Bendigo shoppers battle long lines, shortages in long quest for toilet paper

Some shoppers had already arrived at 7am from other supermarkets in Golden Square and Kennington, where they had been told not to bother waiting for stores to open if they wanted sought-after toilet tickets.

George Moore was one of those who could not get to the right aisle quickly enough.

"Look at that bloke, he got in quick enough," he said as a fellow shopper walked away with a toilet paper pack.

"Someone's going to rob him," he joked.

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Mr Moore arrived three minutes before the store opened and the line already snaked back at least 60 people deep.

One person in front of him wore a green and yellow face mask and a smattering of others had their mouths and noses covered with scarves or face masks.

Another shopper who did not share his name also walked away empty-handed.

"It's OK, I've got plenty of books. It will be a bit rough on the a*** though," he joked.

Another shopper who lives alone and only needs one toilet roll to tide her over also missed out.

"You go into supermarkets at any time of day and you can't find them," she said.

"When this all started out it seemed so funny. I was talking to my sister about it at the time and we thought it was ridiculous that people would be buying it up.

"Now it's like they had the foresight to see what was coming. I'm not talking about the crazy people here, but I'm saying some normal people did."

Mr Moore said other items including meat were also low as he left.

He said people were being civil to each other in the store.

John* waited half an hour to get into a Bendigo supermarket yesterday at the first session set aside for older people and those with disabilities to gather supplies.

He was gobsmacked by what he saw.

"I've never seen so many older people in one place in my life. The toilet paper was gone, there was no meat, hardly any detergent," he said.

"We are going to have to do something. If people were buying normally there would be enough for everyone.

"If average people can't go to the supermarket, that's wrong."

John called for people to stop panic buying.

* John declined to give his last name.

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