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Shopper shoves disabled woman to get last toilet paper roll

A Perth woman in a wheelchair said that she was pushed by another shopper as she tried to reach for the last pack of toilet paper on a supermarket shelf.

Jacqui Giles was about to pick up the final pack of toilet paper when she was shoved out of the way by another customer.

"I reached down to go grab it, and she just pushed me and grabbed the toilet paper and went off," Ms Giles told 9News.

Giles said that her partner followed the woman to her car and saw evidence of toilet paper hoarding.

"She had four 36-packs in her car," she said.

Giles said the behaviour was "really selfish".

"If someone did that to my grandparents I wouldn't be happy, or to anyone who needs it.

"Some people could be quite sick and (have) bowel disease, and they really do need it."

Luckily, she was able to buy a pack earlier in the day.

Industry Minister Karen Andrews condemned panic buying behaviour.

"Firstly - there is no need for people to continue to buy extensive amounts of toilet paper," she said.

"We have adequate supplies of that in Australia, and quite frankly, people's usage is not likely to change.

"So there is no need to panic buy that."

Currently, there is no nationwide shortages of any major supermarket item, but people’s panic-buying makes it difficult to keep essentials on the shelves.

"The issue that we are experiencing at the moment is getting the goods out of our distribution centres and on to the shelves.

"The more panic buying that continues, the more difficult that is, which means that people will walk into stores and they will see shelves that are not fully stocked.

"That is only a restocking issue. It is not a supply issue.

"So if everyone goes back to their normal purchasing behaviour at a supermarket, there is no cause for alarm."

A blind woman also reported having toilet paper stolen from her shopping trolley in Melbourne.

"Because we cannot see, people are stealing from us," she told 9News.

"Please consider other people who are disadvantaged because we can't get food because we don't have cars."

Tags:
body, coronavirus, toilet paper, hoarding, blind