Massive toilet paper buying frenzy breaks out in Taiwan ahead of price hike
Taiwan’s premier has urged the public to remain calm and not hoard toilet paper
In what can only be called the TPocalypse, toilet paper is flying off shelves across Taiwan at the moment following reports of a dramatic price hike coming next month, leaving sluggish consumers with nothing to wipe their butts with.
Because of production disruptions in Brazil and forest fires in Canada, the global cost of short fiber pulp, a material used to produce toilet paper, has shot up from US$650 per ton on average to US $800, Taiwan News quotes the Ministry of Economic Affairs as saying.
This fact has caused toilet paper suppliers to inform Taiwan’s retailers that they can expect the price of the product to increase by 10 to 30% in mid-March. Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA) explains that for consumers this could mean a 12-pack of toilet paper which currently costs NT$200 (US$6.84) could soon cost them NT$260 (US$8.89).
After word of this projected price hike got out, consumers across Taiwan began flocking to supermarkets, grabbing as much precious TP as they could carry. On Sunday and Monday, photos went viral showing row upon row of empty shelves.
Videos have also been published on social media showing frenzied crowds doing their panic shopping. In one viral video, it takes just 16 seconds for a newly-arrived pallet of toilet paper at Costco to be picked clean by desperate customers.
The chaos has not been confined to only brick and mortar shops. CNA reports that online retailer ETMall has said that six of the top 20 hottest selling items in recent days have been toilet paper with sales shooting up ten-fold and many brands completely selling out of stock.
In response to this crisis, the government has tried to calm consumers and reassure them that supplies of the daily necessity are stable and that prices will not rise until mid-March, so there’s no need to stockpile paper in panic.
“Don’t panic,” said Taiwan’s premier William Lai. “Local consumer prices are expected to stay tame.”
Wu Cheng-hsueh, deputy director-general of the Department of Consumer Protection said on Sunday that Taiwan’s four major retailers (Carrefour, RT-Mart. A.mart, and PX Mart) have vowed to keep toilet paper prices where they are until mid-March and have promised not to take advantage of the situation by hoarding product.
Meanwhile, Wu has said that his department will carry out spot checks on stores to make sure that outlets don’t hike prices prematurely. If retailers are found to be colluding together to raise prices, they could be fined NT$50 million, Taiwan News reports.
To further ensure that no collusion of any kind is going on, Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission held a meeting earlier this morning with eight major toilet paper manufacturers and retailers to better understand the situation.
Already some companies have been spotted trying to take advantage of the panic buying. On a Facebook page in Changhua, one ad encourages customers to make a reservation online before coming to buy toilet paper and urges them to purchase more than 100 packages at a time when they get the chance — Taiwan News notes that Fair Trade Commission deputy chief Perng Shaw-jiin has said that as long as the company does not jack up its prices than this promotion would not violate fair trade law.
Meanwhile, claw machine owners have also looked to cash in by filling their machines with small packages of toilet tissue. A photo of one of these machines has gone viral on Facebook with a sign posted on the front guaranteeing success for just NT$20.
Some can’t help but joke that rather than Canadian wildfires and Brazilian disruptions this panic is really being caused as Taiwan collectively loses its shit following the announcement that Xi Jinping could now be president in perpetuity.
