An Upper Darby online ad that – probably jokingly – offering a half-used roll of toilet paper for $200 illustrates the strange side effect of the coronavirus pandemic that has people hoarding toilet paper and leaving store shelves empty of bathroom tissue, writes Christian Hetrick for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

According to Wharton psychologist, Deborah Small, and Temple professor of supply chain management, Subodha Kumar, this phenomenon is not that unusual.

Small explained that what most likely happened is that a single case of toilet paper shortage spiraled out of control. It hit the news and social media, and people started believing they needed to stock up before it was all gone. So in the end, it was not about toilet paper at all.

“It’s more just this herd behavior of focusing, fixating on a particular product,” said Small. “There’s general panic, and then there’s panic over other people’s panic.”

Meanwhile, Kumar explained that the shortage remains because usually, manufacturers do not produce a lot of overstock as demand for toilet paper is normally very stable.

“So they don’t account for a lot of variations in the supply chain, because everything is almost fixed,” he said.

Read the entire interview at The Philadelphia Inquirer by clicking here.

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Top photo credit: Indrid__Cold  – Empty shelves with no toilet paper via photopin (license)