JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Paper towels and toilet paper have been in short supply in some stores across the United States.
News4JAX found empty shelves of what should be toilet paper and paper towels at several Jacksonville stores, including Costco, Walmart and Aldi.
One X user showed a photo of empty shelves at Costco and Target stores in New Jersey. News4JAX’s sister station KPRC also reported instances of panic buying in Houston.
Shelves at Costco & Target running low or out of paper towels in Monmouth Cty. #NJ. Seeing ppl buying TP & water too in reax to #portstrike2024 -Costco employee told me they were sold out of TP/paper towels this am. What are you seeing at your #NJ store? Post pics & location ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/ugFDzPKpHt
— Jen Icklan Eckert (@jicklan) October 1, 2024
It comes as some people are worried about the effects of an ongoing port strike.
Experts say people have nothing to worry about when it comes to paper products. The overwhelming majority — more than 90% by some estimates — of US toilet paper consumption comes from domestic factories, CNN reported. The rest comes from Canada and Mexico, which means it most likely arrives by rail or truck, not ship.
The most likely affected items include bananas, alcohol, seafood, electronics, pharmaceuticals, cars, auto parts and machinery parts.
Dr. Jim Mirabella, a professor of Decision Sciences at Jacksonville University, warns that hoarding paper products is creating a problem that doesn’t exist. If the strike lasts long enough, a shortage of goods that come in on ships would be most likely.
“Totally understand saying I’m going to stock up and have a month’s supply of frozen foods or I’m going to have a lot of canned goods,” Mirabella said. “And there’s nothing wrong with saying I’ll buy an extra packet of paper towels and toilet paper because I’m afraid people are going to hoard it. But the more we do, the more it’s going to actually choke us.”
Some are attributing the overreaction to COVID-19 PTSD.
Consumer studies define panic buying as a behavioral phenomenon. Once one person knows of another person that’s doing it, it sets off a chain reaction.
Mirabella said there’s really no need to panic.
“PTSD is a perfect way to describe it. What happened with the pandemic people felt how long it took just to get toilet paper, and they don’t want to see that happen against they’re buying something completely unnecessary and starting it all over again,” Mirabella said.
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