Imagine a scenario. You are on the pot and you look over to the toilet roll. There is one singular square left, and there is no new roles left in the house. However, you do not want to leave your home as the United States was put on quarantine due to COVID-19, a virus making its’ way through the general population.

No one wants to get stuck in a situation with no toilet paper and have to resort to other methods of wiping. In fear of the possibility of getting stuck in singular square situation, worried citizens have rushed to their local stores and bought every toilet paper roll that they could carry. However, stores like Hy-Vee and Target have been left without any toilet paper on their shelves. It has reached the point where stores are beginning to put a limit on how many packages of toilet paper can be bought. Others have increased to daily orders of toilet paper. The toilet paper world in is utter chaos.

A lot of places and people have started calling the increased sale of toilet paper and other perceived necessities, Panic-Buying. People are over stocking on daily items in preparation for a quarantine, but they are over buying said items causing the people who need those items on a normal basis. The craziness has caused problems in common life because people have gotten angry over item limits or prices of said items have sky-rocketed.  Lines at stores are super long, as everyone prepares for the worst. People are so nervous about not having toilet paper that they have begun to steal public restroom paper. The threat of quarantine has created havoc on the toilet paper industry.

There are alternatives to toilet paper like paper towels, tissues, and rags. Toilet paper is not the end all be all of wiping. I understand people are worried about their comfort and they do not want to live without that, however that does not mean you need to buy out a store of toilet paper. Do not be selfish with the buying of toilet paper, please save some for everyone else.