Why the big rush for toilet paper?

I know it is important, but should'nt youu stock up on things like food and water? You can substitute toilet paper with other things. You can't substitute food, water, basic necesities. My qustion is why the big rush for toilet paper?

Wizards: lichess.org/forum/team-team-clousems/insane-ramblings-clousems-not-chess-related?page=7#68

Why stock up on bottled water? If it gets so bad that the water supply is disrupted, people are going to wish they had been stocking up on ammo. It's not going to get that bad.

The toilet paper mania seemed even more contagious than coronavirus. Now that the stores are limiting hours to give them time to restock the shelves, i think the toilet paper madness will fade.

Because people are stupid. They think they can out-survive others by a few more rolls of toilet paper and bottles of water. Had they paid any attention to their apocalyptic end of the world type of movies they would have known if it really gets that bad then there's no rule of law anymore , su casa mi casa, so the strongest gang in the neighborhood takes over your house. However in most countries the strongest gang with the most and biggest weapons tends to be the government, which at some point steps in and regulates the distribution of goods and disallows hoarding. Leaving the hoarders with the pathetic psychological comfort of having a few extra rounds of ass-wiping worth of toilet paper in their cupboard.

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But to answer your main question, it's purely psychological, people aren't ready for a real state of emergency, their usual state of emergency at home is when they're sitting on the toilet and they realize oops I'm out of toilet paper! That's a very unfortunate surprise, so most people try to have a few extra rolls to prevent this scenario. But this is just an uncomfortable situation in a world that's otherwise running smoothly. But when they panic this instinct kicks in and they rush to buy something that's really not that essential in a real crisis. So I guess first world problems and first world mentality.

@legobuilder101 @clousems @Crapablanca64 @JasonNewst
True story alert...

We were on a cruise to NZ from Sydney Australia (vast majority of passengers were Australian) when the first news of the toilet paper debacle started to filter through.Everyone took it to be some kind of joke.Then it turned out to be true..Sydney had no toilet paper left!!
Nobody took much notice..it was all just way too silly..except one couple...as we were re-boarding after a day in Wellington,these clowns were seen personally by me and several hundred other Aussies to be bringing on board a literal shipload of the stuff.
But wait..it gets better...
Back in Sydney,it all got confiscated by Customs. I saw that happen,too.
Geezus,I laughed.

@obladie haha beautiful ending

Only valid currency in a post-apocalyptic setting ... I wonder how many rolls will be worth a pack of cigarettes???

The reason is simple: People are not used to have no food, yet everyone has at least once been taking a dump to find out the toiletpaper was not there. Hence they feel the worst that could happen is to run out of tp.

@hajos00 : I considered that. But you have to take into account toilet paper rolls are easily divisible, and the toilet paper is easily destroyed. Throw in the ease of counterfitting with napkins and kleenex, and a toilet paper based currency seems iffy at best.
Personally, I'd bet on beanie babies being the apocalyptic currency.

I believe the panic for toilet paper was due to the health professionals telling people that when they cough, cough into toilet paper. Hence people cough a lot, virus or not.