The Great Toilet Paper Shortage story comes from the book Uncle John's Bathroom Reader by the Bathroom Readers' Institute (The Bathroom Readers' Press, Berkeley, CA, 1995, pages 217-218). There's an acute shortage of toilet paper in the United States." Quietly, the U.S. spiraled into a period of economic stagnation and malaise it hadn't seen since the Great Depression (albeit, much less serious).Gasoline, electricity, and onions were heavily reported as goods and services that were in limited supply, and Americans cultivated a “shortage psychology.” Then, right in the midst of this economic turmoil, a toilet paper scare ignited a communal panic attack.
“I just picked up the item from the paper and enlarged it somewhat...there is no shortage.” (Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be his last run-in with the toilet industry: in 1976, he was embroiled in a lawsuit with a porta-potty company named “As for an explanation of what induced such panic, marketing professor Steuart Britt later Initially, the release went unnoticed and nobody seemed to put much stock in it -- save for one Harold V. Froelich. How to make a living in the modern world. I saw it in the papers. When Johnny Carson cracked a joke about toilet paper on his television talk show, things got serious. It also acts as a layer of protection for the hands during these processes. : 1933 - 1954), Tue 16 Mar 1943, Page 3 - TOILET PAPER SHORTAGE You have corrected this article This article has been corrected by You and other Voluntroves This article has been corrected by Voluntroves That’s a huge leap in demand for a product whose supply chain is predicated on the assumption that demand is essentially constant. Wire services, radio hosts, and international correspondents all sensationalized the story; words like “may” and “potentially” were lost in translation, and the shortage was reported as a doomed truth. Millions of Americans swarmed grocery outlets and hoarded all the toilet paper they could get their hands on. “I dont want to be remembered as the man who created a false toilet paper scare,” he told viewers, directly facing the camera. Television stations aired footage from the Scott Paper Company -- one of the ten largest producers in the U.S. -- of toilet paper rolls shooting off the production line.The ground had been set for a consumer panic; all it needed was a spark to ignite it. This article has been corrected by “You know, we’ve got all sorts of shortages these days,” he told 20 million viewers. For four long months, toilet paper was a rare commodity. Merchandisers struggled to re-stock supplies, as the boxcars they relied on for shipments were in high demand by thousands of other stores. The first, Toilet Paper Scant in Washington Area, appeared in the January 3, 1974 issue (page 22, column 1). Perhaps the most memorable shortage in a decade of shortages, it involved government officials, a famous television personality, a respected congressman, droves of reporters, and industrial executives -- but it was the consumers themselves who were ultimately blamed.Like most scares, the toilet paper fiasco all started with an unsubstantiated rumor.