Top 10 Worst Things About Coronavirus Hoarders

This has nothing to do with reality TV shows that focus on hoarders, but instead refers to hoarders in general. You know, those people who compulsively buy all sorts of supplies and completely bury themselves in them for days or even months?

During the early stages of the Coronavirus pandemic, panic buying led to widespread shortages of essential items. This list revisits the problems caused by such hoarding behaviors, reflecting on their impact and lessons learned for future crises.
The Top Ten
They cause essential supplies to run out, preventing those who need them more from getting them

When people are panic buying, it leads to more panic buying, which is worse than panic buying itself. Therefore, panic buying is worse than not panic buying.

The biggest issue with hoarders is that they take supplies that could benefit those who are more in danger of the disease.

They buy way more than they need

I feel like Costco has it the worst because people buy everything in bulk. My question to these people is, what are you going to do with all that extra toilet paper? It's a waste of money.

Hopefully, they won't show up at the supermarket for the next few months in any case.

They lack common sense

Imagine buying a bunch of toilet paper when there's less than five confirmed cases in the entire state! Yeah, that's what I'm dealing with.

This goes along with a number of items already mentioned here. But then again, hoarders in general lack common sense anyways.

They are completely selfish
They unintentionally create limits to buying certain items

A few Walmarts I read about on Twitter are now limiting the amount of supplies on shelves and won't actually sell them if they buy more than the limit. All because the hoarders are stupid.

They fight with others over supplies

And another thing I found out is that they will fight for their "right" (yes, I put the quotes for a reason) to have toilet paper or whatnot.

That's just stupid. Imagine fighting over something like toilet paper.

They can cause some places to shut down or close

A few signs I saw say, "Due to the recent outbreak of stupidity over toilet paper, we will not be selling any at this time," and a few similar signs. While these places aren't necessarily shut down, the implications of what humans need being shut down is a problem. Some of the smaller businesses that do sell this stuff go out of stock and potentially even out of business.

They do not think of good alternatives to the items they hoard

An odd item, but think about it. What can you use OTHER than toilet paper to wipe? How about paper towels? Or already dirty things that can be safely flushed?

They arrive well before store openings and wait for hours

Very eerily similar to Black Friday shoppers, only it's not a sales event.

They can cause item prices to go up

My mom claimed to have seen hand sanitizer bottles that are usually about $4-5 at a store being listed on Trade Me for $50. This is also in New Zealand that only has five confirmed cases of the virus.

It's bad enough some of the items go out of stock. It's another thing to see the price go up thanks to this kind of behavior, ruining buying it for everyone else.

It's basic economics. As demand increases and supply decreases, items become more expensive.

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