From: howdHol@yaooho.com   
      
   hymie!  wrote   
      
   > We saw something similar in the eastern United States ... in the   
   > spring? It's probably a combination of the two -- concerns about   
   > shortages lead to panic buying, and panic buying leads to shortages.   
   > You're right that they're two different things, but IMHO it's very   
   > wrong to say that it's strictly one xor the other   
      
   The story keeps coming up, but I think barely any reporters ever think   
   it through.   
      
   When it came to toilet paper shortages last year, reporters jumped to   
   blame it on hoarders and panic buyers. As it turned out, the biggest   
   issue was a simple supply shortage. People were no longer going to   
   offices, schools and restaurants, and what happened was there was a huge   
   jump in reasonable demand for rolls that fit home dispensers and a huge   
   surplus in the extra large rolls that only fit business dispensers. It   
   took a while for suppliers to adjust, since the machinery for producing   
   one couldn't be quickly refitted to produce the other, and grocery store   
   supply chains typically weren't set up to draw on the oversupply of   
   larger rolls.   
      
   For gasoline it's even less complicated -- you can buy twenty extra   
   rolls of toilet paper, but there is simply no way for almost anyone to   
   buy twenty extra gallons of gas, and there is no adjustment in the type   
   of gas you buy -- if you buy regular, you're always buying regular.   
      
   I can see how drivers might drive up demand by a fairly small   
   incremental amount, but I don't see how that would ever cause a problem   
   unless there was already a shortage. In which case, blaming the drivers   
   seems to miss what is really the issue.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)