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LISTEN: Toilet Paper Panic Buying Returns Amid Dockworkers’ Strike

Eric Sorensen

Dockworkers at east and Gulf coast ports from Maine to Texas began walking picket lines on October 1, and reports suggest that the strike could cause price increases and shortages for large and small retailers. 

The height of the COVID-19 pandemic may have been four years ago, but people apparently still remember the toilet paper shortage that befell U.S. consumers. 

According to multiple news outlets, including CNN and a local station in Houston, shoppers are once again flocking to stores to panic buy the product. However, those same reports indicate that this very act is more likely to cause empty shelves than the dockworkers’ strike. 

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