We made the BBC…
It’s something in the Taiwanese psyche. It’s the same thing that leads people to line up a long time for a free cup of coffee. People here place a premium on saving what seem to us insignificant amounts of money, especially when compared to the time and effort needed. Taiwanese people save money when they can, man. With exceptions of course 
It usually seems to work out pretty well in fact!
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In Taiwan you can enjoy the benefits of having the shower literally next to the toilet. Sounds weird, but actually in some countries you have this mini hose thing for flushing your asshole.
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They really don’t seem to have mastered the concept that time is money. Either that, or they place an extremely low value on their time. But if it keeps troublemakers off the street, I’m all for it.
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I sometimes ask people what they are standing in line for, and they say “we don’t know, but it’s a line, so must be a reason to stand here”.
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If you want to know the answer, ask them about their salaries.
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Yes. Exactly.
A lot of it may revolve around the fact that locals like to one up friends/acquaintances and what have you. As TG said, some people will brag that they stood in line for an hour for that buy one get one free deal at Starbucks on the first day back at work after CNY. The want the reaction from friends praising them, but in all honesty, everyone is probably thinking they’re crazy and it’s an epic waste of time.
In this case, it’s toilet paper. This time, like every other item, they bragged they braved the traffic, crowds and long lines at the cash register in order to get their hands on a “limited edition” item. C’mon guy, don’t kid yourself, it’s not limited edition, it’s just going to be more expensive next week than it is now.
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Yes, salaries are low, but not that low. I think it’s more the “I can get something for nothing” mindset, which only makes sense when you put the value of your time at zero. Then again, if you consider saving money to be a hobby, then I guess spending time enjoying your hobby counts as a productive use of time.
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Why would a robot need to use a butt hose? Is he/she leaking oil?
Yesterday as I was walking home, I saw a woman pushing a bike, with a huge pack of toilet paper barely balancing on the tiny front basket. I was tempted to take a photo. She started walking in the same direction, and I thought - wouldn’t it be funny if she lived in the same place? Turns out she was one of my roommates. 
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I saw that one. But it was at 50º as they had the same deal. The line was like 50m just to get 50% off a beverage that you could not even enjoy sitting down in that packed place. 
Dumbest shit I’ve EVER seen. It’s tissue paper, for f&ck’s sake. Taiwanese people continue to astound me with their lack of common sense.
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My (Taiwanese) wife is embarrassed by this TP run. She was saying Taiwanese want to live in a low value society, but that means they also see themselves as low value and it makes them seem small and petty as a people when they flock like sheep to do this over a $60 NTD price hike. She said some blogger was talking about this, so maybe others have heard about it.
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How did you not recognize your roommate straight away? Was her face blocked by the piles of shit-paper?
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I think it’s more as @ranlee pointed out, it’s one up mans ship and get it first in case you’re the one left without. The packs of toilet paper I normally buy are regularly “on sale” at NT$205 in the local RT Mart, other times they include a few extra packs “free”, I buy them when they are at that price. On Saturday employees were unpacking cartons of them and people were falling over themselves to grab as much as they could, the price? Full RRP, NT$259. People were queuing and elbowing each other out of the way in order to pay over 20% more than the “normal” price, and they’ll go home and tell they family and friends how clever they’ve been and got such a great deal…
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My wife, also Taiwanese, feels the same and mentioned similar…
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So true…I really don’t understand this Taiwanese way of thinking…the same goes when they announce a price hike for Gas and we see long lines waiting at the Gas station to fill up their tanks (Cars and Scooters alike) the night before the hike…Once, I saw my colleague waiting in line in his 1MillionNTD+ Car cos he heard there was going to be a price hike the next day…there were like 10 cars ahead of him and he patiently waited while his car was running with the aircon on full blast! …The next day at the office I asked him how much did he save? He said about 80 bucks!!! …and he owns a 12Million NTD house too!!! WTF!!! 
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this.