PREP Are the Sheeple Waking Up?

[prepgirl44]

I had some interesting experiences today as I ventured out to do some last minute prepping. I thought them worth sharing.

I should preface this with explaining that I have been ill for the last 8 months and pretty much homebound. I have started driving again only recently and then only locally so I have been pretty much out of touch with what is going on out there. I watch the news, I read the boards, I visit with friends on the phone, but other than going to the local grocery store and the doctor, I have been pretty much out of commission.

I live in a small rural town and my grocery store (Winco) is about 45 minutes away down the mountain in the next (larger) town so basically, since I have been unable to get there I haven't been buying much in the way of groceries. I have just been getting the necessary fresh stuff like milk and eggs and vegies at the local (expensive) store and using my food storage.

So okay....fast forward to today....I am stronger now and eating more, and feeling the urgent need to restock the food storage what with everything that is going on these days. So......I gathered my courage and strength and went down the mountain by myself to shop today for the first time in months and months. (Yay! Big step!).

Well....what a shocker! The prices had tripled on many things and the packaging has become more "compact" (as in 12 oz instead of 16, that kind of thing). I found the entire store had been re-arranged (making it a pain to find anything) which was kind of a bummer for someone without a lot of extra energy to expend. But the real shocker was when I got to the back of the store and I saw why everything had been re arranged!

The entire back of the store is now rows and rows of bulk foods in huge bins where you scoop out what you want. And the back wall is now stacked with rows of large bags of staples (like 50 pound bags of wheat, sugar, rice, flour, beans) just bags and bags and bags if it, as well shelving containing 5 gallon (empty) buckets and gamma seal lids and 5 gallon plastic water jugs and various other prep items! Mind you, this is not a warehouse or big box store, this is a regular chain grocery store.

I about fell over!

As if that wasn't enough to blow my mind, I passed a hardware store on the way home that had 55 gallon drums sitting out front with a big sign on them that said "Got water?" I did a double take....LOL. During y2k you had to discreetly visit the LDS bookstore to pre-order used barrels and were limited on the number you could get and then had to be there behind the store to pick them up when the truck arrived....now here they are, brand new, right out on the road with a big sign on them in front of the town's hardware store! Geesh!

So from everything I saw today, it looks like nothing is hush hush about prepping anymore. It kind of looks to me like "everybody" is doing it....and able to do it right from the grocery store and the hardware store...no more of that begging for used frosting and pickle buckets and ordering gamma seal lids off the net. Go figure.

Man, have I been out of the loop! This was quite an eye opener for me. Goes to show how things can change when you are out of the game! I have been keeping up with the boards while ill, but I don't think I've seen any posts that indicated that prepping has gone mainstream....but maybe I missed it.

So, I'm curious: is anything like this happening in your respective areas? Has prepping gone mainstream in your AO???

 

[Flippper]

The local Super 1 has bulk items now, and instead of being in the back of the store they are up front and in the main aisles, and I found out that Walmart is doing the same thing. It's good, that's fewer people I need to worry about.

 

[UncurledA]

I haven't seen this in Ohio yet. In my area, we have a bifurcated economy where a large group works for a foreign auto maker, and the rest are either farming ( that is doing well these days ) or have fallen on hard times as numerous local factories have closed ( about 1/4 the population here ). Even so, we have some salvage grocery stores, and if anything, I'd say the attendance is down for them. We also have nothing as you described in our regular groceries - I think they are catering to the "riche" still, as are several new upscale food businesses. The only thing I can figure is gov't. "free stuff" is acting as a sedative to keep the less fortunate asleep. So, woe is our area when the feathers hit the fan.

Good for you, prepgirl. Indeed, as Flipper says, you will have fewer panicked people around if they are waking up.

 

[cwr]

I know groceries are unreal! When I speak to the common sheeple now there does seem to be an awareness filtering in. Yesterday I was at the library and there was a truck with a $jn galt? Tag. I was shocked. Lol. People are not dumb. They've just been asleep for way to long.

Glad your doing better prepgirl44!

 

[Running Dog]

prepgirl
I am glad you are getting better.
Winco out here has those same bulk items and buckets and lids, and oxygen absorbers. It is good to buy the gamma seal lids there, instead of on line. But the oxygen absorbers are much more expensive than the LDS store house. Winco is second best prices in canning jars. Walmart is just a little bit cheaper.

 

[Deena in GA]

Wow! Sure wish our grocery stores carried bulk items like that! I would LOVE to be able to go to the store and buy gamma seals! Even Sam's doesn't carry bulk beans.

Prepgirl, sorry you've been out of commission for so long, but that's great that you're feeling stronger and able to get out!

 

[prepgirl44]

I am glad to see that Winco is doing this elsewhere. I looked up their locations (after reading your post Running Dog) and realized they are in several states out here in the west (I hadn't know that)...so I'm thinking maybe they are doing this because they are so big in Utah and Idaho where prepping is a normal and accepted part of life?

Regardless of the reasons, you are right Flippper, in my AO it means more people being prepped and therefore (hopefully) less people I need to worry about. For that I am thankful. I am also thankful for the ability to get gamma seal lids locally and at such a good price...I can always use a couple more of those! LOL

Now I can say, I have been to the Walmart in my area a few times recently since being ill (my neighbor gets her yarn there and I have gone a long for the ride a few times) and I do know that the Walmart in my area is not doing this...no bulk foods or prep items, and in fact, when I went to pick up more canning lids there (you can never have too many canning lids!) I noticed that their canning supplies are really slim. But then again, pickings are slim on most things at our Walmart these days...nothing is as it used to be there. Our Winco, on the other hand, did have a good supply of canning jars and lids etc on those shelves and at a very reasonable price.

Glad to see this is happening in some other areas. How unfortunate that it isn't happening in Ohio and Georgia absolutely everywhere else....maybe soon....(one can hope anyway!).

The way I look at it, the better prepared people are all over the country to weather the coming storm the better off our country will be as a whole.

By the same token, time is now short enough and things look like they are going to get ugly enough, that I have pretty much gone grey; I am no longer willing to talk about it...to encourage people to prep or share my feelings with them....the time for that has passed in my opinion, since it seems our toes are hanging over the edge of the precipice these days.

So I am glad to see that it is out there, bold as day, mainstreamed on the shelves in the grocery store! Maybe, just maybe, it will trigger something in those I have (uselessly) tried to warn and encourage to prep over the years.

Thanks all for your responses (and thanks for the well wishes too!)

 

[Farmwoman59]

I'm coming to your town! People around here, unless they're closet preppers, don't know the meaning of the word "prep". Sometimes I think I'm on a solitary journey but I persevere and go on about my merry way.

The local Chinamart carries nothing in bulk. I have to go to Sam's 25 miles away for anything like that, which makes flying under the radar impossible. Gamma seal lids can be ordered through the local co-op if you're not in a hurry. Delivery is 4 times a year.

I hear you about prices rising and sizes getting smaller. It's maddening to say the least. I do a lot of couponing and when I can combine sales with them I've been able to get a lot rather cheaply.

Glad you are feeling better!

 

[WildDaisy]

Yup! Had lunch yesterday with 10 ladies that were friends of my mother, all DGIs. The topic of discussion was all about "what's coming". While none of them talked about themselves "prepping", many of them spoke of how hard things are to come and how we are going to end up in a Depression.

They are waking up! May not be fully awake, but at least their eyes are half open and they are stretching.

 

[Genevieve]

There are no bulk foods of any kind at the walmart near me. I have to travel to Pa to order the wheat I store.I get beautiful, clean Montana wheat there for just under $30 a 50# bag. Much cheaper than ordering it online and paying shipping.I've been considering getting some gamma lids.

Our Sam's has no bulk beans ( no dried beans of any size really). The only bulk food they have is rice. Oh, and 25# bags of sugar. whooppee.

I've been doing good at a salvage grocery. I'm getting 1# bags of dried beans for only .40 each. I buy all they have everytime I go lol
Same for pastas. 1# bags/boxes for .60 each. Thats cheaper than any of the sales at the groceries around here. ( and I'm noticing the pasta isn't a full pound in some brands).

 

[Kathy in FL]

As high as the groceries are here in the deep south I was really flabbergasted by the prices up near DC and in the surrounding communities/areas. I'm surprised people don't say more about that. I noticed that fast food purchases were way, way down while we were on vacation and I saw several other couples/families stopping at grocery stores and bringing back food to their motel rooms ... heard the cleaning staff complaining about it too.

 

[Ponce]

Sure they are waking up.......but waking up to a nightmare from where they will never be able to scape.....the time to get ready 100% or even 75% is long gone, either because they are no longer working or because the prices are so high that they can now get ready for only two or three monhts.

What is coming down the road WILL NOT last for only two or three months OR EVEN for two or three years but for 4-5 generations........am I crazy by saying this?, well, to many I am but at 71 years old and after traveling all over the world and moving to the US I have learned a lot and all that I can see is pure hell coming down the road.

The problem will not be what is going to happen but the fact that the people......by not planning ahead......will make it worse than what it should be........there will be the preps (who are getting ready) and the survavilists (who will want what the preps have)......it will be the war of the have vs the have not.

At first the US government will try to control the situation but because every one wants to be with their families even those traying to control the situation will go home.......there will be many small kingdoms (a la Edo era of Japan) but little by little the big fish will eat the little fish till at the end the US will be divided into four to six states.

To those of you who thinks that you are ready........"To be ready is not"... Ponce.........that's because there is always something else to do or buy.......and remember "Get ready today for the way that you want to live tomorrow"... Ponce.......because to morrow you wont be able to buy it.................................I learned this from my trips to Cuba where even with cash in hand I was unable to buy what I wanted because they were nowhere to be found.

If you think that I am wrong then please tell me, I am always learning something new everyday.

 

[SuElPo]

We have been adding to our groceries by buying at a mission type store that sells cheap to the community. As we were coming back from our local Walmart yesterday, I was thinking about how if gas was at the price it was about 10 years ago it would be like getting a pretty good raise. I have been doing a lot of sewing, and am currently working on some quilts for the winter, and other sewing for gifts for others. God Bless Everyone.

 

[Ponce]

Su? right there you have a way to survive what is to come......buy extra material, thread, buttons, needles, zippers and so on, one day there will be NO clothing coming in from overseas so that those with a talent like yours will survive by doing what you already know best.................good luck.

"Your tomorrow will be what you make of it today"... Ponce

 

[Bad Hand]

Our local store has bulk items in 5 gallon buckets (oats, wheat) and freeze dried products in #10 cans. I shop at Winco (on the other side of the mountain)also but haven't been there lately due to the price of gas but will probably be going there this next week to restock some things. I already have 2 50 gallon drums but I might buy one more even though we have a well.

 

[Txkstew]

A friend at work, was talking about how his church was going to buy a big commercial vacuum sealer. He told them that was not all that good of an idea. He told them they needed to buy a canning machine. To his surprise, that's what they ended up buying. Surprise, Surprise. He said they have an on going Preparation campaign in his church, so very much to the better. He's the one that got me started back in 1993 to thank about prepping.

 

[prepgirl44]

Sure they are waking up.......but waking up to a nightmare from where they will never be able to scape.....the time to get ready 100% or even 75% is long gone, either because they are no longer working or because the prices are so high that they can now get ready for only two or three monhts.

What is coming down the road WILL NOT last for only two or three months OR EVEN for two or three years but for 4-5 generations........am I crazy by saying this?, well, to many I am but at 71 years old and after traveling all over the world and moving to the US I have learned a lot and all that I can see is pure hell coming down the road.

The problem will not be what is going to happen but the fact that the people......by not planning ahead......will make it worse than what it should be........there will be the preps (who are getting ready) and the survavilists (who will want what the preps have)......it will be the war of the have vs the have not.

At first the US government will try to control the situation but because every one wants to be with their families even those traying to control the situation will go home.......there will be many small kingdoms (a la Edo era of Japan) but little by little the big fish will eat the little fish till at the end the US will be divided into four to six states.

To those of you who thinks that you are ready........"To be ready is not"... Ponce.........that's because there is always something else to do or buy.......and remember "Get ready today for the way that you want to live tomorrow"... Ponce.......because to morrow you wont be able to buy it.................................I learned this from my trips to Cuba where even with cash in hand I was unable to buy what I wanted because they were nowhere to be found.

If you think that I am wrong then please tell me, I am always learning something new everyday.

Oh, yes, life as we know it is about to change drastically, and no, there is not a lot of time left in which to prepare. And you are so right....no one is ever done preparing. There is always more to do, more to buy, more to learn.

But as a lifelong prepper, I do think you can get to a point where you can sigh with relief, and aren't prepping in desperation any longer and can finally think that while maybe it isn't all done and never will be, you are to a point where you have done enough to at least mitigate your circumstances somewhat and can probably survive, or at least have a better than average chance of survival if the SHTF.

And nope, I don't doubt that what is coming will last longer than a few months or years (should the Lord tarry)...but for 4 or 5 generations? Of that I'm not sure....one thing about it, none of us will be around long enough to see where we are four or five generations from now! LOL.

I have listened to a lot of FerFAL's videos on youtube. If you are not familiar with him, he lived through the Argentinian collapse in 2001 and now shares what that was like and suggests things that one can do to help prepare for such an event.

FerFAL reminds us that economic collapse is not the end of the world, and while life may change, and even get real interesting for a while, it does go on.

Yes, the first few months and years are incredibly tough if not prepared. There will be hunger and crime and civil unrest and yes, even death.

Life as they knew it in Argentina changed dramatically (overnight), and according to him, being prepared mentally and spiritually as well as physically is what will make all the difference when meeting the challenges that the collapse will bring.

From all he has said regarding the collapse in Argentina, a few things in particular have stuck with me:
1.) Unprotected wealth will be gone overnight, *poof*
2.) There will be a moderate (as in months) to long term (as in years) lack of the simplest common everyday items that we now take for granted.
3.) The prepared will do best; "prepared" being much more than just having enough of the 3 b's (beans, bullets, and boullion). It will also be about skill, agility, attitude, ingenuity, and good health, mentally, physically, and spiritually.
3.) Society will return to normal (even if a new normal/a "reset" normal) but some things in society may be forever changed. For instance, he describes how, even 10 years later, while a lot of things in society have gotten back to some sort of normal in Argentina (like the lights are on again most of the time) crime arose early on in the collapse and has not gone back down as society has built itself back up thse past 10 years. He says people can never really feel safe there when walking down the street anymore. His wife has been held at gunpoint and robbed many times in the last 10 years, and just a few months ago, someone tried again.

Personally, I think we will have a harder time here in the US than Argentina ever did. We have taken so much for granted here in the US.

We can walk down the streets without fear of harm (for the most part...or in most places...certainly not in Harlem at midnight but you know what I mean). Many of us in rural areas still don't even lock our doors. Feeling unsafe is going to be a rude awakening for many.

We have become an instant gratification/throw away society: we fully expect to easily get the things we want (not necessarily need), and we seem to want it all "now"; then, when we quickly lose interest, we just toss it/waste it and move on to the next "want". Needless to say, those attitudes are not going to fly in a collapsed society. Not at all. Another rude awakening.

And we have a giant segment of society that doesn't now how (or care to learn how) to work for a living and expects everything handed to them on a silver platter....the entitilement crowd, many of whom have never done a day of hard work in their lives. They are going to get a big eye opener here real soon and when they do it won't be pretty.

Overall, this is not a society that will cope well in a collapse. Not at all. It will get very ugly, uglier than Argentina ever saw.

Soooo....prepare now, folks while you still can. Yes, time is short, and money is tight for most eveyone today, but do whatever you need to do to get some prepping done. Put aside food and water, after that, add other things. Get physically fit, get emotionally and spiritually tuned up, and stay that way. Develop the skills you need in a collapsed society and practice them now.

For those who are well prepped and have excess funds, well....either help out your less fortunate but aware brother as he tries to prepare on a shoestring, or if you choose not to do that, then get your wealth into PM's while you still can. FerFAL, in hindsight, said if there is one thing he could have done differently when he saw the collapse coming, it would have been to put all of his savings into gold. All of it. He has said that over and over again. Argentinians lost 80% of their wealth in the collapse.

Hopefully, with the grocery stores and other areas now starting to "advertise" the need to prep and make it so much easier to do so than we have had in the past, perhaps more people will stop and look at the bags and buckets on the shelves of the mainstream stores or see the barrels in front of the hardware store and stop and think and put two and two together and actually do something about it.

I pray that those whose eyes are only half open as they are only now waking up, will get them fully open and will fully awaken and get with it quickly, while they still can.

From my perspective, one less hungry mouth is one less heartache when this thing comes down and it IS coming down...and soon I fear.

 

[prepgirl44]

A friend at work, was talking about how his church was going to buy a big commercial vacuum sealer. He told them that was not all that good of an idea. He told them they needed to buy a canning machine. To his surprise, that's what they ended up buying. Surprise, Surprise. He said they have an on going Preparation campaign in his church, so very much to the better. He's the one that got me started back in 1993 to thank about prepping.

Oh, now that is too cool! Leave it to a Texan church to purchase a commercial dry canner. Good for them!

Yep, it does seem people are waking up, though my experience has been that Texas has always been a bit ahead of the 8 ball in preparations department!

Wish my church would get a dry canner operation going......

 

[Dare7]

No bulk foods here anymore except some wrapped candy (like Brachs). Used to be ... about a dozen years ago ... all sorts of bulk items - wet (like olives) & dry (grains/spices/beans/pasta/etc) ... but then TPTB allowed Chinamart to build a superstore in our town.

You know they whole "build it & they will come" idea? Well, they did, straight out of the heart of Gary IN ... only then did they discover that our regular supermarket, the one with the bulk food, had better prices than "The Walmart". The aliens ate out of the bins, spit in the bins, left garbage in the bins, put clearly filthy hands in the bins instead of using the scoops, and at least one welfare queen was caught letting her kid piss in a bin from the shopping cart ... so our bulk foods vanished ...

How do we know the alien pigs came from the ghetto areas in Lake County IN instead of locally? Well, until the big Zero took up residence in DC we only had a handful of tokens and they behaved like moral intelligent humans ... a small & sparsely populated county relatively speaking - south end full of KKK members - there was only one place the non white trash could have come from at that time ...

Since Bams became King, we're being overrun by Southern Canadian & Amish gang bangers.

Even one of my adjoining neighbors (six lots connect directly to my property - no alleys) who happen to be of the african-american persuasion but they don't use the hyphen - they are Americans, plain & simple, and are also moral, decent, hard working, middle class folks with a couple of extremely well mannered teenage boys - are disgusted & angered by the influx.

 

[lectrickitty]

I have to drive 400 miles round trip to any bulk buy stores. I sure wish we'd get some local stores, or at least closer ones, to stock bulk foods. It may never happen here since most everyone has gardens to grow their own.

 

[ainitfunny]

My daughter works at a Home Depot and "Prepping", "getting ready" and "stocking up" is the only thing being talked about in the break rooms by just about all the employees now. She was shocked at how suddenly so many people are waking up.

BTW - Just because a stranger you talk to SAYS "No, I'm not prepping, no need, nothing's gonna happen." DON'T ASSUME they ALL are DGI sheeple. They may be just WANTING TO LET YOU THINK THEY AREN'T PREPPING, like some I know who feign complacency to strangers.

 

[WildDaisy]

As high as the groceries are here in the deep south I was really flabbergasted by the prices up near DC and in the surrounding communities/areas. I'm surprised people don't say more about that. I noticed that fast food purchases were way, way down while we were on vacation and I saw several other couples/families stopping at grocery stores and bringing back food to their motel rooms ... heard the cleaning staff complaining about it too.

Prices in the North are usually higher then the rest of the country because the cost of living and salaries are higher. It all weighs out.

 

[nharrold]

My daughter works at a Home Depot and "Prepping", "getting ready" and "stocking up" is the only thing being talked about in the break rooms by just about all the employees now. She was shocked at how suddenly so many people are waking up.

BTW - Just because a stranger you talk to SAYS "No, I'm not prepping, no need, nothing's gonna happen." DON'T ASSUME they ALL are DGI sheeple. They may be just WANTING TO LET YOU THINK THEY AREN'T PREPPING, like some I know who feign complacency to strangers.

Well, that's really encouraging. I don't get off the property and into town very much, and even then don't mix a lot with the busy folks in the stores; so I haven't seen much evidence of anyone actually waking up, though it may be happening. On the other hand, I do have a neighbor or two who seem to be aware of what's coming and may be doing some prepping. I guess there's always hope...arghhh....did I say that??? I have expressed to them that when TSHTF I won't be feeding anyone in the neighborhood, hoping that they will pass that word to the several other neighbors.

 

[ready2go]

Winco rules. It's worth a few hour drive, IMO. Folks are wide awake where I live but it's 80% LDS so it makes sense. They are openly talking about topping off preps for "what's coming".

 

[Dennis Olson]

And we have a giant segment of society that doesn't now how (or care to learn how) to work for a living and expects everything handed to them on a silver platter....the entitilement crowd, many of whom have never done a day of hard work in their lives.


Like, um, community organizers...?



ETA: Regarding churches and prepping: you know that I'm LDS, and that the church is really into food storage etc. During the runup to Y2K, they had a series of prep classes, talking about all things food-storage. I asked, "Well, what are you recommending for water storage?" (I have a Berkefeld filter and 8, 55 gallon water drums). All I got was a deer-in-the-headlights look from the person holding the class. Evidently, they thought water would just magically appear as needed. *sigh*

 

[LMonty911]

just a thought- how many times have we had a post titled thus on this or other prepper boards we frequent? since greenspun, pre-rollover days? i guess i got aware late 97 or early 98, and involved in 98, and joined in late 98 or early 99- so i would guess i have seen this theme dozens of times.

we gain some people to the mindset-and we lose some all the time. there have been surges, but mostly it balances out in the long run, i would guess.

so as usual, i really hope there are more people waking up, finding resources to help them prep well, and stick with it. maybe we (the online prepper communities) will get a surge in. im not so sure we will have collapse in the next few weeks, that this isnt the start of a decline that many J6P will misinterpret as a non-acknowledged continuation of the recession we are in, and keep assuming "they" will make it better, any day now.

i think there is time for anyone with a little disposable income to buy preps to mitigate a collapse, even if this is the beginning of our Argentina. not much, but still a few weeks or even months for many of them is possible. i dont think we are at the stage that we will wake up and all the stores and banks are closed, i think that comes after we bleed for awhile first- there's still too much money circulating to be sucked out of the system before it is collapsed and the herd begins to thin itself. unless something stupid happens, like an EMP event- but i think that comes after or later on past the collapse. why attack an enemy that is eating itself until it is weak enough to minimize your own losses and expenses? YMMV, of course....

i seize every slim opportunity to teach, to share something that i have learned, with the DGI that i can while still protecting my own opsec. a little example was just after the last ice storm, i was in the bottles water section. a young lady with toddler in tow was standing there looking puzzled. i said they sure have a bunch of different types, dont they? she said she was trying to figure out how much she should have for a few days if the electricity to their well did again. so i said yeah, i saw that on a tv show recently, and taught her how much to buy for a week for her family, the cheapest way to do it what containers stored best- she left with a full shopping cart and the idea to save some water in soda bottles for flushing the toilet, etc so she didn't have to waste commercially bottled water on that.

never know when we will run into opportunities like that. especially ones that are safe for us. i figure when i do, grab them- its an honor to share even a tidbit of knowledge that might help. i'm trying to be prepared to help and teach, that might be all i have to offer come a collapse.

 

[packyderms_wife]

The local Super 1 has bulk items now, and instead of being in the back of the store they are up front and in the main aisles, and I found out that Walmart is doing the same thing. It's good, that's fewer people I need to worry about.

Could y'all please give your state when you say that your WM has these items? Our WM, central Iowa, has big bags of wheat and that's it.

K-

 

[vessie]

I happily noticed that the Walmart in Lake Chelan, Wa. had a whole section of the fantastic Augason brand dried food products for which I hear they're dried milk is the best tasting above all other brands of powedered milk on the market, bar none.

Big huge cans which I think were going for around $12-$15 per can? It was at the end of the aisle opposite the meat dept. and maybe in the flour and sugar section? Can't remember the exact pricing except I though it was a good price at the time. They had alot of stuff like the powdered milk, dried fruit, eggs etc. I had others in tow so I couldn't linger and grab any. I will next time. Here is their linkie-poo http://www.augasonfarms.com/ V

 

[hypoluxo]

My gf and a friend of hers had a baby shower for another friend this weekend at my house. I usually avoid letting people come into the house through the laundry room which has a door to the outside since that is where my water and food storage is. But, my gf's friend had them come in that way. I saw several of them come in and caught theirs eyes light up. I overheard one ask the other, "gee, do you think they are coupon shoppers?" My food and water storage isn't huge, but I guess it is a surprise to some.

 

[eXe]

Yeah people are waking up.

No bulk stuff here in Pahrump.. but we go into Vegas and hit up Sams for that. Many surivival stores as well in Vegas and we get our MRES from there as well and order freeze dried online.

As for the people waking up part.. 2 times in the last week, the topic turned to prepping with people I was talking with.

One guy, was a phone salesman who was trying to get us to sell him our timeshare (Which we may do), we started talking about the economy and he blurts out that he has started to stock up on food water and ammo.. lol

I told him about the Mormon canneries.. he was shocked.. his best friend is a Mormon, so he will be heading there as well

 

[vessie]

Well Hypoluxo, time to move your stuff. They will remember what you had so move it and if you run into the ones who saw it all and they ask questions, just nonchalantly tell them that you have a friend moving and they asked to leave some stuff over the weekend. Or something like that. They will remember when they are hungry, trust me on this. Best to get moving it or hiding it out of sight. V

 

[StringBean]

I saw a end cap display at Target last week. It was first-aid supplies of all kinds. The sign said "Prep for boo-boos, large or small"

 

[packyderms_wife]

Well Hypoluxo, time to move your stuff. They will remember what you had so move it and if you run into the ones who saw it all and they ask questions, just nonchalantly tell them that you have a friend moving and they asked to leave some stuff over the weekend. Or something like that. They will remember when they are hungry, trust me on this. Best to get moving it or hiding it out of sight. V

I'm not so worried about it anymore. Yes sometimes folks say that they will come to my place and then the turn purple from embarrassment. Being southern I've learned how to give the "stare" when folks are rude and invite themselves over. Most I know now will tell me that theirs is bigger than mine and that is fine with me. Coupon shopping and pantry shopping are huge with the late 20 early 30 something set and they are all trying to out do one another. This means that there are less folks I have to worry about during a crisis.

 

[Ben Sunday]

While fully acknowledging both the need to enhance preparedness AND whatever signs may be in certain areas, it pains me to say there is no evidence of prep activity or interest around here. Sheeple waking up? Here? Surely you jest.

Thankfully, I bought most of what I wanted or needed before the end of my money. Is it textbook perfect? No way. Is it adequate? Well, for my standards and in some kind of alignment with my thoughts on scenarios...when, where, what...it seems good enough. In any case, I'm not worried about it.

It seems that nothing can jolt the crowd around here out of their coma.

Everybody should follow their feelings and make some kind of effort for confronting the future, for it will be just that...a confrontation.

 

[Old Gray Mare]

Bulk food stores in my area are plentiful and nothing out of the ordinary. What is different is a few years back a local food processor could not get rid of 50 gallon used food grade drums. Now the demand is such there is a waiting list for the drums.

 

[dogmanan]

WOW this is a good thread.

I my self can't belive the prices of stuff in the last two or three years and to think it is just getting started going up, that sucks to think about.

later

 

[Volleyball Granny]

I'm out of money for buying new preps. I have gotten rid of about 1/3 of my preps--due to the dietary restrictions of microscopic colitis. The storage room is now being turned back into a spare bedroom (in case I need to find a house-mate). Canning supplies have been moved to storage in the garage, and some of the jars put on Craigslist. Having room for my kids to come home is more important than having an extra couple of hundred canning jars (notice I said "extra"). As my daughter says, we have more than enough clothing to clothe the population of a 3rd world country. I have found someone who says he wants to work my garden for a share of the produce. We'll do what we can...until we can't any longer.

 

[Tygerkittn]

Last time I was at Trader Joe's I saw a yuppy mom with two kids and three full shopping carts!
I wouldn't use Trader Joe's for prepping because their canning sucks, I've had three jars of their alfredo sauce "pop" after just a week or so on my shelf, and a can of cat food that bulged a day or two after I bought it (no dents, either!)
They only sell their own brand, it's good but like I said I don't trust it for long term storage. I only buy frozen stuff and dry goods there now.

 

[rhughe13]

Yea, we can add a 4th to the biggest lies out there.

"The contents of this box may have settled during shipping."

 

[Old Gray Mare]

Tygerkittn you should have let Trader Joe's know about the problem. I occasionally make a run to one in my area. They are good about fixing problems with their stock. The only problems I've had with their canned goods is you never know when they are going to discontinue something you really like. I had a problem once or twice with cheese and they took care of it.

People are waking up. It is not only big things it is little things like I was asked to do another talk on putting food by for my church.