[ZenoArrow]

>"How do you respond to needs if it's all opaque? For example, for a city of 100,000 people how do you decide how many sheets of toilet paper you need? Or razor blades? Or tampons?"

You monitor stock levels.

The same functions that apply to a commercial enterprise would apply to a non-commercial one. You'd still have a 'merchandising department' monitoring stock levels, ensuring enough weeks of cover (based on usage trends), setting when to manufacture and how much, etc...

In addition, by having multiple sources of toilet roll you can temporarily boost the stock in one region if another region has a small surplus.

I'm sorry that you had to live through shortages, it's probably no consolation that the problems were caused by mismanagement, but from what I can see they aren't an intrinsic part of communism.