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https://mothership.sg/2020/03/toilet-paper-hoarding-history/ The toilet paper mystery is solved!? Scarcity mindset developed by historic events In a Facebook post on Mar. 3, Eliza Teoh, a children’s book author and former journalist, explained the historical significance of toilet paper hoarding. She pointed out that older generations have lived through many cycles of economic expansion and recession, and that from those experiences, they understand that basic necessities such as food and everyday items could become priced beyond their reach. Here in Singapore, she added, our elders recall the food rationing that occurred during the Japanese Occupation in the 1940s, as well as the scarcity caused by Singapore’s independence from Malaysia. Between the 1950s and 1970s, Teoh wrote, food production rose greatly, but bad weather in 1972 caused food prices to again rise and become unaffordable for the poor. All of these global situations, she says, are what caused people to develop a mindset of scarcity, which in turn made them anticipate future food shortages. Rumour sparked panic-buying Then, in 1973, the Arab oil embargo occurred, enacted by Arab oil producers to protest American military support for Israel during the Arab-Israeli War. The embargo disrupted not only the global oil supply, but also food production and that of other everyday items, wrote Teoh. What happened next, she added, was due to the scarcity mindset mentioned earlier. After a flyer by a supermarket in Osaka, Japan “gave the wrong impression” that toilet paper was running low, people in Osaka “stampeded” to buy it before the prices increased. Footage of the incident then sparked similar situations elsewhere in Japan, and many people were injured, wrote Teoh. Here’s a photograph she included of the toilet paper panic-buying. You can read Teoh’s full post, which has been shared more than 1.6k times at the time of writing, here: