Garbage bags, dish soap, hand soap, sanitizer, toilet paper, laundry soap, paper towels, wipes, and diapers. These are just some of the items that are being stockpiled by folks right now. These items are being regarded as the 'essential household products,' which many are rushing to buy before they are completely sold out. But you can already see in a variety of places that the supply of toilet paper and hand sanitzier etc, is low or completely sold out in various stores.

"No supply chain is able to deal easily with an additional 5 per cent of absences at very short notice" - B. Monteyne, food retail analyst at Bernstein

Try ordering on Amazon and it might be taking 2-3 weeks for your product to be shipped to you, an item that would normally see 1 or 2 day shipping at most. Shortages have been reported at big retailers like Costco, Target, and Walmart, with some big manufacturers looking at rationing toilet paper supplies.

After imposing those restrictions for toilet paper in some areas, they have still sold out and now more limitations on toilet paper sales have been introduced.

They had been seeing the entire stock sell out within an hour that it was delivered. This came after the 4 pack limit per person for those interested in buying. That didn't stop people from depleting the stockpile from stores. Now there is a 1 limit restriction for toilet paper.

More rules are bring introduced on travel and public gatherings as well, along with a growing list of cancelled events this year. Many are wondering if the usual 4/20 celebrations are going to take place, spring bring festivities, and a host of other regular celebrations.

The more restrictions that the government imposes on travel, planes and trucks etc, the more they are going to disrupt the flow of business and make it more difficult for those shelves once emptied to be replenished with stock.

The shelves at major retailers are already being stocked several times per day now, and some are further rationing popular items in response to changing demands by the day.

There have been multiple news reports suggesting that face masks and hand sanitizer is also being stolen from doctors offices and from hospitals. Some bottles of hand sanitizer are being sold online for upwards of $100 prompting Amazon to introduce restrictions on sales of various products.

Around the world it seems like madness is taking over. Now people are even stealing toilet paper from restaurants and businesses too. Meanwhile, there are many hardworking people behind the scenes who are struggling to replenish the supply and restock the shelves to meet our needs. With the increase in panic buying it leads you to wonder how much worse it might get before people start to calm down and it gets better.

Sales in supermarkets have skyrocketed more than 100 percent for some regions in response to the media coverage detailing the spread of the virus.

Along with popular items like wipes, paper towels, diapers, garbage bags, and toilet paper selling out, other popular items people are rushing to stock up on include canned goods, dried pasta, and rice. Along with bleach and all kinds of soap products.

There are still plenty of supplies for food, toilet paper, and other goods available in general, so some say there is no need to panic, it will obviously do you more harm than good. Meanwhile, others say that the overreaction is 'rational' because it is only people acting by trying to alleviate any potential risk they might face.

Shelves might be empty for awhile as the system in general struggles to catch up with the current demand, but retailers have insisted that they are not far off from doing just that. They insist that there is still enough inventory for many supermarket staples and as a result they say that there are no issues with the supply chain or with transport of goods for now.

There will be 'gaps' until the market can catch up.

While some have already gone with rations, others are reluctant because they fear that it could prompt people to panic more and clean out more supplies as a result.

In response to the crisis, some individuals have posted online and demanded that this is the time for government to step in and promise basic rations of goods so that people do not have to worry. But I wouldn't count on the government to give you anything, that they have not taken from someone else, or meet any basic demands in an accurate manner seeing as they are incapable or something as elementary as balancing a budget.

Thankfully, we have people out there who are much more capable right now, working to fill the shelves so that we can buy the things that we need, they are entrepreneurs and not bureaucrats.

The motivations behind the panic buy are diverse. One suggestion is that people are panicking because of a lack of clear instructions from authorities on what to do, another is that people are panic buying because they see others doing it and don't want to be left with nothing. Another is that people are doing it because some authorities have specifically instructed people not to hoard household goods right now and panic buy. All of the diverse individual motivations are adding fuel to the problem and pushing demand up for these items, whether rational or not.

This isn't the first time that people have cleared store shelves, from panicking over one event or another, and it will not be the last. Coronavirus is not going to take down the world economy, those who dare to might want to just relax a little bit.

“What causes a problem is everyone saying there is going to be a problem,..It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.” - UK health sec M. Hancock

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