One shopper in the queue, who only wanted to be known as Mrs Chin, said she bought more pasta, flour and toilet paper than usual for her family of five....
Panic buying in a perceivable crisis under the out-of-stock fear is real.
Hideko Yamashita (山下秀子), the famous advocate of danshari (断捨離), once handled an extreme case of hoarding.
An elderly woman lived alone with over 200 rolls of toilet paper in her tiny apartment. With her usage of one roll a month, 200 rolls could easily last 16 to 17 years. But she was constantly living under the fear of toilet paper being sold out. She had experienced this once during the time of oil crisis in the 1970s. Despite living in a hill of toilet rolls, she would still be compelled to stock up more whenever there was discount for any toilet paper brand.
Irrational panic-buying induced by the pandemic
Remember Singaporeans’ panic buying and hoarding behavior during every raise of Covid-19 alert level?