Toilet paper scarce at some Massachusetts stores, expert says no need to panic buy

EVERETT – On Thursday morning at the Costco Wholesale in Everett, a line of carts stretched down to the back section of the store. Every other cart contained one item: toilet paper.

Head to the toilet paper aisle, and you would witness about 30 or so packs left of store brand, with only a backstock of Charmin remaining. The shelves, which were usually piled high to the ceiling, were bare. Plus, there were no paper towels.

"I'm not surprised," said Mercedes Evans of Cambridge, who found toilet paper at the nearby BJ's Wholesale in Medford. "I think people have bad memories of the supply chain problems and thinking that this dock strike is going to be a repeat of that period."

She's talking about the pandemic – when panic purchasing reached an all-time high, emptying shelves of paper products and disinfectant.

Social media impact

"There was a reel on Facebook that Costco and Sam's were being hit extremely hard for toilet paper and they weren't kidding," said Charlie Croft of Malden. She suspected the social media post sent people to the store.

The irony here: most toilet paper is made in the United States, meaning the recent dockworkers' strike in the East and Gulf Coasts won't have much of an impact since toilet paper is a domestic good. However, eucalyptus pulp, the ingredient used to soften toilet paper, is often brought in from Brazil.

"I view it at least at this stage as panic buying," said John Eagles, a Managing Partner at Retail Consulting Partners. "People hear there's going to be a disruption in the supply chain, there's going to be shortages. It's almost like there's a hurricane coming."

Panic buying may be the problem

In fact, he believes Hurricane Helene may have played a role. The news of that hurricane down south, already existing inflation, plus the dockworkers' strike likely ignited fears that products would soon be unavailable.

"We're not going to see the effects until you know weeks, or maybe even up to a month from when it first happened," he explained.

Eagles says you do not need to panic buy – and doing so may actually be the problem. "[Grocery stores] have the available stock on the shelves. They have a back room, they have a warehouse, they have, you know, suppliers who supply the merchandise, and they have alternative suppliers. They also may be able to source it domestically via trucks," he explained.

The greater concern, should the strike continue, will be perishable items. Eagles warns that perishable food items will be the first to go. Some stores "are already looking at planes as an alternative because their product will go bad. Planes are more expensive than containers, so there's going to be an immediate price increase for, say, broccoli, if that's one item that's sitting out in a container."

WBZ contacted Costco for a comment but did not hear back.