The Toilet Paper Shortage
Johnny Carson was the host of the Tonight show
for many years. He would open his show with a monologue (as many still
do) getting laughs from articles in the newspapers.
On December 19, 1973 Johnny Carson helped start
a toilet paper shortage with about 20 million nightly watchers of the Tonight
Show and with their word of mouth. “Hey Lynette, did you hear there is a
toilet paper shortage?”
Here is Johnny Carson’s comments:
“You know, we’ve got all sorts of shortages
these days. But have you heard the latest? I’m not kidding. I saw it in the
papers. There’s an acute shortage of…of toilet paper!”
From the attached link:
“A shortage is defined by a situation in which
demand for a product greatly exceeds its supply in a market. The toilet paper
scare, like many scares and shortages of the seventies, started with an
unsubstantiated rumor. After a reported shortage in Japan, a lone congressman,
Republican Harold V. Froelich of Wisconsin, who represented a district in which
the paper industry was a major employer, released two statements, the second of
which caught Carson’s eye. Representative Froelich’s statement only alluded to
the idea that there could be a toilet paper shortage, not that there actually
was one. “People at the time were prone to panic and shortages,” said Gersten.
Two months earlier in 1973, the American people experienced the first of two
energy crises during the decade.”
So, Johnny Carson’s comment in 1973 caused a
panic in toilet paper hoarding. In 2020, because of the Coronavirus
(COVID-19) we also have had a toilet paper scare - with hoarding.
Let’s learn more.
Did you know (and I didn’t) that Green Bay
Wisconsin is the “Toilet Paper Capital of the World”?
From the Green Bay Gazette of April 1, 2020 (I
don’t think the date had anything to do with it)
“You won’t see it painted on the water tower or
splashed across a lot of T-shirts, but they don’t call Green Bay the
"toilet paper capital of the world” for nothing. Birthplace and home of
the Green Bay Packers, yes, but also where the first “splinter-free toilet paper”
was introduced in 1935.”
“Northern Paper Mills, founded in Green Bay in
1901, became the largest producer of toilet paper in the world as Northern
Tissue in 1920. The robust production of toilet paper helped to cushion the
city from the worst of The Great Depression.”
And one more quote: “The paper industry still
accounts for more than 6,000 jobs in Brown County. Georgia-Pacific has five
facilities in Green Bay. Its Broadway mill is one of the largest tissue
recycling operations in the world. Its Day Street plant is the birthplace of
Quilted Northern bathroom tissue.”
*****
There are, of course, different toilet paper - 1
ply, 2 ply, designs, even designer toilet paper (hmm … I’d hate to waste
somebody's artistic talent by using designer TP).
And, to complicate things further, there is home
toilet paper and commercial toilet paper. We all know of the home style -
rolls that we can pop onto holders in our restrooms. We also know of the commercial style - where
maybe the most recognizable is the huge rolls that are put in special
dispensers in retail stores and in industrial / business settings.
Let’s say on a (former) given day in the toilet
paper making business, about 50% is made and distributed to grocery store
warehouses, and to other warehouses (say Walmart / Target and the like) for
sale to consumers (aka - “us”). And, then about 50% goes to supply
businesses. Let’s think of that for a
minute. At the University of Texas
School of Business each floor has a men’s restroom and a women’s restroom. In the men’s restroom are maybe five stalls
and in the ladies maybe eight stalls. During the average class day at the
University, these restrooms get used with great frequency. For a janitor to change (home) toilet paper
rolls would probably not work. But, with
the huge rolls a janitor will not need to change as frequently.
Now, many businesses and most (if not all)
universities are shut-down, the demand for industrial toilet paper has
dropped. But as John and Jane Doe work from home, and Tommy and Suzie Doe
are out of school or college, there is a greater demand for the home/consumer
toilet paper. Plus the fear that we might run out of home toilet paper,
now that everybody is at home, prompted a lot of people to run out and buy a
supply.
Meanwhile, back in Green Bay, they are still
about 50/50 on what they produce, when the demand, almost overnight is 85/15 in
favor of the commercial version of toilet paper. I imagine it can take a
few days for the TP manufacturers to switch gears (if they can - depending on
machinery and staff) plus get the added supply out to the various warehouses
and retail stores.
My first exposure to the 2020 toilet paper
problem was when I was in my first grocery line of 2020 and a lady leaving HEB
grocery store said to me as she left “They are out of toilet paper”!!
Soon news media were covering the shortage which
lead to people who had access to the product to hoard more!!!
At this point (mid-April 2020), I haven’t heard
people say anything about toilet paper for a while - so many the shortage of
home toilet paper has been solved. If anything, it might lead to a slow
down in the TP manufacturing system as many (too many) now have 24 rolls at
home!!!
So - now you know - that you don’t have to hoard
toilet paper!!!
Hugs!!
Karen
(One other toilet paper story. My mother
(who would have been 107 this year), went through the Great Depression and
World War II. At that time, there was a demand for facial tissues (aka
“Kleenex”). She was out of facial
tissues and went into a drug store and bought one roll of toilet paper.
When the clerk asked if she wanted it in a bag, she replied “No, I’m going to
use it on the way home.” I can imagine
the clerk thinking my mother was needing the toilet paper - not as tissue - and
being surprised that my mother needed it for the trip home!!!)
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