What Does Hoarding Say About Us?

[bucktalk]

This hoarding ordeal going on across the nation in relation to the Corvid-19 virus is causing me to want to unpack the real reason people are doing this? I'm guessing fear and selfishness are the two driving forces but is there a deeper issue? I've often heard even with all the grocery stores we have nationwide -they only carry a 3-4 day supplies of groceries. With the recent grocery hoarding going on I think the 3-4 supply limit grocery stores carry is accurate.

Hoarding? What does that say about us?

[jompster]

It says that we spend too much time on social media where tons of information - some current, but some possibly outdated - is shared and prompts people to perhaps make uninformed and rash decisions.

[Dob Hooligan]

I’m inept at trying to link a story, but, I read one from CNBC a couple days ago that mainly said people engage in hoarding and panic buying because it is a way for them to feel like they have some control in an out of control world occurance.

I’m sure hoarding has been going on forever. My sainted mother swore that my grandfather was writing editorials during WW2 telling people not to hoard rubber and other essential materials for the war effort, while he had 2 full sets of brand new tires for his Buick in the basement.

[Bunty]

It says that we spend too much time on social media where tons of information - some current, but some possibly outdated - is shared and prompts people to perhaps make uninformed and rash decisions.

Too much is based on rumor, if not blatant misinfo presented as fact.

[Stew]

When folks feel powerless to fear buying a butt load of toilette paper gives one a bit of a feeling of control.

[mike4ou]

Hoarding or just being prudent? Many people feel out of control because they are unpreppared. In a World where JIT (just In Time) inventory is the model, supply disruptions from black swan events are guaranteed. People make fun of preppers but they don't contribute to these panics, it's the unprepared masses. The real problem will be when the pharmacies run out of the psychotropic drugs in the next 4 weeks. I hope this doesn't happen but 90+ % of pharmaceuticals are made in China. The TP is made in USA and will be ramped up quickly to meet demand. Thankfully food is produced here and shouldn't be a problem near term. Interesting times we live in and they will become more so unfortunately.

[rte66man]

I'm missing the rationale for mass purchases of TOILET PAPER. How much do you use in one day? I've seen pictures of people hauling entire cases of the stuff to their cars. Why? Are you going to be quarantined for 6 months? Same goes for hand sanitizer. The experts are saying soap and water are adequate if you follow proper hand washing procedures.

[Pete]

It is very bizarre.

I think what happens is that people start buying TP and then others see it running low, and the whole dynamic just feeds upon itself.

I have plenty of TP at home but have to admit that when I was in Sam's yesterday and saw they had plenty but then saw most people there were loading up, I had this instinctive reaction to grab some too. I didn't buy any, but it was weird how my emotions were briefly triggered.

[rte66man]

That's true. I think maybe there's a sense that "hey, these people know something I don't about what's happening. Maybe I should buy in case they are right".

[hoya]

Are people hoarding? Or do stores only carry enough toilet paper that they can sell in a few days?

Suppose a normal family buys enough toilet paper to last them one month. And every month they buy a big package of toilet paper and it’s no big deal. Let’s say every family operates that way. But in any given neighborhood, only 1/30th of the families that live there will buy it on any given day. If the store gets in shipments of toilet paper every three days, then it really only needs to stock it for 1/10th the population.

Now you’ve got the possibility of two weeks or more of quarantine, and so if your family is going to run out in the next two weeks, you rush to the store to buy some. You get your normal monthly supply. But the store is now overwhelmed by demand — they had enough on hand for 1/10th the neighborhood, not half.

I think that is what is happening.

[chuck5815]

I don’t really need toilet paper per se, but I’d like to buy at least one package of it during this outbreak, just so I can feel like I successfully competed for a scarce resource.

[BBatesokc]

This is when we show our true colors and often they ain't pretty.

I'm completely miffed by this entire thing.

We haven't stocked up on a single thing. We had hand sanitizer already (we've got chickens, rabbits and turtles we handle, so sanitizer is a must). I bought some travel size bottles of sanitizer a few days ago because we were set to fly to St. Martins (since force cancelled).

I picked up an 18 count of eggs this morning from Walmart (1 of only 5 on the shelf). I didn't go "Oh my God I better buy all of them!" Same goes for TP, Kleenex, etc. I bought what I need at that moment. We go out to eat and shop and just take a few extra seconds to wipe down the cart and sanitize our hands. Nothing exceptional.

It's' hard to judge though when I see others with carts full of TP, bottled water and such. They may be hoarding, or they may be buying for the elderly in their lives, neighbors, their office or donating to a local nursing home.

[hoya]

I don't think most people buy hand sanitizer at all. Not with any regularity anyway. You might have a half-empty bottle sitting around from 2012 or whenever, but most people don't buy it frequently. Now you tell everybody they need to get some, and for 80% of the population that means they have to go out and buy it right now. That's a big enough surge to overwhelm the normal supply chain and create the shortages we are seeing.

None of the empty shelves we are seeing require people to be jerks and hoard stuff.

[Pete]

Hoarding is nothing less than blatant selfishness.

It really is an ugly side of our society at a time we all should be looking out for each other: 'Screw everyone else; I'm just going to take more than I could ever need.'

[Plutonic Panda]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/14/t....co/YPeXEot79a

[emtefury]

I agree hoarding is a problem. This hoarding incident hopefully shows people they need to be prepared. I maintain food storage that I built up over a few years. I didn’t buy it all at once. If something happens and the stores are cleared out, I am good to go for awhile

I recommend people consider building up a few months of supplies over time to be prepared. As noted in the earlier posts, the JIT supply chain does not allow for everyone trying to stock up at once when an event happens.

[BBatesokc]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/14/t....co/YPeXEot79a

CORRECTION: He HAD 17,000 bottles of hand sanitizer. The government seized them all! LOL

[Pete]

CORRECTION: He HAD 17,000 bottles of hand sanitizer. The government seized them all! LOL

^

But we can't gloss over the fact that plenty of people have been richly rewarded for similar behavior.

I hope this latest scare quickly passes and we can learn from it, because we already know we are pretty poorly prepared for a real crisis (if this doesn't turn out to be too horrible).

[BBatesokc]

^

But we can't gloss over the fact that plenty of people have been richly rewarded for similar behavior.

I hope this latest scare quickly passes and we can learn from it, because we already know we are pretty poorly prepared for a real crisis (if this doesn't turn out to be too horrible).

I guess it depends what, we as a society going forward, define "too horrible." I mean, if 80,000 Americans dying from a contagion in a single season doesn't cause us to bat an eye, it would take CV-19 killing hundreds of thousands to get our attention beyond hoarding toilet paper.

[Pete]

I guess it depends what, we as a society going forward, define "too horrible." I mean, if 80,000 Americans dying from a contagion in a single season doesn't cause us to bat an eye, it would take CV-19 killing hundreds of thousands to get our attention beyond hoarding toilet paper.

Yeah, I'm not sure we are going to learn anything or make any meaningful change and that's terrifying because we have seen to this point how badly things can start to go.

[NavySeabee]

We should all work to be well stocked at home and be willing to share when things hit crisis level. I think I'm going to start living like grandma and grandpa did when they were alive. No they weren't rich they were just well seasoned after living through the depression and WWII. They lived in a modest house on about 2 acres off of SE Grand and High. They always had plenty and were never shy to share with friends and family. They were green before it was cool to be green.

[dankrutka]

Hoarding (and prepper cultures) are grounded in selfish individualism.

I'll add that the ethos of rugged individualism has long been a mythical story in American history that is really harmful. No one gets anywhere without community. We all stand on shoulders of giants and lean on each other. Individualism in balance with collectivism is healthy, but we so often have an individualism run amuck that disdains the idea that we should care for each other. Asian countries have very collectivist cultures and it's not surprising to see them respond to these crises in ways that are more in the interest of the community. I'm not saying all Americans (and of course "Americans" includes so many collectivist cultures) need to be the same, but we certainly could learn some things.

[CloudDeckMedia]

THe 1970s brought us gas rationing. People would wait in line for hours to simply top off their tanks. I was a student in California when odd-even rationing was instituted, but those with out-of-state plates were exempted. I ordered an Oklahoma vanity plate that read “ODD-EVEN” which was good for a laugh. It was stolen from my car twice. Unbelievable what some people will do.

[mugofbeer]

My local grocery was sold out of sugar and flour today. The contagion IS spreading. ��

[Roger S]

My local grocery was sold out of sugar and flour today. The contagion IS spreading.

This could force a lot of people to go keto.