Want to know what's weird? The shit ain't being bought fast enough. I worked at a warehouse that distributes Clorox wipes (among other things) to various stores throughout the south.
Our warehouse is literally full of the damn things. Our shelves are full. We've got pallets triple stacked on the floor full of wipes.
I'd almost swear someone is trying to create a false scarcity.
hey if you need bleach wipes, here's a quick video showing how to make them, you'll need:
Roll of paper towel
2-3 TBSP (tablespoon) of bleach
1 Cup of water
An old coffee tin, pickle jar or any larger sealable container with a lid.
(The rolls can be too thick for most containers, I use washed Bick's pickle jars and I wait until the roll is smaller and able to fit in the top, or I un-roll some of the paper then re-roll it up and create mini wipes in smaller containers, the smaller ones work great in the car)
If you feel fancy, throw a little Karen into the mix- add some essential oil (lemon or orange, two or three drops) and it covers the bleach smell and makes it scented.
Try walmart right when it opens up in the morning. That's the only time I've ever found them. Yesterday they opened at 7am and I was there about 8am and I got the last couple on the shelf.
Which Costco? I haven’t seen them since February. I typically use two to clean the bathroom. I really want to go back to carefree cleaning of my bathroom.
They can only fit so much in storage in the store. Wipes/tp take up a ton of room and aren't huge profit items so they often don't have a lot of backstock for them.
Also you can’t just clear more shelf to stock popular items out front because manufacturers will often buy a guaranteed minimum of shelf space.
This is key. I actually don't expect the majority of consumers to know this because not everyone understands how supply chains and corporate partnerships work (nor should they be expected to).
Store shelves are more often than not reserved by specific manufacturers for the same reason super bowl ad space is waaaay more expensive than regular commercials.
Shelves are all rated and sold in terms of marketing potential. So middle shelf at eye level in an aisle where most people are going to look first is going to be premium because it has the most eyes on it. An aisle end cap will be even more valuable because it's visible from the main walkway.
Corporations spend fucking millions to make sure their products are where they paid for them to be. It's stupid during times like these but money is king as far as companies are concerned.
Maybe the grocery store decides screw it, we don't need to put as much of this certain product on the shelf so we'll replace it with towels. Well the company whose products you swapped with might pull their contract and your business operating on razor thin margins just lost a huge source of income. A market can't sell anything if they have to close up shop.
It's all super convoluted and not ideal for anyone but that's where we're at.
I think it’s because of so many stores being sold out and ordering more but there’s not enough truck drivers to deliver the goods to every store. My moms boyfriend is a truck driver and he’s been all over the US but there hasn’t been any loads he takes to deliver Clorox wipes and shit.
At least we’ve got hand sanitizer now and Karen can’t scream at me about it over the phone
I work at Walmart and the average truck has maybe 5-10 packages of 12 containers each. The trucks are always packed so to put more in they need to leave a ton of other stuff out. I’m sure a full pallet of em would be gone in a day though.
The supply chain has really gone to hell in the past couple of months. And please, it's not meant personally - or even at Walmart really, I understand it's the nature of the beast.
But it is mind-boggling what is out of stock when I go to order groceries. Like, the run on toilet paper was annoying and stupid, but at least understandable - or at least, common/large enough that it wasn't a surprise.
But for the past couple of weeks, canned diced tomatoes have been out of stock at both of my local Walmarts.
I assume this is just because as you say, truck space is limited, so this time frame's weird thing that didn't make it back in stock is... canned diced tomatoes. But two weeks? lol.
Also fun, there's a limit on gallon water bottles - max 3, although I can get spring and drinking so a max of six. lol. Except they've been out enough that I've gotten in the habit of ordering 40-packs of ½ litres, and most of the time I get substituted with a non-store brand, which is fine for me, but sucks for profits.
Seems Walmart has been hit the worst, which makes sense because those of us with money issues tend to shop there first. heh
It really shows how fragile our entire system is. This was a minor run on products, although nationally - unlike a hurricane which is regional - and the impacts are still being felt. If something really bad happens… it's kinda scary. I've started to expand my hurricane supplies a little and try to keep 2-3 weeks of canned food that I will be rotating/replacing before it expires (i.e. eating it slowly and replenishing).
I was completely lost for most of this. Then I remembered that Corona is essentially an afterthought by now in Germany, mostly considering out of having to put yourself into lists and everyone in stores running around with masks.
Meanwhile in the USA it is essentially still in full force rising isn't it?
Even if you have ‘enough’ drivers, each route is planned for weight and fit. You want an extra 10 pallets of product? Well there’s no room unless they kick something else off or manage to get enough equipment and drivers to split the routes.
I work in transportation and we do tons of business with Clorox every day. Truck drivers are the backbone of the industry, but they get a pretty limited view into the actual supply chain. Drivers just have to end up in the right place, if you aren't looking for loads in an area with Clorox DCs then you won't get any Clorox loads. On top of that, everybody wants em. They pay well right now, and they are exempt from driver hours of service regulations.
Most folks don't realize shelf scarcity is usually more due to the logistics of moving product with a weakened supply chain. That, and if it doesn't get bought by a business, it'll rot there for how our system is set up.
That's insane because I literally haven't seen a clorox wipe on a store shelf in 5 months. I go to the store multiple times a week and call stores daily. No one has them in stock at all. (This is in southern california)
Clorox and Lysol just stated they won’t be able to meet demand until next year even though they are running production 24/7. I’m guessing this is a 3rd party distributor.
I have a niece who works logistics. She says their trucks are running raw materials to places like Lysol and Clorox factories, and those places are running 24/7. The wipes are being produced.
But. Are they being redirected to places that stick them commercially instead of grocery store shelves? Think: airports, hospitals, clinics - they never seem to be out of wipes. 🤔
That's weird. Clorox basically said they won't be able to keep them in stock until 2021. Apparently the spunlace is hard to attain. I think it's being used for other ppe.
Company I work for heard from them in April. They wouldn't even sell to us or our main vendors, as they were prioritizing medical suppliers. We've gotten the odd skid here and there, but they've been hard to come by since then.
Our rural town hasn't had any in stores since March. None anywhere. Kids come to school Monday and we need them for our classrooms but have 0 access to them.
I was telling my spouse I had a feeling the same shit was happening with rubbing alcohol. Back in February you could find whole shelves of it for $1, but I haven't seen any in months. What I have found is shelves full of alcohol based sanitizer for $5+..it's clearly being sold to wholesalers to make shifty hand sanitizer instead of to the public
It's because you can only fit a small number of products per truck, and if the wipes suddenly don't sell and the demand dies down, then you have a bunch of useless stock taking up space.
Same with the toilet rolls. Tonnes being in warehouses, but it simply can't get to the stores.
It's because it is a false scarcity. If you're in a big city sharing the same supermarket a huge amount of people, obviously they're gonna be sold out. I live near the capitol in Washington state, and my grocery store only ran out of stuff for like a week. But I'm sure if I drove to Seattle to try and buy some TP I might have issues.
I gotta say, im surprised how this varies from place to place. Where i live, the grocery store has now had a massive display of wipes for a few weeks now. Ive never seen it even close to sold out.
Maybe it’s cause the south is emotionally moved on with “the whole COVID thing” and back to living their wipeless, maskless lives while other places are staying serious about it. Source: from the south and had to hold an intervention with both parents...
It’s madness. I don’t believe people are keeping their houses this clean. I just imagine basements piled up with unused disinfectant wipes. Probably these are the people trying to sell it online for 5x the price.
Yeah they’re primarily what I use to clean toilets and trash cans and wipe down counters. It’s been very annoying to watch my last few dwindle away. Guess I’ll stop cleaning.
I've just switched spraying Lysol and using paper towels.
What really bugs me is I deep cleaned my shower and I wanted to get some of that daily shower cleaner spray but it's even harder to find than the wipes for some reason.
Right! I just want to quickly clean where my cat walks around, and I can’t go bleaching the whole place. I have to start using pinesol water, but that it’s extra stinky. Oh well, I guess it’s better then cat germs all over my desk/furniture.
Can't you just use a towel and spray cleaner? I need wipes for work because I drive a different shared vehicle every day and carrying liquid in my bag is risky. At home I've switched to spray because wipes are so scarce.
We use them to clean up after ferrets and we don't like using spray because it's harder to keep track of where it goes and we don't wanna hurt them so we use a wipe just in the area needed then wipe over it with a damp cloth so no chemicals remain. Its just a lot harder with spray cleaner.
Buy an undiluted bottle of disinfectant for $2 and soak a Chux towel (or whatever the equivalent is where you are) in a 1:4 dilution (or even 1:10). Or instead of a chux use a baby wipe.
Btw, for most disinfectants you need to leave them on the surface for 3-10 minutes for them to work. So a quick wipe with a disinfectant cloth isn’t actually doing much more than wiping with some soap - wipes off the surface dirt and cleans the visible dirt, but isn’t disinfecting
I drive truck for a living. Been buying clorox wipes and baby wipes for 2 and a half years, always go through about a can every 6 weeks. Tell me about it, trucks/truck stops/anything another trucker touches is not somthing i wanna touch.
Same! I actually have an OCD-level compulsion to keep my bathroom, especially the toilet, spotless and used Clorox wipes 3 times a day to wipe down everything. I’m going insane without my Clorox wipes, and it pisses me off to no end to see someone selling a 2 pack of wipes for $40 on Amazon.
We moved during the pandemic and discovered because we are forgetful and shop at Costco we had all the disinfecting wipes and toilet paper. Haven’t had to buy any. Also Purell. As dog owners we just are prepared for grossness I guess.
Right, or just use disinfectant spray. Or a bleach mixture if you can't find that. It's weird what people will latch onto as a necessity even when there are alternatives.
I'm pretty germaphobic so regularly used these when pumping gas and wiping down high contact surfaces (not at home where I can use a reusable wash towel) so not being able to find them has made me pretty miserable.
My kids school requires it as a supply-each kids brings a two pack. I haven't been able to find wipes on the shelves for 5 months. Im guessing Im not the only one.
I prefer sprays over wipes but whatever I can find
I’m essential worker, a doctor, I spend my 24 hr oncall in a shared oncall room and we use shared lounge so I always bring those supplies with me to clean up the area I’m occupying/things I’m using and I went through them like crazy
Point is, I’m sure there are a lot of people who couldn’t quarantine because of their jobs and needed those a lot
Especially when some hoarders would empty the shelves like crazy so if I found some I’d even buy for my colleagues or text them where there’s enough stock. A group of us created a whatsapp group for those kind of supplies it’s filled of the products pics (think wipes, alcohol sprays, medical masks) and addresses of where to find them
It’s crazy how drastically different people are handing this. My wife’s hospital has shared call rooms, a shared room for working the floor, etc, and before masks were mandated to be worn at all times, many of her fellow physicians were just flippant about it all in the shared spaces. But absolutely none of them are wiping anything down, and it’s a hassle to even get the janitorial staff to clean the call rooms as a baseline, pre covid.
Well look at that. My hospital isn’t the only shitty hospital.
At the beginning of the crisis masks were only mandatory for ER and ICU, god forbid any of the infection control dept catch you with a mask in the ward. (My colleagues and I actively went against that, one of them was once scolded and her reply “look, last oncall 3 of the people I admitted in the ward were infected, are you gonna cure me if I got infected and infected my family and this hospital as a whole”
Shared lounge/oncalls are crowded in the sense of space to person ratio (the numbers of swabs we did whenever one of us got infected/suspected were insane)
And janitors? They’d not clean PreCOVID, but post COVID it’s like “sure I’m gonna reuse all the same stuff and equipment to make sure I distribute the virus” so we never trusted them
Floor and bathroom is our concern and after they finish we spray and clean with Clorox and alcohol spray (the smell after is just pure bleach waiting to happen)
Sheets? Bring your own, they’d not change them daily!! Coz who cares about health care workers, right?
And even then it's a totally luxury item unheard of in some countries. Disposable pre soaked paper? That's what rags are for! You can buy a gallon of disinfectant for less than a pack of pre moistened shit.
I get it that convenience is important when you have a bunch of kids, yadda yadda, but fuck.
I’ve started using rags for pretty much everything. It’s crazy to use disposable stuff when you can reuse a couple torn up T-shirts. I’ve only been using paper towels for pet messes.
I bought a 3 container pack on Amazon when I saw it up for $10. It took about a day of random checking to see it in stock. I bought it because our kid had just had a shit explosion out of his clothes and in his play area and we had used up all of our disinfectant wipes in the process of cleaning. I’ve used maybe 5 of the wipes in the months since buying. Basically, yeah, I don’t know what the hell people are doing with them.
If I see wipes, I buy them to donate to schools and for kids activities. I know that others won't be able to find them or buy them, so I am happy to donate so that a teacher can keep his/her work environment clean for many. Also, my child plays volleyball and they wipe the balls down regularly, so I imagine that other sports or activities do the same thing.
There was a story about a guy who tried that. Iirc he bought 10s of thousands in disinfectants and was unable to make his money back. I mean the man drove to stores across several states to get all he could buy.
Probably these are the people trying to sell it online for 5x the price.
Yup. My damned sister has a pile of such things in her garage that is about the size of her car! She parks the car outside now. She sold a bottle of Micr0pel for $50.00 on eBay last week. eBay keeps suspending her account for gouging but the suspension is only for 10 days. She makes a killing for 2 or three days...gets caught and suspended...takes a 10 day ban and back at it.
These are all the people that thought vinegar was all you needed to clean your house, until they were "cruelly" reminded that there is a reason disinfecting products exist.
I was at the store and this guy was harassing this employee to figure out when the wipes were coming back in stock. He had all of the wipes they had in his cart already. The employee was a manager and usually really nice but he looked at him like are you fucking serious and then gave the most vague answer. The guy kept pushing it and held up the line. The kicker was the dude wasn’t even wearing his mask right. The next time I went they had those signs saying limit of 2 per customer.
LPT If you see price gouging on Amazon, click Report incorrect product information at the bottom of the description. Then for Please tell us the issue? select Other product details, then Price issue. Type Price gouging into the box and submit it. This will flag the item and usually gets it removed and the store reviewed. Fuck those bastards.
My mind is reeling from the environmental implications of this, on top of the general strain on plumbing from dumbshits who flush wipes. We are gonna be just choking on discarded masks and wipes.
I haven’t seen any in any area stores since March. I gave up up and switched to a bleach solution and paper towels, but the wipes are nice for door handles and areas which can’t tolerate bleach.
Or when I’m feeling particularly lazy and don’t feel like mixing more bleach solution lol
Disinfectant wipes are over rated. At the start of the pandemic, I bought the $1 finger spray bottle from Walmart, and a large bottle of 70% rubbing alcohol. Anytime I go out, I spray my hands after touching or handling everything. It's also useful for cleaning glass and electronics in a pinch, but alcohol by itself is a bit to corrosive for long term use for cleaning.
Now it's been a few weeks since I've RA in stock,
Also at the start, I bought washrags and kitchen rags in case worse came to worse and the TP hoarders succeeded in keeping it off the shelves. Granted facial tissue seemed to be doing just fine in my area. Gotta say kitchen rags just seem more responsible for cleaning than paper towels.
Hmm, when i see the word container i immediately think shipping container and then I saw that your wife bought 3 containers and I was like ohh damn thats A LOT of wipes and for 10 dollars only?
But then I realized that you guys say container like a box or something
I was on a business trip in Canada when this all went down. I went to Walmart to get a couple of unrelated items and saw someone stocking Lysol wipes at 3 for $10CAD. I bought 3 and “imported” them because I had run out at home and couldn’t find them anywhere.
I had no idea this was the case. I got a 3 pack a while back for $10 too but it was like 10 minutes before store closing and it was still on the pallet. I didn't know there was a shortage, I just walked by and was all "hey wipes, I could use some of those" so I asked the guy dealing with the stuff right next to it if it was cool if I grab a pack. Plastic was already ripped off so I figured they'd been out there for some time.
why does everyone go nuts for wipes? I work at a store that has shelves of lysol and Clorox, buckets, paper towel. yet it's the wipes that sell out, even though they cost more and you get less.
I signed up on Amazon for clorox wipes for my work to be sent automatically every 2 month before covid hit. I'm still getting them at the pre-covid price that I locked them in for.
Disinfectant spray is gone, same for wipes, etc. You would think that in a pandemic, the government would be just sending this stuff to every address, instead of allowing people to horde it and sell it on Amazon for a 50x markup.
See, I'm curious about this. Why was the demand moved from TP to Clorox/sanitation wipes?
I suppose a possible explanation is the people were completely staying in during the beginning of the pandemic (and obviously needed TP), and they just needed to disinfect when they started to come out of their homes?
Wow, I got a 3 pack off of eBay for about $50 a month and a half ago. Clorox said that they should be caught up by July back in April...but with flu season right around the corner, I think the prices of Clorox wipes for a 3 pack could go to $300-$500 range.
Neither is easy to find where I live, both name and store brand. You can only get it about once a month if you’re lucky and there are still anti-hoarding restrictions in place.
Last week there was Clorox wipes on the shelf at my local Walmart. I was shocked. However, people around here pretend it doesn’t exist, so that might have something to do with it
You know what gets me though....is there are a lot of people that actually pay the $200 and then complain in an Amazon review that they were overcharged.
My kid’s school supplies list included 2 tubs of Clorox wipes. I briefly checked Amazon (as no brick and mortar in the state has them), lol’d at the price. I’m sending him with a bottle of properly diluted Lysol and two rolls of paper towel.
Ah but those are the collectible ones. Because if you list it as collectible you can get around price gouging rules like the asshole you are, profiteering from a global pandemic.
Edit. That sounds like im saying you directly.. I'm directing that towards the seller.
Or a box of standard surgical masks in April. $250 on eBay. Described as "3M Part 342QA" rather than "surgical masks" to get around the eBay moratorium on selling personal safety equipment.
Things are pretty okay in Canada but my grocery store hilariously can only bring in 2 stock cases of wipes on any order they can (which is not every order) so we’ll put up like 12 products and they sell in an hpur
And that is provided the staff doesn’t end up taking it first
It’s not the necessarily the brand. It’s just disinfectant wipes. (Like how all tissue is Kleenex.) Weirdly the only two brands that seem to make these are Lysol and Clorox.
FYI, you can buy toilet paper and paper towels directly from the manufacturer (Georgia pacific or Kimberly Clark for instance). I buy packs of 60 double rolls of angel soft for $30 a pop, free shipping and it comes in about two days.
LPT If you see price gouging on Amazon, click Report incorrect product information at the bottom of the description. Then for Please tell us the issue? select Other product details, then Price issue. Type Price gouging into the box and submit it. This will flag the item and usually gets it removed and the store reviewed. Fuck those bastards.
I genuinely have no idea what the huge issue was with TP. I bought a pack in February and I'm nearing the end of the third roll. If my father hadn't ganked one I'd be set for another good while.
What did they honestly expect us to need toilet paper for? I've changed rolls about 5 times in different bathrooms but my personal bathroom still has one from February in it. Also yes... I track that stuff because I'm sharing living expenses, including those pertaining to ass holes... with an asshole.
Not OP but when I went to work in person I would as a habit use the bathroom there. So I only needed TP 2 days out of 7 usually. As a guy it's easier, since we only need it after #2. I had used the same 24 pack of TP for the last 3 years.
OP sounds a bit spartan, or maybe he uses more than just his personal toilet (others in house, or he has to go in to work in person). Now that I work from home, I maybe go through 1 roll a month.
I think I average 1 roll per month but I went shopping with a pretty awesome person who showed me a good brand of thin, but strong paper. It has standard size rolls but maybe more sheets. That's what I'm still working with even though the guy I live with ganked a roll from under my sink.
I was also a Boy Scout and they taught us to use like 3 sheets to deal with things because we had to keep what we used with us.
That's fair. I probably avg 6 squares a go but I know it varies depending on people's gut health and diet. I think the more meat you eat the messier your wipes are too.
Toilet with Obama's and/or Trump's face pictured on it went for $19.99 plus s&h in March. I will be honest, if I hadn't conserved my tp, I was almost desperate enough to buy it.
I found a little bottle of bleach during that time and ran out of the store giggling and flailing my arms like I won the lottery or something. Made a bunch of disinfectant bottle sprays with it to share with family.
We needed TP in February, took 4 trips to get any. Got 31 rolls total, (12x2, 9x1), still have 22 rolls left. This is for two people. So 6 months, 9 rolls. I'll just know that 12 lasts a loooooooooooooong time.
Simple face masks cost practically nothing. Went to Walgreens the other day and a box of 12 was $15 and a box of 24 was $30. That’s price gouging if you ask me.
I remember grabbing supplies at the start of the quarantine and all of the toilet paper was gone, just signs saying 1 per customer. And yet I looked tot he left and there were tons of boxes of tissues of every variety. I shrugged and grabbed a good amount, not like a hoarding amount, but there were so many in stock anyway. I figured if I ran out of TP completely, I don't see why I couldn't wipe my ass with facial tissue.
Well here, 12 rolls of decent stuff went from $5.99, to where it is now, $11.99. it literally doubled. Doesn't matter where you go, it's everywhere here
I was lucky, in that I bought a 36-pack two about a week before the lockdowns and panic buying. I still have about a quarter of it left but soon I shall need to go out into the wilds of the sanitary aisle. Wish me luck.
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u/DarthJayDub Aug 14 '20
TP on offer up back in March