By Cameron Ruh

In early March, when cases of COVID-19 first started to arrive in the United States, many Americans began to stock up on household necessities. Now, venture into your local Costco, BJ’s, or Target, and you’ll find empty shelves where the toilet paper used to be.

The financial news and advice website The Motley Fool described the surge in consumer staples stocks this March. Companies such as Procter & Gamble have seen significant rises in their stocks because of the increased demand for household necessities.

Amazon, in addition to hiring 100,000 new workers, has suspended the shipments of nonessential products in order to prioritize medical supplies and household staples, according to Business Insider. 

The New York Times states that “manufacturers are raising production to meet demand, but there is only so much capacity that they can or are willing to add.” These companies want to “satisfy panic buying without going overboard and creating a glut on the market when the surge subsides.”

There is not only a hoarding issue, but another, very reasonable, explanation for the lack of toilet paper in stores. Will Oremus writes in Marker and explains that people actually need more toilet paper in their homes, as they are home all day and no longer using public restrooms in restaurants, airports, and hotels.

Toilet paper that is produced solely for commercial use is now going unused, as these large rolls of toilet paper use thinner paper, are shipped on industrial pallets, and cannot be found in stores. 

I reached out to some members of the Collegiate community to see how much toilet paper they had and if they had tried to purchase any during the COVID-19 crisis. 

Ellie Rogers (‘21) describes the panic of the situation: “My dad, who works at medical supply company McKesson, went to his office to see if they had any extra packages laying around, but someone had already ransacked the supply room and taken all of the toilet paper and hand sanitizer!” This was not a concern for Rogers, however. “My parents didn’t need to stock up on toilet paper because we already had so much. We have a ton now, like five packages of 30 rolls.” 

Many Collegiate families have not had any trouble because they already regularly purchased toilet paper in bulk. Sophia Warner (‘21) says, “We have a lot of toilet paper, but we didn’t even have to stock up. My dad just likes shopping at BJ’s.” Similarly, Upper School physics teacher Gregory Sesny says, “We get toilet paper whenever we go to Costco, so we have what we need.”

The toilet paper shortages have become an area of concern for some families. Anran Zhao (‘21) explains, “My parents told me to conserve toilet paper because we’re not sure how long it will be until we can get more.” Zhao did not specify what he means by “conserve,” but it is clear that some families are slightly worried about the limited supply in stores. 

Brooke Mattingly (‘21) describes her family’s struggle purchasing toilet paper: “I went to Target, and every aisle was empty,” continuing, “we tried to look for some in stores but we ended up just ordering some off Amazon.”

Kate Aaronson (‘21) and her family “got a ton of toilet paper before this all started in case they ran out,” but now they have “only been able to find the lower quality toilet paper.”

I decided to go through each of the bathrooms in my house to figure out exactly how much toilet paper my family had. It came to a total of 82 toilet paper rolls, which seems like a lot, because it is. 

After discovering our plethora of rolls, I decided to do the math to estimate how long this supply  would last my family of five. According to toiletpaperhistory.net, the average person uses 57 sheets of toilet paper a day—this number seems absurdly high, so I asked my family, and we settled on a generous estimate of 30 sheets per person. This means that the five of us combined use 150 sheets a day. We’re a Charmin Ultra-Soft kind of family, which has 221 2-ply sheets per roll. Given our 82 rolls, that puts us at a total of 18,122 sheets in my house. If you divide that number by the 150 sheets per day, that means that our supply would last 120 days, or about four months. 

Clearly, my family is well prepared for the quarantine. However, my mother JoAnn Adrales Ruh wants to make it clear that we usually have this amount, and she did NOT hoard toilet paper. “I swear to you, I did not hoard toilet paper because of the COVID-19 crisis,” she says. “I stocked up previously because Costco had it on sale.”

Whether, like mine, your family had already stocked up on toilet paper, or you were able to purchase some in the past few weeks, I hope that your stock lasts for the entirety of the crisis. If you would like to get an estimate of how long your supply will last, check out howmuchtoiletpaper.com and plug in your household statistics. 

However, if your current supply is running low, theprariehomestead.com has provided a list of toilet paper alternatives. This questionable list includes bidets, facial tissue, and “family cloth,” as well as some creative, natural options such as moss, corn husks, and lettuce.

While most stores still lack toilet paper, or limit purchases per customer, manufacturers have announced an increase in production and stores will likely receive shipments soon. While the supply is limited and delivery may take longer than usual, the best option currently is probably Amazon. And as a sense of stability regarding the Coronavirus slowly emerges, the panic over toilet paper is projected to subside.