Phantom orders arise in real supply chains when suppliers are unable to fill orders on time. Customers respond to product shortages by increasing orders and ordering through different channels in an attempt to gain a larger share of the shrinking production pie. Suppliers, often unaware of the underlying demand, respond by increasing output. As allocations increase customers cancel their phantom orders, leaving suppliers and distributors with large surplus stocks. As the title indicates, such behavior can be rational, as multiple customers compete for limited supply. Here we examine the behavior of subjects in the beer distribution game for evidence of phantom ordering. Phantom ordering is never a rational response to shortage in the experiment because there is only one customer for each supplier, no randomness, no production capacity limit, and, in this implementation, customer demand is constant and publicly announced to all players. Yet we find that a significant minority exhibits phantom ordering. We speculate that the urge to hoard evolved early in human history as a locally rational response to scarce resources, and that the brain center responsible for the hoarding response is likely to be distinct from the loci of economic decision making.