the most hoarded and sought after product in Germany had been
The same in the U.K., absolute panic buying of bog rolls and tampons and as I recall it was similar here in Poland.
Years ago, when times were often harder, incomes less secure, when illnesses cost money, when shops didn't get so many deliveries, especially away from big cities, when fresh products were always only seasonal and when people didn't have refrigeration, every housewife who could afford it had a very big store cupboard with a lot of essentials in. Enough to last for a while. The generations who survived the war (in many people's case, two wars and the Great Depression of the 30s between them) could hardly shut their cupboards sometimes since they'd known how easily staple products could run out. In the U.K. that helped that generation through the occasional shortages of the 1970s.
How much salt, sugar, yeast, powdered milk, stick cubes dried herbs etc do many/most people keep at home nowadays? Not so much.
And it only takes a relatively minor crisis, not necessarily r*SSia related, to upset supply chains. Even of the effects are short term, keeping a decent store cupboard allows for some comfort and hedges against the risk (as we saw to a point during Covid) of price gougers.
