Sales through Who Gives A Crap spiked on Tuesday night, with NSW customers by far the biggest hoarders. Sales in the state were 17.8 times higher than the previous Tuesday, followed by Western Australia (11.7x) and Victoria (10.5x). In Wollstonecraft on Sydney’s lower north shore, sales skyrocketed to 286 times their level the previous week, followed by Balmain (146x), St Ives (90x), Glenhaven (72x) and Box Hill (71x). Ryde and Bondi Beach both surged to 66 times their levels of the previous week. The Facebook community group Balmain Living was flooded with posts about toilet paper. One travel boutique offered "free toilet roll to the first seven local customers to book a holiday with us", and a resident posted a photo of a sign at the Our Place restaurant that declared: "No TOILET paper kept on premises." A man by the name of Ian Seggar posted in the group saying he was "ashamed" to see so many fellow residents loading trolleys with 50 or more rolls of toilet paper.

"I love Balmain for its village vibe but that comes with some responsibility on the part of us as residents to do the decent thing [and] put the needs of everyone in the frame," he wrote. The other panic-prone suburbs were Croydon, Alexandria, Killara, Castle Hill, Pymble, Crows Nest, Lane Cove North, Dover Heights, Turramurra, Mosman, Fairlight and Freshwater on the northern beaches, Newtown and Woollahra. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video By contrast, the Sydney suburbs with the least panic-buying were Kareela, Campbelltown, Bundeena, Mount Keira, Westmead, Harrington Park, Smithfield, Wombarra, Millers Point, Peakhurst and St Helens Park. In these areas, sales were about the same as the previous Tuesday. Mr Griffiths said that, nationally, "Pooper Tuesday" and Wednesday were the biggest days of web traffic his company had ever seen.

"We watched when this happened in Hong Kong, in Singapore, in Japan, and just never thought it would happen in Australia," he said. Mr Griffiths said the suburbs with the biggest spikes in buying were not necessarily areas where Who Gives A Crap has the most clients. He said the spikes were "statistically significant", despite the potential for the suburb-by-suburb breakdown to be skewed by large individual orders. A sign at the Our Place cafe in Balmain on Saturday warning no toilet paper is kept on the premises. Credit:AAP / Bianca De Marchi Liberal MP Trent Zimmerman, whose seat of North Sydney takes in the number one ranked Wollstonecraft, said: "I’m pleased that Wollstonecraft residents are not looting the shops of my electorate for toilet paper." According to data from German market research company Statista, Australians use about 88 toilet paper rolls per person, or slightly less than two rolls a week, over the course of the year. Mr Griffiths said that was "probably broadly correct".

At the peak of the frenzy, the company was selling 27 rolls a second. It is now telling customers it has "sold out", as the remaining stock is reserved for regular subscribers and corporate clients. Loading Supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths – which imposed limits on per-person toilet paper purchases last week – declined to provide geographic breakdowns of the panic-buying blitz. Stewart Jackson, a senior lecturer in politics and government at the University of Sydney, received his regular Who Gives A Crap delivery at his Kensington property last week, but discovered several rolls had been looted by the time he collected the box. "We told them leave it at the back door ... the top layer of the box was missing and about a quarter of the rolls had been nicked," Dr Jackson said. But the tissues and kitchen paper had been left alone. "No one went for those," he said.