Dateline Down Under: the Australian Toilet Paper Wars
The bottom line from the front line
Panic-buying has hit Australia. People are stripping the supermarkets of staples such as rice, pasta, and meat pies, but the top item flying off the bottom shelves is toilet paper.
Nobody wants to be caught short in a crisis, and now it’s no longer panic-buying, but actual panic.
Toilet paper availability wiped
Across the country, social media has been flooded with images of empty shelves once stacked high with packages of toilet paper. Some shops have introduced purchase limits per customer to prevent runs, and the top-trending topics on Twitter in Australia were #toiletpapergate and #toiletpapercrisis.
Police wade in, tasering unruly shopper
In the regional New South Wales city of Tamworth, police have tasered a man who became violent after arguing about toilet paper availability.
The shopper attempted to choke another customer, threatened staff, and grappled with police when he entered a different supermarket. He was tasered when he tried to grab a constable’s gun. There is no report on any physical effects experienced by the various parties.
