It’s a retread of the COVID crisis: People are panic buying toilet paper again. 

After port workers began striking on the East and Gulf coasts, Costco and Walmart customers reported toilet paper and paper towel shortages at stores. 

On Thursday morning, Marketplace verified that several Costcos had sold out of TP in Brooklyn, New York; Clifton, New Jersey; Norwalk, Connecticut; and Gilbert, Arizona. We learned that Walmart stores in Lindale, Texas, and Boonton, New Jersey, have also sold out. 

Almost 45,000 dockworkers walked off the job Tuesday, pushing for higher pay and protection against automation. But Thursday, the union representing these workers suspended the strike until Jan. 15.

Strike or no strike, toilet paper should be safe, since it’s made in the U.S. The panic buying we’re seeing “is really unnecessary,” said David Dobrzykowski, a professor of supply chain management at the University of Arkansas’ Sam M. Walton College of Business. 

The disruption caused by the strike “is different from the pandemic in that it is fairly geographically isolated. In other words, it will not reduce production of products around the globe,” Dobrzykowski explained. “Given that most of the toilet paper we consume in the USA is manufactured domestically, rail and trucks are the key modes of transportation used to move toilet paper — not ships and ports.”

Dobrzykowski said Kimberly-Clark, whose brands include Scott and Cottonelle, produces toilet paper in Pennsylvania, Oklahoma and South Carolina. Procter & Gamble, which owns Charmin, produces TP in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia, Utah, Missouri and California. And Georgia-Pacific, which owns Angel Soft and Quilted Northern, makes its toilet paper in Wisconsin, New York, Louisiana and Georgia.

If the strike had persisted, goods like bananas, canned foods, chocolate and automobiles would be at risk of running low, Dobrzykowski added. That’s because these products are often “sourced globally and transported via ship through East Coast ports.”

During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, people similarly stockpiled goods like toilet paper amid bottlenecks in manufacturing. “Scarcity is a really powerful driver of consumption,” New York University marketing professor Adam Alter told us at the time. 

When people find products are scarce, they may buy extra if they’re worried other people will hoard the item, he said. Panic buying can then beget more panic buying. 

If you’re thinking of hoarding TP in 2024, just remember that Costco banned returns back in 2020.