The toilet paper frenzy over the past weekend has made it to the BBC, the New York Times and other international media outlets, but if one really thinks about it, what is so unusual about this situation in Taiwan?
This is a culture that is prone to mass consumerism frenzy — and old habits die hard even when circumstances have changed. Visit any grocery store on the eve of an impending typhoon and you will see long lines of people stocking up like crazy on instant noodles and other food items, buying much more than they would need even though convenience stores are usually only closed for a day or two at most.
The potential shortages then cause more people to panic and before one knows it the grocery store is cleaned out, further justifying the need to stock up before the next typhoon arrives. It is a vicious cycle that does not seem to be so much driven by necessity or price hikes, but fear of hoarders and empty shelves.
It is hard to forget the I-Mei milk tea apocalypse at Costco in September last year, which hit a high point when three women left with 18 large boxes of the bottled beverage within five minutes of the store’s opening. Many people probably sold excess milk tea on the Internet for a profit; whether we will start seeing black market toilet paper remains to be seen.
Compared with milk tea, hoarding toilet paper makes more sense, as it is a household necessity and the purported price increases of between 10 and 30 percent are high enough to cause alarm. While the toilet paper frenzy was mostly driven by a fear of shortages, it ultimately arose from worries over a maximum price increase of about NT$5 per roll. This underlines a lack of confidence in the economy and the government’s promises to fix the problem of inadequate wages.
However, inflation is constantly happening. It is not unusual to walk into a store and find that the prices of certain items have gone up due to higher raw material and labor costs. Starbucks just increased its food prices by an average of 6 percent, while three of the nation’s major beverage vendors last week announced that they would raise the prices of some products by as much as 25 percent.
It is true that one cannot hoard bubble tea and lemon cake, nor are those items household necessities. However, people had hoarded bottled milk tea. Perhaps the way the toilet paper situation was announced contributed to the panic — news of the price hike broke on Friday, but it took until Sunday for the Ministry of Economic Affairs to release a statement assuring the public that supplies were adequate, and it would investigate the matter and safeguard the public against price gouging by retailers.
As for the price hike itself, the statement was not reassuring at all, urging people not to worry since prices would stay the same until the middle of next month. That is two weeks away. Would it not encourage people to panic even further?
The public has heard enough of these empty statements from the government and things should be handled more delicately even if there is nothing it can do about the price hike. The public is not stupid and the government making such a statement in a reassuring tone is just ridiculous.
The incident also highlights a fact that should be addressed — that in Taiwan only 5 percent of toilet paper comes from recycled material, compared with 65 percent in Japan and 50 percent in the US.
It is unfortunate that prices for such an essential product are increasing, but the public should be more mindful about toilet paper use and choose recycled products to create a demand.
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