The coronavirus pandemic had countless people flocking to local stores to stock up on essential items — food, cleaning supplies, medicine and, of course, toilet paper. Sadly, many people bought far more than the proper amount for just their household, hoarding scarce supplies either in fear or hopes to resell for a profit.
Now that sites like Amazon are cracking down on price gouging with their sellers and supermarkets are restricting refunds on items such as toilet paper and cleaning supplies, hoarders have nowhere to put their stash.
The store manager, John-Paul Drake of Drakes Supermarkets in Australia, recounted his experience with a toilet paper hoarder wanting a refund on a recent episode of his “Retail Wrap” YouTube series. The customer asked for a refund for 150 toilet paper packs containing 32 rolls each (3,200 rolls total) and 150 one-liter bottles of hand sanitizer (nearly 40 gallons).
The manager responded just how we would imagine someone that has gone to every local store to find empty shelves instead of toilet paper would — he gave him his middle finger.
“That is the sort of person that is causing the problem in the whole country. If everyone had just bought the things they had needed for their immediate short term, we would be fine. But the reality is that we’ve had so many people hoarding products and buying products that they’re never going to use and you wanna ask why there’s a limit. Well, the limit is so we can try and share whatever product we get in for whatever particular time it comes in that everyone that comes in for our shopping experience can get something,” Drake said.
He mentioned the crazy amount of sales his store had since the pandemic began. The amount of toilet paper sold in eight months was sold in just four weeks, and a typical year of sales in flour sold out in nine days. He emphasized that it’s not just his supermarket selling out, it’s “every single one.”
In the same “Retail Wrap” episode, Drake gave tips to viewers on grocery shopping safely in light of grocery stores becoming more dangerous during the pandemic. Watch the entire episode down below: