Hoarding
Encyclopedia
Hoarding or caching is a general term for a behavior that leads people or animals to accumulate food or other items in anticipation of future need or scarcity.
species as well as in rodent
s. Most animal caches are of food. However, some birds will also stingily collect other items, especially if the birds are pets. Magpie
s are famous for hoarding items such as money and jewelry, although research suggests they are no more attracted to shiny things than other kinds of items.
Japan’s largest earthquake on record and tsunami struck the nation’s eastern half, disrupting food distribution and creating a temporary rice shortage as consumers rushed to buy the staple. Per-capita consumption of rice in Japan is about 10 kilograms a month, and demand is doubling as consumers try to hoard supplies.
The company Unilever
has acceded to the National Development and Reform Commission
’s (NDRC) of China's request and postponed an intended hike in prices of shampoos and laundry detergents to combat higher input costs. NDRC is China’s top economic planner. The Anglo-Dutch company was requested to defer the price rise in the back drop of unease among Chinese consumers following recent price inflation in many commodities.
Unilever along with Procter & Gamble Co.
had announced it would raise prices of soaps and detergents that are sold to China. Management cited that the price of petroleum, which is the raw material for most of the commodities, of the retail giant is responsible for the cost increase. The shelves of shops were nearly ransacked after the news of the anticipated price increase. People started hoarding detergents and soaps before the price increase could become effective.
, where the perceived importance of the hoarded items far exceeds their true value. In severe cases, houses belonging to such people may become a fire hazard (due to blocked exits and stacked papers) or a health hazard (due to vermin infestation, excretia and detritus from excessive pets, hoarded food and garbage or the risk of stacks of items collapsing on the occupants and blocking egress paths).
Animal behavior
Hoarding and caching are common behaviors in many birdBird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
species as well as in rodent
Rodent
Rodentia is an order of mammals also known as rodents, characterised by two continuously growing incisors in the upper and lower jaws which must be kept short by gnawing....
s. Most animal caches are of food. However, some birds will also stingily collect other items, especially if the birds are pets. Magpie
Magpie
Magpies are passerine birds of the crow family, Corvidae.In Europe, "magpie" is often used by English speakers as a synonym for the European Magpie, as there are no other magpies in Europe outside Iberia...
s are famous for hoarding items such as money and jewelry, although research suggests they are no more attracted to shiny things than other kinds of items.
Human hoarding
Civil unrest or natural disaster may lead people to hoard foodstuffs, water, gasoline, and other essentials which they believe, rightly or wrongly, will soon be in short supply. Rumors surrounding that nation’s worst earthquake and nuclear disaster have resulted in hoarding of rice and may result in purchases of as much as 15 million metric tons, up from about 8 million tons last year, thus making it impossible for Japan’s farmers to meet demand after a quake-generated tsunami washed over paddies in an area representing 18 percent of the country’s output.Japan’s largest earthquake on record and tsunami struck the nation’s eastern half, disrupting food distribution and creating a temporary rice shortage as consumers rushed to buy the staple. Per-capita consumption of rice in Japan is about 10 kilograms a month, and demand is doubling as consumers try to hoard supplies.
The company Unilever
Unilever
Unilever is a British-Dutch multinational corporation that owns many of the world's consumer product brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products....
has acceded to the National Development and Reform Commission
National Development and Reform Commission
The National Development and Reform Commission , formerly State Planning Commission and State Development Planning Commission, is a macroeconomic management agency under the Chinese State Council, which has broad administrative and planning control over the Chinese economy...
’s (NDRC) of China's request and postponed an intended hike in prices of shampoos and laundry detergents to combat higher input costs. NDRC is China’s top economic planner. The Anglo-Dutch company was requested to defer the price rise in the back drop of unease among Chinese consumers following recent price inflation in many commodities.
Unilever along with Procter & Gamble Co.
Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble is a Fortune 500 American multinational corporation headquartered in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio and manufactures a wide range of consumer goods....
had announced it would raise prices of soaps and detergents that are sold to China. Management cited that the price of petroleum, which is the raw material for most of the commodities, of the retail giant is responsible for the cost increase. The shelves of shops were nearly ransacked after the news of the anticipated price increase. People started hoarding detergents and soaps before the price increase could become effective.
Mental illness
Some hoarding in humans may be a form of mental illness, specifically obsessive-compulsive disorderObsessive-compulsive disorder
Obsessive–compulsive disorder is an anxiety disorder characterized by intrusive thoughts that produce uneasiness, apprehension, fear, or worry, by repetitive behaviors aimed at reducing the associated anxiety, or by a combination of such obsessions and compulsions...
, where the perceived importance of the hoarded items far exceeds their true value. In severe cases, houses belonging to such people may become a fire hazard (due to blocked exits and stacked papers) or a health hazard (due to vermin infestation, excretia and detritus from excessive pets, hoarded food and garbage or the risk of stacks of items collapsing on the occupants and blocking egress paths).
See also
- Hoard (archaeological)HoardIn archaeology, a hoard is a collection of valuable objects or artifacts, sometimes purposely buried in the ground. This would usually be with the intention of later recovery by the hoarder; hoarders sometimes died before retrieving the hoard, and these surviving hoards may be uncovered by...
- Hoarding (economics)Hoarding (economics)In economics, hoarding is the practice of buying up and holding resources so that they can be sold to customers for profit.-Definition:Under capitalist theory, if this is done so that the resource can be transferred to the customer or improved upon, then it is a standard business practice ;...
- Compulsive hoardingCompulsive hoardingCompulsive hoarding is the acquisition of possessions in excess of socially normative amounts, even if the items are worthless, hazardous, or unsanitary...
- Collyer brothersCollyer brothersHomer Lusk Collyer and Langley Wakeman Collyer , known as the Collyer brothers, were two American brothers who became famous because of their bizarre nature and compulsive hoarding...
—rich eccentrics, famous for compulsive hoarding - PlyushkinPlyushkinPlyushkin is a fictional character in Nikolai Gogol's novel Dead Souls. He is a landowner who obsessively collects and saves everything he finds, to the point that when he wants to celebrate a deal with the protagonist, he orders one of his serfs to find a cake that a visitor brought several years...
—fictional Russian hoarder
External links
- Boston University School of Social Work
- "If I Were A Hoarder" , the daughter of a compulsive hoarder writes about hoarding.