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TIME Person of the Year© GettyImages

Elon Musk says he took his kids to Walmart to see if the toilet paper shortage was real

No word if they got any sweet deals while they were there


Jovita Trujillo
Jovita Trujillo - Los Angeles
Senior WriterLos Angeles
FEBRUARY 3, 2022 7:17 PM EST

Thinking back to early 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic can send shivers down your spine. There were a lot of chaotic things, but in the United States, there was one shortage that left the rest of the world confused- toilet paper. Suddenly there was no toilet paper, or toilet paper substitutes in stores as people panicked and stockpiled like it was a full-blown apocalypse. Videos of empty shelves went viral and many people saw it on their own, but of course, there was a certain percentage of people who would never have to worry about not having toilet paper- billionaires. But it doesn’t mean they didn’t hear about it, Elon Musk actually went someplace he would probably never step foot in just to see - Walmart.

Empty Shelves Are Seen In A Supermarket Prior The Tonight Speech Of French President Emmanuel Macron© GettyImages

Musk brought up the toilet paper shortage while comparing it to the global chip shortage, per Insider. It all went down during Tesla’s Q4 earnings call last week. Once Musk caught wind of the shortage he got in the car with his kids and headed to the H-E-B supermarket and Walmart to confirm it was real. “I wasn‘t sure, is this like a real thing or not? I actually took my kids to the H-E-B and Walmart in Texas to just confirm if it was real. Indeed, it was. And there’s plenty of food and everything else but just nothing, no paper products,” he said.

The father said earlier, “I think there‘s some degree of the toilet paper problem as well where there was a toilet paper shortage during COVID. Obviously, it wasn’t really certainly a tremendous enhanced need for ass-wiping. It‘s just people panicked and got every paper product you could possibly wipe your ass with basically.” “If [the] end of the world is coming, I think toilet paper is the least of your problems,” he added.

Musk has 6 living kids but he did not say which ones had the exciting opportunity of going to Walmart. He welcomed his youngest son X Æ A-Xii with his ex-girlfriend Grimes in 2020 and shares custody of his five sons with his former wife Justine Wilson. The former couple welcomed twins Griffin and Xavier in 2004, and triplets Kai, Saxon, and Damian Musk in 2006 through IV. Their first child, Nevada Alexander Musk was born in 2002 and died at just 10 weeks old of sudden infant death syndrome.

TIME Person of the Year© GettyImages
Elon Musk and X Æ A Xii