Experience from Portugal, near Lisbon: fake news and made-up stories traveled fast! My wife called me (before phones went out) saying someone heard on the radio that Portugal was on red alert, it was WW3 (world war 3) and I think she even mentioned "missiles"! Also someone said it was a cyberattack and all Europe was off. Lots of panic reactions, many people buying toilet paper, water, candles, sausages and other canned food.
All gas stations closed because they could not sell gasoline/diesel. Today there are lines on all gas stations, people filling their car tanks and bottles..
Oh, let me tell you about electric cars! Many people had to spend the night somewhere away from home because they could not charge their cars.. My sister (with her job's electric car) had to stay the night some 200km away from home, and since the ATMs (Multibanco) didn't work, she didn't have physical money to pay for food. Luckily a stranger paid for the food (yogurt and some cookies).
Petrol cars, because of their range, had better luck!
Pure fear and panic..
I can only blame the authorities (Portuguese/European) for not having contingency plans for keeping people informed, and thus letting fear spread like wildfire.
Because you're always buying toilet paper in bulk, and everyone needs it.
Toilet paper is cheap and bulky, so stores only stock what they absolutely need. If a store is supplied once a day, it'll have something like two day's worth of toilet paper on its shelves.
Some incident happens, and people start to panic. By sheer coincidence one brand of toilet paper happens to be out of stock. The shelf space is huge, so as you walk past it you immediately notice it and think "geez, wouldn't it be awkward if that were to run out". You don't know how much you've got remaining at home so you grab a pack, just to be sure. Ten people do this, and because the packs are so massive another brand has just run out - making even more people consider picking up toilet paper.
You normally buy toilet paper maybe once every month, so if only 1 in 15 people pick up toilet paper during their panic shopping, those two day's worth of stock will quickly run out!
I've asked the same question. I think people are so pampered in western societies that the worst thing they can possibly imagine is not being able to wipe their ass with a fresh piece of toilet paper.
If you are old enough to have a conversation with someone who lived through the 1930s United States Great Depression, they had to resort to tearing pages out of the Sears catalog. After that, they would hoard toilet paper. And every generation since has done the same thing. But it started with the Great Depression.
During a bad storm here many people used their electric cars to power their house. There were still places to charge it and then come back to the house to power it until the house was re-connected.
All gas stations closed because they could not sell gasoline/diesel. Today there are lines on all gas stations, people filling their car tanks and bottles..
Oh, let me tell you about electric cars! Many people had to spend the night somewhere away from home because they could not charge their cars.. My sister (with her job's electric car) had to stay the night some 200km away from home, and since the ATMs (Multibanco) didn't work, she didn't have physical money to pay for food. Luckily a stranger paid for the food (yogurt and some cookies). Petrol cars, because of their range, had better luck!
Pure fear and panic..
I can only blame the authorities (Portuguese/European) for not having contingency plans for keeping people informed, and thus letting fear spread like wildfire.