I’m sure we’ve all heard about the mass hysteria that was the massive shortage of toilet paper at stores, along with whole aisles being empty due to this coronavirus pandemic. But a question that a lot of people are asking is what caused these items to be so picked over.

Before all this quarantine mess, there were people raiding stores for toilet paper and other supplies such as food. Like in New York when the first case of Coronavirus appeared it led to customers buying more disinfectants and non-perishable food items, and due to the uncertainty of the duration of this pandemic it led to interruption during the supply-chain. Which lead to the stores not being able to restock their shelves as quickly, therefore leading to the shortages that we’re all too familiar with.

When asked what he thinks caused the shortages at stores FMHS Junior Kyle Anderson said, “Part of it is probably due to the supply-chains being interrupted. But honestly I feel a lot of it was the fear that we wouldn’t be able to leave our houses at all which caused people to stock up on food and the stores couldn’t restock to meet their needs.” So the shortages were pretty much caused by two things: the people buying lots of supplies at once and that led to the stores not being able to stay stocked. But from what I’ve heard from my parents and other adults is that stores have been progressively been getting more and more stocked. Most likely due to people being able to go to the store to buy supplies when they need which has led to people not buying so much in one visit, thus leading to the stores being able to catch up.

No one knows how long this pandemic is going to last, but if grocery stores being able to restock means anything it’s that this situation may be clearing up. But only time will tell.