Hand sanitizer and toilet paper. They’re coronavirus commodities invaluable for a population still adapting to sudden lifestyle changes and a desperate need to stay clean.

Everyone wants it. No stores have it -- a supply and demand ratio that’s befuddled both consumers and retailers over the past month.

Relief, however, could be on the way, a Tuscaloosa grocer says. Jay Welborn, a partner in an ownership group with four Piggly Wiggly stores in Tuscaloosa and Northport, explained the economics behind two of the most sought-after products anywhere.

First, the promising news.

“I had a conversation earlier today,” Welborn said of his supplier, “who thinks we’re probably a week away from being inundated by hand sanitizer from all the companies that shifted gears and started producing hand sanitizer. So, I think that’s a welcomed need that’s out there.”

It’s been more than two weeks since one of Welborn’s stores had a retail bottle on its shelves. Still, the supplier in Bessemer said reinforcements should be coming soon.

“That’s just the word from our wholesaler who said you need to be careful probably with how much we get loaded up on because we probably weren’t too far away from it readily available,” Welborn said Friday. “The worst thing you want to do in retail is suddenly get a stockpile of it when you can buy it everywhere. Then it doesn’t sell as fast.”

The market remains bare as the third week of COVID-19’s crippling shutdown ends. Nearly every bottle of hand sanitizer containing germ-killing alcohol for sale on Amazon is listed as prioritized for hospitals and government agencies.

A March 27 story from Bloomberg reports hand sanitizer production slowed because manufacturers lacked the raw materials needed to meet the demand.

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Welborn mentioned the boost in supply coming from local breweries that shifted production to hand sanitizer. None of that will hit his stores because they don’t have consumer-sized dispensers to sell in that kind of retail environment.

Much of the issue remains disruption in the distribution and delivery process. Welborn was told recently a truck from Canada was headed south full of hand sanitizer but it never made it across the United States border.

“It’s all speculation, really,” said Welborn, whose family has been in the grocery business since 1998. “You’re trying to push all the right buttons to get the supply that’s available out there and it changes pretty rapidly. I wouldn’t say daily. It’s more like hourly. Somethings that you hear in the morning versus what comes to fruition in the afternoon.”

And that applies to the toilet paper, too.

The situation is a little different compared to hand sanitizer because small quantities are still going out to stores. They’re just being snapped up as quickly as they land on shelves.

Reporter Will Oremus wrote about the unspoken dynamic in play within the toilet paper business on Medium. It’s actually two separate markets -- one for commercial locations like offices, stores and restaurants and another for residential use.

The imbalance is there because nobody is using the commercial paper when everyone stayed home, thus driving up use of the consumer product, Oremus wrote.

That fits with Welborn’s experience of trying to secure enough of the soft stuff for his customers along with his business partner.

“He actually bought a truckload of commercial toilet paper that he’s going to try to sell in the store just because that’s the only thing we could find,” Welborn said Friday. “If we’re able to secure something like that, it’s not necessarily what you would buy at your retailer but if it’s the only thing available, you try to make it available to the customer.”

They’d come on the larger rolls not built for a toilet paper holder found in homes but it likely beats the alternative.

Ultimately, the local stores are at the mercy of the suppliers. Each of the four Piggly Wiggly stores in Tuscaloosa receives shipments three times a week from two different suppliers. Typically, those trucks arrive like clockwork early in the morning. The increased demand and workload mean the trucks can arrive any time of day.

What arrives in each shipment can vary as well because demand is up everywhere.

Welborn explained the differences in toilet paper distribution between big box stores and smaller chains like his with a hypothetical scenario.

“If you say we order 100 cases of toilet paper a week,” Welborn said, “and you put us up against a Walmart who orders 1,000 cases a week. And then the supplier says, OK, to be sure we allocate this supply to as many customers as possible, we’re going to cut your orders by 50 percent. So, then my normal order of 100 cases a week, I’m only getting 50 and Walmart is getting 500. It’s a natural difference in our typical buying habits and what our volume is on an everyday basis.

“We’re not going to have as much as they do, at the same time, our volume isn’t as such that we’re going to sell them as fast as they would. So, it’s frustrating but for someone, we’ve been doing this for a long time, we understand how it works. We just want to do the best we can to get as much for our customers as we can.”

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The demand for perishable goods created a different issue early in the crisis. Welborn used eggs as an example of a product that went quickly once people realized they’d be at home much more than normal.

“Then immediately we started seeing pretty significant cost increases on what you’re able to get,” Welborn said. “I am fearful to throw out too many numbers, but the cost on our end more than doubling in just a short period of time. It’s scary because the customer then sees that and is quick to throw out a price gouging accusation. We have to react to the cost of goods.”

It’s all part of this new normal that both customers and retailers are navigating in real time. Business is booming for grocery stores large and small and owners like Welborn are just trying to keep up with the added demand. That’ll change somewhat starting Saturday when new state requirements say grocery stores must operate at 50 percent capacity to keep crowds -- and chances of the virus spreading -- down

Still, it’s exhausting with managers working six days a week, sometimes from open until close. At the same time, Welborn feels a sense of pride in the role his stores play within the community in these uncertain times.

He’s just ready to stock his shelves with some hand sanitizer and maybe a few more rolls of TP.

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.