  Pipeline tapping is a big problem in Mexico. In an attempt to stymie this, last year, just before Xmas, the president of Mexico shut down a lot of the pipelines, and they were delivering gas and propane by truck. Except they didn't have near enough trucks, so there was a terrible shortage in a number of states. They'd get some in, and people were instantly in a huge line-up at the gas station, only for it to run out again before all the vehicles could get fuel. I was kind of stuck at home for about a week, as I only had enough gas to get to the gas station once, I couldn't chance it. And I just happened to run out of propane in my 2 cylinders at the same time. I have a small spare tank that I had to keep switching back and forth from the cooking stove to the hot water heater (almost all stoves and water heaters run on propane in Mexico) as needed, and had to be very conservative with it, taking quick showers ad keeping cooking to a minimum. I had a guest at the time and she had to let me know about 30 minutes before she wanted to shower, so I could switch the tank over. Luckily, she was  Mexican and understood that the situation was entirely outside of my control.

Of course, this would happen over Xmas/New Year's, when tourism is at a high. It was quite the debacle.

[Michelle53]

@Sarah977  I can only imagine !