Then & Now | Forget panic buying – toilet paper in Hong Kong was once too expensive for most. What was used instead?

Until relatively recently, manufactured toilet paper was a luxury in Hong Kong that only the wealthy could afford

Newspaper was the preferred material for most households, though another option could be scavenged from markets. Then there were the night soil collectors

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A woman stocks up on toilet paper rolls at a supermarket in Mong Kok, Hong Kong, in February 2020, as panic buying sparked by the coronavirus spreads through the city. Photo: Nora Tam

Jason Wordie

Published: 8:15am, 21 Mar 2022

Recent weeks have seen intermittent bursts of panic buying in Hong Kong, with supermarket shelves stripped bare of essential items, and associated logistics supply chains struggling to cope. The fear that drives any panic is primal – and no less real for occasional irrationality.

Personal dread – as much as concern about actual hunger – drives panic buying in times of poorly communicated, constantly changing official intentions about proposed lockdowns, and consequent widespread public confusion.

What do people stock up on when apparently valid concerns about product shortages arise? At such stressful times, the immediate focus of many is reduced to their most basic requirements; lavatory habits, in particular, assume more importance than they might otherwise merit.

During lockdown periods in various parts of the world in 2020-21, ugly fights regularly broke out in supermarkets over who got the last few packets of toilet roll. Some places – Australia, in particular – provided regularly reported, vivid live examples.

Screenshot from a video of two women in a physical scuffle over toilet paper at a Woolworths store in Chullora, Australia.

Such behaviour is only to be expected from certain population demographics; in Hong Kong, one should hope to expect better. Or should we?