The Great TP Shortage, March 2020​

Do you remember the rush of missing toilet paper in March? If you were in a camper, that may have been me you purchased from.

Every year, our company attends multiple trade shows from our distributors. We purchase what we think is a years worth of product during these shows. By looking at the data of what we have sold in the past and adding a healthy growth goal, we set our purchase quantities at our best prices for the year. Quantity discounts, plus show pricing equals best profit margins.

In late February, I began looking at inventory of paper and we were unusually low. We had purchased a year's supply and we were almost out. At this point my purchasing person and I were concerned that we would get in trouble for bringing in 9 extra cases of toilet paper for the weekend. Purchasing was tightly controlled and we had very little leeway in bringing in extra stock.

Upon seeing trending numbers, I casually asked if I could make TP a loss-leader for single pack listing only. This was breakeven pricing on singles, but we made money when multiple quantities were purchased by the same user. On all multiple quantity sales, we made up the difference in shipping costs based on our cubic shipping prices. Within hours sales began to sky rocket. With the uptick in sales, I added our product on all RV TP listings on Amazon. At 5 o'clock on Friday afternoon, we owned the buy box on all RV toilet paper listings. Seemed like a great time, most east-coast companies were closed for the day.

Later that evening, I get a text from my boss. We had to buy out multiple distributor quantities of toilet paper and were looking for more sources. Thanks to data, we sold a quarter of a million rolls of toilet paper in less than a week's time. We would have sold more, if we could have gotten it.