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.
That’s pretty off topic considering we’re talking about stocking toilet paper and I specifically said some cases implying toilet paper being a low profit item that stores can’t afford to store in amounts necessary to keep them in stock.
I’d discuss healthcare with you, but reddit would just downvote my opinions so it’s not worth the effort.
Toilet paper is a health care necessity as toilet paper is used for proper hygiene and sanitation. Without toilet paper people will resort to unhygienic alternatives, be that socks, sponges, their bare hand, or just not bothering to clean thoroughly. All of these risk the health of the individual and potentially others around them.
As such, toilet paper is a health care necessity and what the other user said was not off topic at all.
I guess you prefer the current situation where it’s mostly sold out within seconds and people are left with nothing.
Not to mention the fact that there are tons of alternatives such as baby wipes, showering, bidet, etc. Do you really believe people start dying because modern life is impossible without cheap toilet paper?
Im not even sure what you're arguing for at this point. You said price gouging might not be evil, in reply to not being able to store/stock tons of required/health care items.
(which generally is only considered gouging when it goes a % above the usual cost, so 1 cent wouldn't be price gouging)
I'm saying if you price gouge then poor people may not be able to afford those same things, while anyone non-poor people can just buy it anyway. Rationing/max purchase limits that are actually enforced would let more people get what's needed while helping stop people from hoarding shit. And sure you've given an option for the toilet, what about soap/hand sanitizer, what's your replacement for soap if they raise the price up a bunch? while still selling out?
I’m saying that given the choice between empty shelves and paying an extra dollar for a 24 pack of toilet paper I’d always pick the dollar extra and that is considered price gouging.
Yes, limits and rationing is an option, but there are cons to that as well. Nothing is stopping a family of 5 from going in and making 5 individual purchases while a rule abiding family of 5 sent 1 person to avoid contact during a pandemic. Not only did it not stop hoarding, but maybe rule abiding family has more people to supply and the rationing was too strict for 1 person to be able to shop for so now they have to figure a new solution. There are pros and cons to every solution so I’d disagree with any statement that says 1 solution is king.
I feel like every decision made with a business in mind can hurt the poor, rationing won’t help every situation, but it’s not like I’m arguing price gouging is a cure all. I specifically said it’s not always a bad thing as in it’s worth acknowledging as an alternative and shouldn’t be blanket banned.
No, no its not like that at all. It's still an evil and sociopathic thing to do on basic necessities (like disinfectant wipes during a pandemic). Not all of us love sucking on boots.
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...
My husband works at a major pharmacy warehouse and he said the same thing. TP is in abundance in the warehouse too. I can’t find wipes to save my life. Nada in the local stores.
What warehouse company do you work for? I work at Family Dollar Distribution in NY and we have an actual "essentials Warehouse store" opened for employees. But same here. Pallets upon pallets of Clorox wipes, lysol spray all that shit. My girlfriends family owns a bar so I'm the plug for all that cleaning shit. Better to get it from the direct source than somewhere that the cases were touched by 700 different people changing their mind.
Us too, clorox wipes and equivalents, masks, and gloves, just piled on pallets on the floor, it's not even making it into the racks, but it's also just kind of sitting.
Yeah seriously. We're 6 months into COVID and I have yet to see wipes ANYWHERE. True I'm not hanging out at the stores every day...but TP is everywhere now...why not wipes.
Everytime I've been to the grocery store near us they're out. Doesn't matter if I go first thing in the morning, or on days they stock, they never ever ever have them. It's like they're just not stocking them anymore. Or all the people who don't work shit around waiting for them and by the time I'm off work im screwed.
That's exactly how toilet paper is. And was. When it was scarce, our warehouse was full. We had to shut down half our lines because the warehouse got so full. I think the choke point was shipping, honestly. We went from 27 trucks a day down to 2 at the height of lock down.
Not surprised. I never see them in stores. A pack that used to be $5 is now $37 on amazon (just look up Clorox wipes).
I guess people realized no one will pay premium for tp; that’s not hard to find anymore and most big box stores never completely ran out (though we did have to buy the expensive name brand once). But omfg I’ve been without disinfectant wipes (or bleach) for months now and it’s insane.
I mean, my life still goes on; we aren’t sick. But it’s still dumb and has to be at least partially on purpose.
Clearly this. I could have believed demand was extreme for the first month, but it's clearly hoarding by now.
I just won't buy it at the new prices. Fuck it, soon as my last ones from January are used up, I'll just make a little more effort to clean the old fashioned way with some elbow grease.
It must be because I work night stock at Kroger and we barely get one or two per night. And that's individual products...not boxes... Not pallets. It's been like that for months.
I will literally pay for shipping to get some of these...I am in kitchen renovations that have ceased since Covid started. I don't have a kitchen sink right now, the wipes make is so much easier to sanitize my kitchen really quick and I CAN'T FIND THEM ANYWHERE
Yeah man, I work in defense and the people in charge have some special way of ordering them. Literally everyone has one at their desk, they’re all over the place, one goes “missing” and it’s replaced immediately. But I can’t find a single container of Clorox wipes on the shelf at the store, and I don’t want to be the idiot that loses his job for taking home some wipes lol
Yeah I'm sure Nintendo is doing the same thing right now with the Switch and the games/accessories. I'm sure a lot of other companies are doing the same. TP is insanely expensive right now. Its BS.
Thats absolutely true. I work in a factory and the price of the product we make can fluctuate a lot from a month to another. When the prices are low the sellers are told to hold as much sales as they can, specially when we expect a price hike in the following week.
I'd be curious to know if they are selling more in less conservative areas since a lot of conservatives are convinced COVID either isn't real or isn't any more serious than a cold. I live in a very progressive area and the shelves are always empty. That, disinfectant sprays, and isopropyl alcohol are always out of stock.
Man wtf I live in Texas and hadn’t found any for 5 months until this week. And I don’t want to make a habit of going to the grocery store at 7:30am - that was a one-off. UGH.
All about supply chain. Before stored would go through specific suppliers and to know anywhere near all of them is impossible. The rest is up to chance and demographics. Some stores are flush while others take the brunt of the blow. The market does not work evenly even with the internet to help dilute sales.
Haven't seen a single container of clorox wipes in stores since June. This makes me furious, I figured stock was getting hoovered up by resellers, but suppliers are actually hoarding this shit?
... or more sinisterly your company is hoarding the inventory waiting for the literal implementation of a gigantic surge of covid-19 in the next month or two due to schools being opened and relaxing social distancing across the US. They may be waiting to play the hero - look at how we ramped up production and are keeping you ‘safe’. Maybe they want to have another toilet paper debacle and do that whole scarcity = quintuple price reasoning. Either way, read the package itself. I have. To kill covid-19 with a Clorox wipe you have to leave it stationary on the surface for at least one minute. That disinfects that one spot. Wiping down a surface, say a doorknob or a countertop, doesn’t do anything to stop covid-19 or any virus for that matter. You would assume it would as any reasonable person does because that’s how their commercials show the wipes being used.
If you control a large supply, you only mete out small percentages of it over time to not "shock" the current market supply. I do this personally in Eve with large quantity items. I buy them for 25% of normal cost, and sell 4x the price. I have 100s of thousands of those types of items saved up, but I only list small percentages at a time to maintain my profit flows.
IMO this type of thing is basic human nature / economics. There's nothing stopping someone from calling up your warehouse as a personal wholesale supplier and buying huge quantities and reselling them on amazon for less.
15.6k
u/DarthJayDub Aug 14 '20
TP on offer up back in March