Hoarding Due to Labor Strikes

[kyphysics]

My cousin called me from Sacramento, CA and said super markets and big box stores are out of toilet paper and certain brands of bottled water cannot be found. Other necessities were also missing.

Here in Virginia, my local Costo was packed with people also buying up all toilet paper. Lines this week were abnormally long.

Have you all noticed hoarding in your city/state for fear of labor strikes? If so, where is it happening and what are people hoarding?

 

[OmCheeto]

Thanks for pointing this out, as I hadn't heard of it. According to CNN, it's nationwide.

Published 10:21 AM EDT, Wed October 2, 2024

New York —
Toilet paper shortages in stores across America are giving folks nightmarish reminders of the pandemic era. But the lack of toilet paper isn’t a direct result of a major port strike Tuesday. It’s because of panic buying.
...

link

Fortunately I invested in a bidet during the last great TP panic, and should be good for a couple of months. I think each roll lasts me about a week.

 

[DaveE]

Hoarding and the related shortages are primarily a human group psychology problem. Did y'all actually run out of TP during the COVID shopping panics, or were you just worried you might? How old is this strike, 1 or 2 days? Calm down, you'll be able to get what you really, really, need, but maybe not what you want. Also one of your neighbors may actually need one of the multiple TP packages y'all had to stand in line for. We've done this before people. No one dies from lack of TP.

BTW, I think it's really interesting that it's always TP availability that people worry about first. There's some weird psychology buried in there.

 

[kyphysics]

Haha. I mean…TP is really essential!

 

[kyphysics]

I think each roll lasts me about a week.

I use it daily and run out every 2 days per roll.

 

[kyphysics]

I do ensure I have Isoprpyl alcohol for my insulin injections. I semi-hoard that. During the pandemic, it was doubly hoarded as a COVID disinfectant and diabetic supply. Costco would always run out and when I called and they had it, I’d see people emptying a new box full on the shelf within 30 minutes of being put out.

I’ve bought 8 bottles at once before. Yes, overkill.

 

[Baluncore]

The best way to avoid problems with TP hoarding, is to always have an unopened pack of 24 rolls on the shelf. Plenty of time to reorder, and one less thing to worry about. It is a bit late today in the USA, but elsewhere can prepare.

 

[Hornbein]

If nuclear war threatened would the people hoard TP?

Asking for a friend.

 

[docnet]

+1 for bidet attachments

 

[woopydalan]

My cousin called me from Sacramento, CA and said super markets and big box stores are out of toilet paper and certain brands of bottled water cannot be found. Other necessities were also missing.

Here in Virginia, my local Costo was packed with people also buying up all toilet paper. Lines this week were abnormally long.

Have you all noticed hoarding in your city/state for fear of labor strikes? If so, where is it happening and what are people hoarding?

Are you in Charlottesville? I saw photos of the TP being wiped out at the Costco there.

 

[jbriggs444]

Haha. I mean…TP is really essential!

There is a shower next to the toilet. I am a parent who is not frightened by poop.

Now where did that Sears and Roebuck catalog go?

 

[Baluncore]

Now where did that Sears and Roebuck catalog go?

I have always preferred the National Semiconductor data books from the 80s and 90s. The paper is thin but strong, and there is some interesting reading. I will not run out of NSC data books in my lifetime, while others may have to use a pdf copy.

 

[gleem]

90% of paper products like TP and paper towels are from domestic sources.

 

[BWV]

the US is the Saudi Arabia of timber - paper is a low margin item made from waste from lumber mills and thinning timber strands, I doubt a single roll of toilet paper has ever come over in a container ship.

 

[jbriggs444]

90% of paper products like TP and paper towels are from domestic sources.

Yes. My wife buys them.

 

[BWV]

Some fun w AI

 

[DaveE]

I have always preferred the National Semiconductor data books from the 80s and 90s. The paper is thin but strong, and there is some interesting reading. I will not run out of NSC data books in my lifetime, while others may have to use a pdf copy.

Ohh no!... Blasphemy!

I left all of mine in my office when I left my last real job and have (sort of) regretted it ever since. I thought "they're all online anyway". But nothing has replaced spinning around in your chair grabbing that old beat up blue Linear Data book, flipping to the tattered post-it book mark and finding Ios_(max) for your op-amp in less than 20 seconds.

For the love of god and the enduring respect of EEs everywhere, leave the LM324 pages for last, I beg you!

 

[Vanadium 50]

I doubt a single roll of toilet paper has ever come over in a container ship.

It's not about an actual shortage - its about a perceived shortage. Actually, not even that - it's a guess about a future perceived shortage.

That's why I support price gouging. If you double or triple the price, people will buy what they need and not thousands of rolls.

 

[Vanadium 50]

The interesting question to my mind is how long this will last. Clearly the union feels that they can make their demands stick - these include a 77% raise (not 7, 77) and no additional automation.

In 1985, the typsetters of the Chicago Tribune went on strike, demanding that the Tribine continue to use hot-metal type and not transition to more modern technology. That strike has been continuing for almost 40 years now.

 

[JT Smith]

Haha. I mean…TP is really essential!

It's funny that people see it that way. Of course it's totally NOT essential. You don't need it at all but it's pretty nice to have.

I'd be more worried if there was a shortage of Belgian Ale.

 

[OmCheeto]

The interesting question to my mind is how long this will last.
...

Until about an hour ago.

President Biden @POTUS
I applaud the International Longshoremen’s Association and the United States Maritime Alliance for coming together to reopen the East Coast and Gulf ports and ensure the availability of critical supplies for Hurricane Helene recovery and rebuilding.

Collective bargaining works.
5:05 PM · Oct 3, 2024
·
466.8K Views

ref link

I wonder if this guy got back into hoarder business for this;

He Has 17,700 Bottles of Hand Sanitizer and Nowhere to Sell Them

Published March 14, 2020
On March 1, the day after the first coronavirus death in the United States was announced, brothers Matt and Noah Colvin set out in a silver S.U.V. to pick up some hand sanitizer. Driving around Chattanooga, Tenn., they hit a Dollar Tree, then a Walmart, a Staples and a Home Depot. At each store, they cleaned out the shelves.

Over the next three days, Noah Colvin took a 1,300-mile road trip across Tennessee and into Kentucky, filling a U-Haul truck with thousands of bottles of hand sanitizer ...
...

ref link

 

[Baluncore]

For the love of god and the enduring respect of EEs everywhere, leave the LM324 pages for last, I beg you!

Our "legal master" reference 1 kHz, was distributed to us over the FDM national phone network, as the sum of its second and third harmonics. On reception, a single diode cross-modulated the two harmonics to regenerate the original 1kHz, which was then filtered. The filter employed an LM324. Great.

The LM324 mode transition glitch would take control of the filter and lead the reference astray. My job was to identify why the local rubidium master clock sometimes seemed to be wandering. I replaced the LM324 with a genuine TL084 in the 1 kHz reference, and the rubidium wander was fixed.

The LM324 is a two faced bastard. I have 600 here if you want them, that will never be used. They have an excellent TI brand on them, with the part number TL084, printed by the Chinese. I will recognise that LM324 mode transition glitch forever.

I will enjoy using the LM324 data sheets first, but will keep the LM3900 and LM13600 data sheets and application notes.

 

[russ_watters]

And here I was in the supermarket tonight confused about why I should be panicking. Is there a newsletter for this or something that I'm not getting? I have a spare bedroom I can fill up with toilet paper, small bottles of water and canned tuna, but I need to be informed of when I should be doing that.

 

[DaveE]

Sorry, kind of off topic, but I have to know...

Our "legal master" reference 1 kHz, was distributed to us over the FDM national phone network, as the sum of its second and third harmonics.

Why did they do that? Why not give you 1KHz? What is FDM, frequency division multiplexing?

The LM324 mode transition glitch

Please elaborate, that jargon doesn't ring a bell. Do you mean crossover distortion? Output phase reversal when you exceed the CM range? Input bias current changes? The LM324 has all of those, I think. It sounds like something I could learn about.

The LM324 is a two faced bastard.

Yep, They're cheap and really old. You get what you pay for. You get zero bonus points for naming a better amp 50 years later (or even 5). My own bad design story involves learning that the bias networks are shared, so if you overdrive one section it will mess up the others. My fault, I didn't know my parts.

I view it as just like my old 1965 Mustang and/or my 1964 Corvair convertible. Both classics. Both crappy cars, even in their day, and especially now. Both with nostalgic value to me along with the LM324.

 

[Baluncore]

Why did they do that? Why not give you 1KHz? What is FDM, frequency division multiplexing?

Yes. The frequency converters were crystal locked at the two ends of the trunk. You could not hear the frequency difference when talking on the phone, but it was there. So long as the two harmonics travelled together on the same channel, there was no problem with the reference coming from the National Standards Laboratory, except for the LM324.

LM324 needs a load to prevent an output transient when it internally switches amplifier class. You will find it documented in some LM324-LM2902 data sheets.

To reduce the power supply drain, the amplifiers have a class A output stage for small signal levels which converts to class B in a large signal mode. This allows the amplifiers to both source and sink large output currents. Therefore both NPN and PNP external current boost transistors can be used to extend the power capability of the basic amplifiers. The output voltage needs to raise approximately 1 diode drop above ground to bias the on-chip vertical PNP transistor for output current sinking applications.
For ac applications, where the load is capacitively coupled to the output of the amplifier, a resistor should be used, from the output of the amplifier to ground to increase the class A bias current and prevent crossover distortion.

 

[DaveE]

output transient when it internally switches amplifier class.

Yes, crossover distortion isn't uncommon in op-amps. I briefly had a problem with LM318 in an audio circuit. Easy enough to just bias it into class A. Honestly, the only reason for most of us to use these ancient designs is that we don't care about their quirkiness. Except for cost, LT1014 is my old workhorse.

 

[OmCheeto]

+1 for bidet attachments

Long before I got my bidet, I was intrigued by the idea.
So, as a test at first, I just used a spray bottle filled with water.
It was not uncomfortable, and seemed to cut down on the TP usage by nearly an order of magnitude...
Hello? Hello!

Later I progressed to a Febreezish concoction of water, alcohol, and a spritz of perfume.
This may have been inspired by some random thread here at PF stating that room temperature tap water left around for a month or two was a bacterial breeding ground. And who wants to spray that on their butt?

Anyways, it all seemed to work, so a bidet didn't sound like a silly idea when Covid finally arrived.

 

[Hornbein]

I live in East Asia where everyone uses water spray. It is a better system. Tp isn't traditional but now usually used to dry yourself.

 

[ctldnbe]

There's some weird psychology buried in there.

“There's some weird psychology buried in there.”

I hadn’t thought of that until you pointed it out. Makes sense

 

[docnet]

Long before I got my bidet, I was intrigued by the idea.
So, as a test at first, I just used a spray bottle filled with water.
It was not uncomfortable, and seemed to cut down on the TP usage by nearly an order of magnitude...
Hello? Hello!

Later I progressed to a Febreezish concoction of water, alcohol, and a spritz of perfume.
This may have been inspired by some random thread here at PF stating that room temperature tap water left around for a month or two was a bacterial breeding ground. And who wants to spray that on their butt?

Anyways, it all seemed to work, so a bidet didn't sound like a silly idea when Covid finally arrived.

If each person gets a dedicated bidet cloth to dry off after using the bidet, it makes TP unnecessary.

Many modern bidets have a variety of ways to control water pressure, spread, nozzle angle, movement, and etc. I find they are more hygienic and less irritating than TP as well.

 

[DDTJRAC]

I use it daily and run out every 2 days per roll.

That is good to know. You can stock enough of an item to last a predetermined time if you have worries or expect shortages. I get 6 or 7 days from large roll.

 

[OmCheeto]

That is good to know. You can stock enough of an item to last a predetermined time if you have worries or expect shortages. I get 6 or 7 days from large roll.

Thanks for the bump! I counted the number of rolls I had back when this thread was rolling and I had 13 on stock: 1 old and 12 new purchased just a couple of days before the strike. Today I have 7, meaning it takes me 6¼ days to consume a roll.

Although I've dated my paper towel tubes and discovered that my last roll of paper towels took me ≈3 years to consume, I don't recall doing this for TP tubes.