Panicked Shoppers Buy Up Taiwan's Toilet Paper

Good luck finding toilet paper to buy in Taiwan: After TP suppliers warned last week that the price of the stuff was set to rise by 10% to 30% thanks to an increase in the price of the pulp used to make it, consumers started panicking. Shoppers hurried to stock up on toilet paper, resulting in bare supermarket shelves, reports ABC News, which has rounded up photos of said shelves shared on social media. One TP supplier also blamed the price increase on a rise in the cost of transportation and packaging.

The government has announced it will investigate whether suppliers are colluding to raise prices, the Japan Times reports, and Bloomberg reports Taiwan's premier has even urged people not to hoard TP. "We ask the public not to panic and not to rush to buy," Premier William Lai told reporters Tuesday, per Phys.org. "The supply is sufficient and everybody will have toilet papers to buy." (More strange stuff stories.)