SAN FRANCISCO, California (The Adobo Chronicles, San Francisco Bureau) – It happened in the spring at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. It’s happening again as more and more states are mandating stay-at-home instructions to deal with increasing cases of Covid-19.

What’s happening? Consumers are seeing empty supermarket and warehouse shelves where toilet paper used to abound. Americans are in a panic-buying mode.

But why toilet paper, one might ask.

Well, unlike in countries like Japan, American homes are not equipped with bidets in their toilets, and Americans have no concept of the dipper or pitcher (tabo) like it is used and practiced in countries like the Philippines. So they are fully dependent on the good old toilet paper to clean up after a dump.

America, the most advanced and industrialized country in the world, apparently needs to keep up with Japanese toilet technology, or perhaps adapt to its former colony the Philippines’ tabo culture.

Especially in a pandemic..