Ok, what is wrong with people! Hoarding toilet paper...

[GO FURTHER]

Originally Posted by Franco Cozzo

Local shops out here in Boganistan are effected by the panic buyers, there's low to no essentials at the local shops.

I thought in our isolated hick village we'd be right but the locals have bought into the hysteria.

I think the hoarders themselves are more contagious than those with the virus.

You may not have the hoarding "bug" yet, but when you go to your local supermarket, see the shelves empty, you think, "Hmm... Why should I miss out and go without because I've done the right thing... Maybe I better start hoarding myself as well!"

So we all eventually become infected with the hoarding bug.

[Tickford.]

Originally Posted by GO FURTHER

I think the hoarders themselves are more contagious than those with the virus.

You may not have the hoarding "bug" yet, but when you go to your local supermarket, see the shelves empty, you think, "Hmm... Why should I miss out and go without because I've done the right thing... Maybe I better start hoarding myself as well!"

So we all eventually become infected with the hoarding bug.

We have always done our grocery shopping on a Sunday. With our work hours, none of us have time to get to the shops during the week. Except maybe a Friday night. Went today and there was nothing. Even fruit and vegetables shelves were almost bare. Came home with a handful of stuff, total under $50!! When it's usually about 4 times as much. Two weeks in a row!

I have notified work that I will be in late all this week, in an attempt to re-stock our soon to be empty pantry by doing some early morning shopping every day of this week. Still doubt I will be able to get any TP tough.

[DOC]

If there is a tip (for now) think outside of the box, instead of rushing to major shopping centres go to the smaller out of the way IGA stores etc as most of them are still stocked for now, but guess these won't last long either.

[MITCHAY]

Originally Posted by DOC

If there is a tip (for now) think outside of the box, instead of rushing to major shopping centres go to the smaller out of the way IGA stores etc as most of them are still stocked for now, but guess these won't last long either.

Yep our local IGA looked well stocked because most people including myself don't bother since there is an Aldi and Woolies up the road. I usually buy everything in between my main shop from the IGA though

I picked up some chicken since there was **** all at Woolies. I told the bloke be prepared for you shelves to be stripped bare because the rest will catch on eventually.

I will be right for maybe a week or week and a half but worried what the next shop is going to look like.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by GO FURTHER

I think the hoarders themselves are more contagious than those with the virus.

You may not have the hoarding "bug" yet, but when you go to your local supermarket, see the shelves empty, you think, "Hmm... Why should I miss out and go without because I've done the right thing... Maybe I better start hoarding myself as well!"

So we all eventually become infected with the hoarding bug.

Might be appearing on my own reality TV show

[CoupeKing]

[prydey]

Originally Posted by GO FURTHER

I think the hoarders themselves are more contagious than those with the virus.

You may not have the hoarding "bug" yet, but when you go to your local supermarket, see the shelves empty, you think, "Hmm... Why should I miss out and go without because I've done the right thing... Maybe I better start hoarding myself as well!"

So we all eventually become infected with the hoarding bug.

some can't afford to. that's the simple truth. we buy what we need to get to the next week.

[bundera]

Originally Posted by DOC

If there is a tip (for now) think outside of the box, instead of rushing to major shopping centres go to the smaller out of the way IGA stores etc as most of them are still stocked for now, but guess these won't last long either.

Also office supply shops, Bunnings and even Woolies/Coles servos have bum rolls

[BENT_8]

See this is where living in Adelaide's northern suburbs has its advantages, no one can afford to hoard food and other essentials so the stores have plenty of stock.

I asked the Wife on Thursday if she thought we we're being complacent in not doing anything to prepare ourselves in case the bug comes knocking at our door, we're a family of 5 so current stocks wouldn't last long if we we're forced to isolate.
We decided to grab a few things which will keep, 6 jars of pasta sauces, 4 jars of chicken tonight sauces, 3 of each of beans and spaghetti, some dry pasta packets, 8l of long life milk, 3kg of mince meat and 8 chicken breast fillets, about what we'd go through in a few weeks and figured if we don't need it for isolation purposes it'll just be things we wont need to buy in future shopping and will cycle it through as we go.

[prydey]

Originally Posted by BENT_8

See this is where living in Adelaide's northern suburbs has its advantages, no one can afford to hoard food and other essentials so the stores have plenty of stock.

I asked the Wife on Thursday if she thought we we're being complacent in not doing anything to prepare ourselves in case the bug comes knocking at our door, we're a family of 5 so current stocks wouldn't last long if we we're forced to isolate.
We decided to grab a few things which will keep, 6 jars of pasta sauces, 4 jars of chicken tonight sauces, 3 of each of beans and spaghetti, some dry pasta packets, 8l of long life milk, 3kg of mince meat and 8 chicken breast fillets, about what we'd go through in a few weeks and figured if we don't need it for isolation purposes it'll just be things we wont need to buy in future shopping and will cycle it through as we go.

you can still order online even if you have to isolate yourself. if you are infected, they just leave it at the door.

[falcon_bandit]

Cases are starting to pop-up here and these "hoarders" might actually be onto something. Scientists are saying without any exaggerating, that this virus is going to run through EVERYONE eventually, not a case of it, but when. Stocking up on basics while u can is the only advice given. My wife is a smoker, has had a history of pneumonia and respiratory issues, it scares me that she might not make it through this. My parents are aged 60 and 70. Scary times indeed.

[Citroënbender]

Originally Posted by prydey

you can still order online even if you have to isolate yourself. if you are infected, they just leave it at the door.

Woolies are suspending deliveries in Mexico, I’m sure other states will follow.

[Polyal]

We are a family of 6 who also have been caught up by the TP saga, we have 4 rolls left and I just bought the last tissue paper box in Woolies yesterday (the box was damaged but IDGAF as the paper inside was fine).

What the heck...we still have food on the shelves here but we just did our normal shop and I am the same, you start to think should I be getting more when others do...

But no, we got what we needed and at any one time we usually have enough food etc to get through 2 weeks if we eat the place out.

Its heavily amusing, but also a bit crazy.

We had booked a week in Melbourne to see some elderly family members and haven't booked accommodation yet....im hang out for some cheap rooms but yet to see it advertised!

[marty351]

Originally Posted by Citroënbender

Woolies are suspending deliveries in Mexico, I’m sure other states will follow.

Time to buy a drone and get that Bunnings snag!

[Citroënbender]

They’ll be the new kookas/monkeys, swooping down to steal untouched food off a diner’s plate.

Or hovering outside bathroom windows to count the rolls of TP visible.

[BENT_8]

My old girl decided to cancel her cruise rather than take the risk, they had the choice of either a full refund or double their money if they just postpone it for another time.
We've got one booked in for late November which I've only had to pay $99pp deposit on so I'm holding out until the last minute to either pay the balance and go or postpone until things improve.

[Trevor 57]

Apparently bus loads of Melbourne people are hitting regional towns to clean out their supermarkets

What ****ing next - think it is about time I got a gun licence

[Citroënbender]

They’ve bought up all the ammo as well. You’re too late.

[Tickford.]

Good move by Woolies. From tomorrow 'till Friday, only the elderly & people with disability will be let in from 7am to 8am.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-...niors/12059252

I wouldn't put it past these vultures faking a disability just to get in. I can see them in a wheelchair faking their disability.

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by Tickford.

Good move by Woolies. From tomorrow 'till Friday, only the elderly & people with disability will be let in from 7am to 8am.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-...niors/12059252

I wouldn't put it past these vultures faking a disability just to get in. I can see them in a wheelchair faking their disability.

They can have motorised wheelchairs if they like, if they don't have a Centrelink card they wont get in.

[GO FURTHER]

We had petrol rationing in the past... With odd and even number plates on different days.

Maybe, we could do the same in supermarkets using our date of birth... Odd and even dates.

[Citroënbender]

Originally Posted by GasoLane

They can have motorised wheelchairs if they like, if they don't have a Centrelink card they wont get in.

They have suggested this:
https://mobile.twitter.com/woolworth...00428724346880

[Tonz]

I went to a public toilet today in a regional town and WHAAATT 6 rolls sitting on the window sill. Dont need them so they are/were still there

[danzvtil]

I went to 6 Foodlands today, and if you think the last couple of weeks were bad, then the weekend just gone was diabolical. This time, not just tp, but flour, pasta,bottled/canned goods,bread,cleaning,antiseptic,tissues,meat,pharr k me. All stores were all hands on deck and the staff looked whiplashed from working the weekend.
At one, my stock was adjacent the tissues, and these little old ladies couldn’t find anything, I pulled down 6 cartons off the overhead and cracked them open, leaving them on the ground go they could grab something.
It was Christmas without the good cheer.
All stores had stock out the back and on the way, all were running it out as quick as they can.
My boss instructed us reps to minimise contact and buy hand sanitizer, which does not exist.
So, it’s all going well, hopefully in another week,everyone will realise how foolish they have been.

[X-AHH]

Originally Posted by Tickford.

Good move by Woolies. From tomorrow 'till Friday, only the elderly & people with disability will be let in from 7am to 8am.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-...niors/12059252

I wouldn't put it past these vultures faking a disability just to get in. I can see them in a wheelchair faking their disability.

Yeah, I saw these two earlier today.

[prydey]

Originally Posted by danzvtil

, hopefully in another week,everyone will realise how foolish they have been.

Very much so.

[whynot]

I find this 1974 paper on scarcity and hoarding insightful.

CITATION:
Ronald Stiff, Keith Johnson, and Khairy Ahmed Tourk (1975) ,"Scarcity and Hoarding: Economic and Social Explanations and Marketing Implications", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 02, eds. Mary Jane Schlinger, Ann Abor, MI : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 203-216.

https://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/5...umes/v02/NA-02

It seems unusual to experience hoarding in modern society, yet a number of products have been hoarded in 1974. Scarcity alone is insufficient to explain these hoards. Social and economic theories provide explanations for hoarding demonstrating its occurrence under specialized conditions not always requiring scarcity. Scarcity is but one of many signals available to consumers as an encouragement to hoard. In addition to retail availability hoarding is influenced by signals including price, formal and informal communications interacting with preconditions including consumer experiences and expectations. Theories of hoarding lead to marketing implications involving distributions, pricing, advertising and public relations decisions. It is concluded that if hoarding continues to exist in modern society the resultant secondary effects will both encourage and permit the development of empirically based theories of hoarding.

Consumers and managers in industrialized countries have come to expect that there will seldom be a scarcity of any goods during stable economic times. Although shortages may be expected for newly introduced products, shortages for most products are contrary to consumer and management expectation. Yet, in early 1974 shortages seemed to be epidemic. The news of shortages spread rapidly, aided by mass media sources which cited shortages in gasoline, toilet papers toilet seats, toilets, paper bags, yellow tennis balls, anti-freeze and tomato paste: the latter attributed to an enormous increase in the taste for pizza in Japan (Hollie, 1974; Malcolm, 1974; Business Week, 1974). This atmosphere of scarcity has led to reports in the press of hoarding by consumers such as runs on toilet paper, "panic buying" of gasoline and in some cases stock-outs of products.

...snip....

Hoarding exists when the consumer's current inventory of an item exceeds his inventory in previous periods while his expected consumption rate (taste) remains constant. This definition is operational for both consumers and organizations at both individual (micro) and group (macro) levels. The degree of hoarding can be represented as the ratio of current inventory to previous inventories. Hoarding also exists when the consumer's expected consumption rate is changing. This condition is more difficult to measure since changes in consumer inventory must be controlled for changes in expected consumption. Wartime hoarding often follows this pattern as the consumer seeks to both increase his inventory and decrease his consumption to make more effective use of stocks which he expects to decline.

The relationship between hoarding and the expected consumption is influenced by consumer expectations of the duration of shortages. If the consumer expects shortages to be short-run he may hoard without adjusting his consumption; however, expected long-run shortages are likely to lead to declines in expected consumption. These relationships suggest an outline for a theory of hoarding in which consumer preconditions, including expected consumption and expectation of shortages, lead to hoarding and hoarding produces secondary effects including changes in seller inventory (supply) and expected consumption. These secondary effects may amplify or dampen hoarding. For example, a visible decrease in available supply may amplify hoarding while a decrease in expected consumption may dampen hoarding.

Signals, such as visible supply, interact with consumer preconditions to produce hoarding. Economists consider price and total supply as signals influencing hoarding, while sociologists place greater stress on mass media and inter-personal communications and the consumer's direct observation of both retail availability and the purchase behavior of other consumers. A number of these signals are under the control of marketing managers, including advertising, price, and to some extent retail availability.

Hoarding by consumers takes place in goods that have inelastic demand and low income elasticities. Total spending on these goods tends to be relatively small compared to total consumption expenditures. Hoarded goods generally have few substitutes and are relatively easy to store. For consumer hoarding to take place, two conditions should be satisfied. The first condition can be explained within a two-period framework. The motive to hoard in period t the goods that are normally purchased in period t+1 depends on comparing two types of costs:

First: the cost of acquiring t+1 goods in period t (i.e., "present" cost) and

Secondly: the cost of purchasing t+1 goods in period t+1 (i.e.. "future" cost).

A necessary condition for hoarding is that the "present" cost is less than the "future" cost. [A proper rate of discount is implicitly assumed here. This rate would allow direct comparison between "present" and "future" costs.]

The "present" cost does not include only the cost of buying the goods but also the cost of storing them and the cost of the tied-up funds. This type of cost could be called the objective cost. The reason for this is that the consumers generally know the interest foregone (if they use their own money to buy the goods), the present price of goods and their storage costs.

On the other hand, the "future" cost depends on the expected price of goods. Different consumers could have different expectations concerning future prices. This makes the "future" cost a subjective cost. In calculating the future costs, the individual consumer is influenced by market and non-market signals. The consumer also takes into consideration the distinct probability that the hoarded good might eventually disappear from the traditional marketplace. Such an eventuality might give rise to the development of a black market. The extra cost of search and information associated with the black market should be considered as a Part of the "future" cost.

The second condition for consumer's hoarding is that it is primarily motivated by a desire to secure his own supplies of the hoarded good rather than making financial gain. This last condition is what makes hoarding different than speculation. As with speculation it is true that hoarding provides a means of hedging against future price fluctuations and the individual consumer gains or loses depending on whether his expectations turned out to be correct or not. With hoarding, however, the change in the consumer's financial status is secondary to his primary objective of securing an adequate supply of the hoarded good for his own personal consumption.

Secondary economic effects result from hoarding. Hoarding is an increase in demand. In the short-run with supply fixed, the price of the hoarded good would increase. This price increase does not necessarily mean that a real scarcity problem exists in the long-run. In the long-run situation, the direction of price change is dependent on the supply conditions and the consumer's evaluation of these conditions.

The price of the hoarded good would decrease if the producers reacted to the increase in demand by increasing the supply of the good. The longer the time period under consideration and the higher the mobility of the inputs used to produce the good in question, the higher would be the elasticity of supply and the lower would be the increase in price in the long-run. The increase in the quantity supplied might also cause the consumers to revise their previous expectations concerning the hoarded good. A decision on their part to hoard less or to stop hoarding would reduce demand bringing prices down even further.

On the other hand, if the long-run elasticity of supply was low or zero, then the degree of hoarding might intensify causing demand to increase. With every increase-in demand, the price of the hoarded good would continue rising producing inflation. For consumers living on relatively fixed incomes, inflation produces a reduction in their standard of living reducing their share of the income distribution. This effect is most severe when the hoarded good represents a significant part of the consumers income, especially among the poor.

The above conclusion is not necessarily universal. One could think of a case where goods were hoarded by the poor groups in the society. This is particularly true if poor people have more time at hand to invest in restructuring their purchasing behavior relative to hoarded goods. In this case if the rich are forced to pay a higher price for the same goods then, other things equal, a change in income distribution would take place in favor of the poor. [For example the poor may be more willing to spend greater travel time on public transportation and avoid the effects of hoarding and shortages of automotive products.] This, however, can be counteracted by the fact the rich are more willing to pay higher prices, have access to more information and more storage space to hoard the goods than the poor. If the shortage of goods continued, there would be widening of the income gap between the rich and the poor in favor of the first. The outcome is a definite deterioration in the poor's standard of living. To deal with the problem a rationing system might be in order.

... and if you haven't fallen asleep yet, there is more discourse in the rest of the journal article. (Just keep in mind it was written in 1975.)

[marty351]

Originally Posted by Citroënbender

They’ve bought up all the ammo as well. You’re too late.

Air rifle and .22s don't count.

[Franco Cozzo]

I'm living on microwave meals at the moment, we can't get meat or veg at our usual shopping points

I'm somewhat excited, it's like I'm in a doomsday prepper TV show

Imagine if we had a real crisis like Australia was involved in a regional war or something.

[Polyal]

Originally Posted by Franco Cozzo

I'm living on microwave meals at the moment, we can't get meat or veg at our usual shopping points

I'm somewhat excited, it's like I'm in a doomsday prepper TV show

Imagine if we had a real crisis like Australia was involved in a regional war or something.

Ive been saying the same thing, bit of a wake up call to bring some commerce back within the country I think.