糖心视频

As stores limit toilet paper purchases in response to customers buying it in large quantities, some people are turning to an alternate method of cleaning: bidets.

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For those who don鈥檛 know, a bidet is an attachment used for cleaning oneself with water after using the restroom. While they鈥檙e popular in other countries, they鈥檙e not standard in the United States, a country with an affinity for toilet paper.

But with the outbreak of coronavirus–the declared COVID-19 a 鈥減andemic鈥� on Wednesday–people have been hoarding toilet paper. Some stores are , while others, , are limiting how many packs consumers can buy.

Meanwhile, toilet paper startup has sold out of its inventory in Australia and the U.S., and is expecting to sell out in the United Kingdom by the end of the week.

And as some people panic shop, others have pointed out that they can avoid running out of toilet paper altogether with a bidet.

Enter Tushy

, a direct-to-consumer bidet startup, has seen an uptick in sales since toilet paper has been flying off store shelves. The company sells $79 bidets that can be attached to toilets.

In fact the company鈥檚 revenue from bidets has tripled this past week, and 鈥渟hows no signs of slowing,鈥� Tushy CEO Jason Ojalvo said.

鈥淚 think it鈥檚 definitely the toilet paper hoarding, no question,鈥� Ojalvo said in an interview with Crunchbase News. He added that he thought it鈥檇 be the 鈥渉ygiene angle鈥� that would sway people to buy bidets.

鈥淲e鈥檙e noticing a lot of articles about the toilet paper shortage and it鈥檚 not until the comments that people say 鈥榞et a bidet鈥�,鈥� Ojalvo said.

Sales for the company鈥檚 bamboo toilet paper has also doubled, but it hasn鈥檛 seen the surge in popularity like Tushy鈥檚 bidets have. The company isn鈥檛 as known for its toilet paper and doesn鈥檛 advertise it as much, Ojalvo said.

Tushy, which is based in New York, has $2.9 million in funding, from investors including and , according to Crunchbase.

The company hasn鈥檛 experienced a surge in sales because of a crisis before, but it did experience it when the pulled Tushy鈥檚 ads from subways, and the wrote about it. “Saturday Night Live” mentioned the incident in a news segment, and Tushy saw a spike in sales.

Toilet paper startups seeing a surge, too

Just as toilet paper from large brands like Charmin and Cottonelle are flying off shelves, toilet paper startups are seeing demand skyrocket, too.

Toilet paper maker Who Gives A Crap, which makes environmentally-friendly toilet paper, saw its sales grow 12x in Australia last Tuesday, and then saw a 20x increase in sales the next day, co-founder Danny Alexander said in an interview with Crunchbase News. It sold out of inventory in the country last week.

鈥淲e had virtually no time to react,鈥� Alexander said. 鈥淏y the time we caught up to the number of sales we had to turn off sales.鈥� The company has paused sales to individuals who didn鈥檛 already have a subscription, but is still selling and distributing to subscribers.

Who Gives A Crap has had a few brief times where it鈥檚 been out of stock, but never from panic buying. In fact, the company has never seen anything like this, Alexander said.

鈥淎s a company that makes something that everybody needs and nobody wants to run out of, we try to never run out of stock,鈥� he said.

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