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The Great Date Roll buy up of 2020

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frugal.rock

Joined
3 May 2019
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So, the loonies are going crazy busy buying up all the date rolls. Bog rolls.
A hot ticket item apparently!

My local coles store, NOTHING.
Didn't bother with aldi.
IGA had just restocked its shelves, but had been cleaned out prior to restocking.

What a time for me to run out!!
I had looked at big rolls last shop, and noticed there wasn't much available, so didn't buy any.. as a family, we buy the specials, just got real low on stocks at home, the last roll was cracked out this morning, for my double slammer...

Didn't think that the world would go stupid....?

Honestly, the press, the media, they are terrorists when they spread panic and fear.

Mass media scare campaigns.
With all the crap that the press puts out, I reckon the Federal Police should raid them more often.
Above the law? Pig's arse.
Fake news, spreading the stories of fear and panic for the sake of a story.
Twisting people's words, misrepresenting reality.

"Never let the facts ruin a good story"
Jackass's, you're on notice.
Free speech at the cost of humanity?
Common sense needs to prevail.
Duty of care, dictates that the press should give a rat's arse, but they clearly don't give a rat's arse.
Are they human?
Do they assess the risk and impact of THEIR actions?
Total fugwits.

On a lighter note, what Aussie companies produce tissue products that are listed on ASX ?
Buy the rumour...?!

F.Rock
 
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I love a good panic. Allows slackers like me to pick up bargains.
 
Going to Bunnings for a lock and key for the Dunny.
It might be back to cut up newspapers (all its good for anyway)
 
Just install a bidet, or "Japanese" style toilet that makes you feel light an aircraft pilot with all the controls at your finger tips, rather than on your fingertips.
These might sound more expensive but do the maths and you might be surprised.
The options are also much more hygienic - you will be "tickled" pink.
 
Just get the thai style hand bidet which is basically a hose with a trigger nozzle.
 
Media are a law onto themselves.
At times they are the strongest opponents to free speech. unless it is their hobbyhorse that speeching.

Horse has bolted from the ASX point of view. How much toilet paper can anyone horde anyways. gonna be a slow seller going forward.
 
It's probably the best layman's terms illustration of the madness of crowds all buying something that we'll ever see.

Explaining about market bubbles and so on is all well and good, but this illustrates the herd mentality extremely well in a way that everyone can understand.
 
As anyone yet tried to blame it on the Russians or global warming?
I should get the pseudo and start the rumor
To be fair, I should also blame it on the Extinction rebellion:
this way their ABC will rant on Global warming , Trump and the Russian causing TP supply failure while the Australian will have pictures of a few Greta fans mummied with TP and blocking mass public transport.
As I often said while working on the dummiest of issues and consumer demands:
2000y of civilisation for that?
 
Also noticed the flour shelves fairly bare... instant noodles etc. Bizarre.

The situation highlights a fear I have... war.
It wouldn't just be toilet paper getting bought up....
If oil tankers that bring our imported fuels are bombarded, unable to deliver, forget the supermarkets getting deliveries by trucks.

How much capacity does Aus have left to supply ourselves with fuel with all? most of the the refineries closed?

F.Rock
 
I said to the kids after sending photos of empty shelves of all the local shops. If this keeps up, soon some people, REALLY will be sh*tting themselves.
I also advised them it is probably time to be more environmentally conscious and use both sides of the paper.
 
frugal.rock said:
If oil tankers that bring our imported fuels are bombarded, unable to deliver, forget the supermarkets getting deliveries by trucks.

How much capacity does Aus have left to supply ourselves with fuel with all? most of the the refineries closed?
Click to expand...

good question. Answer; not much. Many refineries closed and/ or converted to (import) terminals, over the last few decades.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oil_refineries#Australia
Geelong, Lytton, Kwinana seem to be all that are left.
I think its in the order of 20-25 days supply, as most refined product is imported There is one refinery in Singapore with a production capacity 8X the combined output from all our refineries; that crude comes from non-Australian sources. We produce oil to some extent but the major source (Bass Strait) is in terminal decline. WA produces some as does the Cooper Basin. And that takes us to the other point (self-evident, I hope)
frugal.rock said:
Situation highlights a fear I have... war.
Click to expand...
damn right (physical Gold and, even more so, diamonds for wealth preservation)

frugal.rock said:
Also noticed the flour shelves fairly bare... instant noodles etc. Bizarre.
Click to expand...
The reaction is irrational, but not bizarre. With a couple of big IFs, such as:
- if the virus takes hold,
- if current measures don't hold,
- if the health system gets overwhelmed,
- if you are asked to self-isolate,
- if under threat of sanction you are legally forced to self-isolate
.... then following the guidelines of having sufficient water and food and medications if necessary to exist for 14 days in isolation (no ship crew to bring things, no centralised commie government to enforce behaviours) it is a logical progression to obtain when these things are available. I don't understand the bog roll thing, but I did notice rice, pasta, noodles, soap and canned foods were in short supply or sold out today at local supermarket.
I think medications are the weak point. Too many things can fail, the supply lines, the need for a script, and thus a doctor, the availability in a chemist.

Just-in-time is grand until it isn't. We have warehouses and supply lines and computerised inventory restocking, but there is still a frailty.
 
Dona Ferentes said:
Many refineries closed and/ or converted to (import) terminals, over the last few decades.
Click to expand...
What's left is:

Viva Energy (which uses the Shell name under license) at Geelong (Vic)

ExxonMobil at Altona (suburban Melbourne)

BP at Kwinana (Perth metro area)

IOR Petroleum, a small Australian owned company, operates a small scale refining operation at Eromanga (south-west Queensland). This is a very small operation with a processing capacity of 1250 barrels per day (versus total Australian oil consumption of just over 1 million barrels per day). It is nonetheless an oil refinery producing fuel.

That's it, everything all the rest are now shut however a company called Darwin Clean Fuels is proposing to build a new refinery located at Darwin with a capacity of 60 - 70,000 barrels per day.

In terms of how much stock is on hand, as of December 2019 (figures are days of consumption of that product).

Crude oil = 29 days
LPG = 47 days (noting that Australia is a net exporter of this product)
Petrol = 24 days
Aviation gasoline (the stuff small planes use) = 162 days
Aviation turbine fuel (what most aircraft use) = 23 days
Diesel = 22 days
Fuel oil (industry, ships and it plays a minor role in power generation) = 75 days

Lubricants (noting that this covers a lot of different products) = 54 days in terms of total volume but will vary hugely for individual products.

Other products (bitumen, solvents, heating oil, non-aviation kerosene, hydraulic oils, etc) = 231 days in terms of total volume but will vary hugely between individual products.

In terms of production, for the 2018-19 financial year:

Crude oil and condensate = 18,293 ML
Naturally occurring LPG (excluding LPG produced at oil refineries) = 3002 ML

Crude oil and condensate input to Australian refineries = 29,650 ML

LPG produced at oil refineries = 948 ML
Petrol = 11,152 ML
Aviation gasoline = 54 ML
Aviation turbine fuel = 3918 ML
Diesel = 9024 ML
Fuel oil = 932 ML
Other products (solvents, lubricants, bitumen, chemicals etc) = 3102 ML

Total Australian consumption:
LPG = 2107 ML
Petrol (all grades) = 17,570 ML
Aviation gasoline = 67 ML
Aviation turbine fuel (including fuel loaded onto international flights) = 9434 ML
Diesel = 29,255 ML
Fuel oil = 1013 ML
Lubricants, greases etc = 333 ML
Other products (minor fuels eg heating oil, solvents, bitumen, chemicals etc) = 866 ML

Source = Australian Government data from various tables, reports etc. Compiled by Smurf.

As a comment on all that, the virus would not rationally cause a shortage of fuel since if anything it's going to reduce consumption not increase it with people quarantined, fewer tourists and so on. That said, the virus also shouldn't rationally cause a shortage of toilet paper or rice.

One aspect of fuel though is that it's somewhat harder for people to hoard given it's a liquid stored in bulk. It's not like toilet paper which someone can just pile up on the floor or in the shed or wherever, with fuel you need containers so that does limit how much anyone can store. That said, if a panic did start well then it's anyone's guess how that works out - we could see people stockpiling kerosene and cans of butane gas without thinking about the fact they've got zero means of using it.

I'll also add shipping to that. Producing LPG in WA isn't much help if you're in Sydney and there's no means of getting it there. Etc.
 
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jbocker said:
If this keeps up, soon some people, REALLY will be sh*tting themselves.
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There's a missing link in that.

No food to eat - after a couple of days no chance they'll be sh*ting themselves.

It's one of those problems with an inbuilt solution. Running out of food stops the problem at the other end.
 
Yes Kimberly Clarke may be doing well at the moment, I wonder if they have a contingency plan, for lack of demand later
 
sptrawler said:
Yes Kimberly Clarke may be doing well at the moment, I wonder if they have a contingency plan, for lack of demand later
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I also wonder if any of this toilet paper is leaving Australia?

Is it like baby formula and being exported?

Or are people really buying with the intent that it's only for their own personal use?
 
It is possible that the actions being put in place worldwide to delay/contain the spread of the virus will create more misery ,death and unrest than letting it run its course and give antibody immunity to the vast majority.
I am one of the older group of people at risk of death from this virus, so I hope I have not jinxed myself with this post!
 

An error on my part in the above - I've left Caltex Lytton (Brisbane) off the list. That refinery is still operating normally.

Sorry about that.
 
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