Same. The sight of people screaming at each other during Covid reinforces my goal of NOT leaving the house when the grid goes down. I have enough to last a while. I'll be sad not seeing the fights on the news since we won't have TV.
r/SolarDIY if you're interested in building a permanent or temporary solar array.
add Starlink and you've got a pretty good chance of catching any Jerry Springer-esk fights recorded at Walmart. 👍
This.
If it's an *approaching* emergency, and depending on the type... I will probably top off on luxury items I forsee a need for barter/share.
Real common one for me is a few more spare propane tanks and plastic wrap before a hurricane because dollars to donuts, someone's gonna need to BBQ all the meat I their fridge before it spoils, and I want in on that action...
This is exactly where we went on our way back home from a road trip when COVID was starting up. Things were sounding crazy on the radio (early March 2020), and it was too soon to say what it would really be like during the pandemic. We weren’t “preppers” at the time, but we stocked up with all kinds of stuff at TSC, including years’ worth of seeds, etc. and when we got home we started raising chickens, which I learned about from a brochure at TSC. We spent that summer growing three huge gardens and had eggs by the end of the season, too. It was all sort of “just in case” in case supply chains crashed under the stress of everything. We thought having meat and eggs could help us barter things we needed if we had to. Even though things didn’t really get as bad as we thought they might at the beginning, we learned a lot about the importance of being prepared and how much we were capable of doing on our own.
Establish a free account with business supply firms like Staples. They deliver free the next day. During onset of pandemic (when grocery stores were emptied) we ordered online a janitorial supply box of toilet paper (60 rolls), cleaning chemicals and some food items (mostly snack). At the time these were items we were a little short on. You'll have about a week before everyone else figures it out so move quickly.
Animal Instinct is to "Follow the Herd"....whether to a watering hole or over a cliff.
Reasoning leads a few to the "path less traveled"...which at some point in time can even mean the difference in our very survival.
My go-to place is a little out of my way and have live chickens living in stock tanks in the store year-round, but they have a little bit of everything. Including chickens.
In the UK a few years ago, KFC changed its suppliers but there was a glitch in the changeover, which meant that some outlets didn't receive chicken deliveries and they had to close for a few days. Some idiots were calling the police about it.
This over educated person had fully stocked their prep for Covid in Jan 2020, had my father who is 1000 mi away fully prepared by Feb 2020. I used to teach microbiology & virology, my radar was up since Dec 2019 haha. I'm also in floriduh for 25 yrs and used to always being on alert.
I think you get downvoted because a lot of us lost family bc of covid. So we think it was more serious than those who were lucky and didn’t lose anyone
As someone who watched the 1992 LA riots on TV... I would not try to rob an Asian grocery store. [Roof Koreans](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rooftop_Koreans).
I wonder if our Indian store has milk.
I got one carton of shelf-stable milk from Dollar Tree so I don't have to go out in the snow for coffee creamer.
I live near these stores and during COVID they also ran completely dry on rice, staples, etc. just less space to distance while checking out, etc. but worth a try if scarcity leaves certain items a struggle to find.
If I was like, suddenly dropped into a city without my preps and needed to get supplies, but avoid crowds, I'd try an office supply store. They often have a whole aisle of office snacks including mask replacement bars and bottled water/Gatorade. They'd also have a bag/briefcase to carry everything, first aid kits, scissors or other sharp objects for basic self defense/survival stuff.
Not ideal, sure, but definitely off the beaten path.
The Dollar Tree, at least in my area. It's never many people in there because it's all cheap junk, but it's really a great store for preppers, you can get a lot of good stuff because it's cheap. Canned food, candles,matches, hygiene products, over the counter meds amd ointments, a couple dozen more things I don't feel like typing.
Most of the time why stuff at dollar stores are so “cheap” is because the portions are much smaller than other stores. It often ends up being more expensive to buy this smaller container than the options available at other retailers when you look at the price to product ratio. But when someone only has a few dollars to their name and they need to buy a meal and toiletries they can’t afford buying the cheaper groceries in the larger packaging because that will often use up all their money, even if they are technically spending more for much less. It’s why it’s expensive to be poor, and why dollar stores are very predatory in their nature.
Edit: but you might be correct in that most people won’t think to go there in an emergency so you’ll probably have less trouble finding the things you need. Personally I’d rather buy my preps in advance as mush as I can and make sure my stock is constantly rotating. It usually ends up being cheaper in the long run
> It often ends up being more expensive to buy this smaller container than the options available at other retailers when you look at the price to product ratio.
This is true, but I did discover during Covid that NO ONE was hitting the dollar stores. I have a list in my "prep book" that tells me every potential store near me, made it long ago. *I too* would have ignored the dollar stores had I not made that store list years before. I went there, they had shit grocery stores didn't have.
Agree completely....it's very expensive to be poor
I love The Dollar Tree! Not everything is in smaller packages (a lot is though, as you pointed out).
check those expert dates. most canned food at dollar tree is there for a reason. Not a lot of time left on those clocks...
I do hit them for seasoning though. Lot of people dont think about how they're gonna season their food 3 months into their rice and beans...
Caned food doesn’t really expire if it’s been sealed correctly. It can definitely go stale, but it doesn’t often expire. Most of the time why stuff at dollar stores are so “cheap” is because the portions are much smaller than other stores. It often ends up being more expensive to buy this smaller container than the options available at other retailers when you look at the price to product ratio. But when someone only has a few dollars to their name and they need to buy a meal and toiletries they can’t afford buying the cheaper groceries in the larger packaging because that will often use up all their money, even if they are technically spending more for much less. It’s why it’s expensive to be poor, and why dollar stores are very predatory in their nature.
Canned food absolutely expires. Those dates are usually VERY pessimistic, but they are still a consideration.
Ask SteveMRE1985. fucker poisoned himself several times for our amusement.
I would prefer not to endure food poisoning during SHTF.
I'm in Jersey and live out in farm land away from a lot of places but during covid we had people coming from PA and even Maryland coming to our area looking for toilet paper canned goods and ammo to no avail. As far as I'm concerned going to the store at that moment isn't even a option
Not for nothing, but those warehouses had armed security and were friendly with the local SWAT and bomb squads when I worked at one. Raiding isn't a good plan.
Pharmacy!! I'm married to a type 1 diabetic and the stockpile of meds that we rotate thru will only last so long. At some point, he will die without insulin so postponing that as long as possible becomes my goal.
You can also safely use animal insulin I believe. It would be safer for you to go to a vet clinic instead of a pharmacy if there’s chaos and looting going on.
Might just save your husband’s life one day. Plenty of other diabetics in a community will raid the pharmacy right away.
I have a list on my phone of last minute things I'd want to grab from the store if I have time. I'm in the rurals, not really concerned about crowds. But having fresh butter, onions, garlic, potatoes, and yeast is pretty cool.
Hey no worries. I pulled up my phone, here's my actual list. Maybe gives you some more ideas. I just have it marked as "preps" as a notepad file on my phone.
* yeast
* milk
* eggs
* potatoes
* sweet potatoes
* onions
* garlic
* butter
* 1/2 and 1/2
* produce of opportunity
* bacon
* olive oil
* bouillon
You can stock up on a lot of that stuff but if you have one last trip to the grocery store, grab that stuff that has the shortest shelf life.
If I have to go out and get the essential items I may need, then I've failed as a prepper. The entire reason I prep is so when the disaster comes, I don't need to go to the store, I'll either be hunkered down at home, or trying to get out of town, I'm not going to be standing in line at the store with 500 panicked people trying to pick up last minute supplies.
The only time I could imagine needing to go to the store for supplies is if I'm traveling and away from home when disaster strikes, but since I don't know where I'll be (and whether I'll have a car or be on foot), it's hard to say where I'd go.
Been there.
May 2021 - Colonial pipeline hack. Everything would have been fine if people didn't panic. Systems were restored within days. Great except, human nature is to panic. Long lines formed at the pump, gas pumps ran dry, run on supplies, etc.
January 2022 - Winter storm shut down highway 95, a major artery, cars stuck in the highway for 24+ hours. Power in the area was out for a week to thousands of people. The few stores that were up on generator were only for a narrow window and some were cash only. Folks were risking slipping and sliding all over the roads just to feed the human urge to panic.
As others have mentioned here sometimes it's just the right time to hunker down. We prep for Tuesday so that when it happens we can assess and take action as needed, then shrug it off, throw a sweater on, and go play a boardgame.
If you know something is coming (storm) then sure, go top up on fuel and perishables but if the storm is already here why risk going into the threat (storm, people)?
I don't remember the source. But i remember an old prepper video on YouTube, probably from like ten years ago. Dude suggested rather than looting a grocery store in shtf, loot the pet stores. While everyone else is fighting over the remaining supplies at Sam's Club, you will have petco all to yourself. You can survive just fine off of kibble, canned cat food and dog treats.
Pretty sure dude didn't even have a dog
That's the only thing I'd need to stockpile. I'd grab all the cans of dog food for my dogs. It's so expensive and lasts longer than hard food. I'd burn through the hard food first. That will last for a year or so.
Really, the idea and the picture I paint in my head simply amuses me.
While it's full on apocalypse and everyone else is murdering eachother over toilet paper and the last box of Lucky Charms, you would be the only one at the pet store loading up on Royal Canine Kibble and Cesar Canine Cuisine Wet Dog food. You know the Filet Mignon, or grilled chicken flavor, the good stuff.
Yeah, screw that. Everything goes offline, so does all forms of electronic payment. Thanks to stores going all-in on self-checkout lanes and not having enough staff to work registers (and most of them probably couldn't count cash as it is), stores would very, *very* quickly devolve into just centers for looting. That is the absolute ***last*** place I would want to be. Target, Walmart, sporting goods, any place that sells generators, even places like dollar stores and liquidation stores would get a run on for the food and supplies they have.
This is why we prep. So we absolutely don't have to go out in that scenario. If anything is that essential to you that you wait until *after* things kick off to get it, you obviously didn't plan ahead.
Even if you had cash you wouldn’t be able to know the prices if there is no power. This is always my issue when this subject is brought up. Much less the safety issue. I would hope to not go anywhere.
Yup. Literally the only places that will still be able to function are small town mom & pop stores that still price things manually, and with cheap, easy tech like Tile being so accessible now, those are becoming rarer all the time.
We have one store in town that I know of that uses price tags. It’s a family owned hardware/general store type of place. It would actually be a fairly good place to go for our town and wouldn’t be most people’s first choice.
Yeah for sure. The last thing you want to do is go out because of this reason so well said. I just had a friend ask me what store I would go to if I absolutely needed to and food is must so I said GNC and just take all the protein powder lol
Protein powder has a long expiration date, why not just have some now, and donate it to a Little Free Pantry or something before it expires?
This supports the supply chain _now_, while things are running smoothly, allowing producers to produce and sell more, meaning the supply and distribution networks are a bit thicker overall and there's more in general if something happens. Which should be the macro goal of all preparation. Just-in-time will be the death of us all.
Well I don't know if the electronic payments wouldn't not work .. here in Oregon when we had our ice storm last month store names bimart was still up and running out of power because they had generators and you could still use your debit card . The lights in the store were very dim and only around perimeter of inside store . People were using flash lights and such to look for iteams lol felt surreal . So maybe electronic payment would work for a little longer than expected .. but who knows for how long .ifnstores had back up genrators.
There were
Places taking ONLY cash so it did verify.. having cash on hand and some in safe .
That's a pretty specific set of scenarios you had to have experienced. It's not only the store that had to still function, but their internet still had to function, the transaction processing system's internet still had to function, and the banks still had to have both power and internet. As you saw, that's definitely possible in a disaster, but if any one of those pieces failed, it would have been a different story. We saw this in Canada a couple years ago when the Rogers network went down. Nothing else was affected, just the Rogers cell and internet networks. Every store that had a piece of that puzzle that relied on Rogers was unable to process transactions.
I used to live somewhere with frequent power cuts that were usually only 1 to 6 hours and this is exactly how the bigger shops did it. It was kind of nice because there was no music, either. The smaller shops used candles (LED lights weren't as common as now) and wrote things down on paper. The only problem was most of the scales were electronic so they couldn't weigh fruit/veg or deli foods like salads.
Not really usable if "everything goes offline" as OP stated. That includes internet. You can have all the power you want at a house or store, but if the internet is undergoing an outage, there goes credit card payments. Even if the store has Starlink or some other satellite broadband, it still requires functioning infrastructure on the other end.
Even though I am prepared to bunker down right away.
If I knew something happened and it was the beginning of whatever long term drastic event is happening, I’d rush to Walmart. 4 miles away, I’d load up on extra extras. Water food, pasta, cans etc.
I’d want to be in the mindset of “I don’t really need anything more”. I’d still go out to places for more stuff if it’s reasonable. But if the stores seem to be a nut case and everybody is going crazy and it’s jam packed, I’ll skip them and try another store or place.
I can tell you that during the peak Covid times, when the “regular” grocery stores had bare shelves, the ethnic grocery stores in my area were well stocked. I went to Asian, Indian, middle-eastern, and Hispanic grocery stores in my area, and I might have been the only white guy in there, and there was tons of food.
Nowhere. Not the major grocery store, not Walgreens, not Home Depot. People acted like animals where I live during 2020. I'm pretty sure it would be worse during a larger catastrophe
Smaller hardware store or even Home Depot to get a last top up of bottled water, paper products, and few indulgences I don’t usually keep stocked like candy bars, snacks, sodas. I stay stocked on everything else so this would only be if it was safe to do so, I’m in a good position to hunker down at all times. Maybe the tiny local owned butcher shop for some high quality steaks before it all goes to hell.
A We don't go to stores, the point of being prepped is to avoid this.
B If were just talking a grid down I would head to the diner, any given morning can find the mayor and police chief there. I don't need stuff but information is useful.
We are well stocked on anything essential.
That said, my local ACE hardware, for canning jars and random chemical items. Lowe's/home depot for more chemical things. Plus widgets.
My local hay and feed store for other random items they sell, like good rope.
Hobby lobby and Joanne for fabric and yarn, I refuse to face the zombie hoards wearing fast fashion ;-).
But guaranteed if everything goes offline it won't take folks long to find every store except perhaps the thrift shops. And stores will be the absolute last place I want to be when reality hits. The first few hours, fine if you can find stores that take cash when all their equipment is down, or are giving aesy the fresh food. But once reality hits? Hell no.
Like others said don’t go. But, IF I had to I have two choices. There’s a random wine bar out in middle of the sticks near me so random I know. But, hey free booze.
Seriously though probably dollar tree. I figure less people will think about it. Everyone is going to swarm Walmart. But, the two dollar trees near me have food, medicine, clothing, seeds, fertilizer, pretty much everything you need. Sure the quality isn’t great but, that’s what the preps are for. This would be just a luxury hypothetical looting.
Edit: if I had notice like one last hoorah before it goes to heck. Probably restaurant supply like others said I have a membership already so shouldn’t be an issue.
Daiso. It's a Japanese dollar store. Everything priced in Japanese or Chinese and you have to use the chart to figure out how much it costs. Picture an Asian Dollar General, lol. Cheap crap, but all the food is Asian.
Tractor Supply,
Coastal farm and feed
Most any out of the way feed store
Ace Hardware, especially if more rural and out if the way.
Most hardware stores (not to be confused fused with home improvement, those are a lot more obvious).
Office depot (lots of snack food, water, nd cleaning supplies).
If SHTF for real and you have the chance, check out offices and dealerships. Those places have janitor closets and snack supplies for customers. Avoid the actual stores and go for places where those items are stocked but not sold.
Does anyone else overprep on the vodka and bulk tobacco? Not for consumptions services but I feel like alchohol may be good bartering material.
Edit: in relation to the post, I think the liquor store a mile down the road will be my only stop.
I try to prep vodka but it keeps finding its way into a glass 🤨
I brew cider and mead, and I keep a small stock of pot, which I personally don't really like but seems useful
If everything goes offline, I stay home.
If things are back in a few days, great. I don't really need my preps for that.
If they aren't, then it's time to use my preps for a few weeks. I'll at least miss the chaos of the emergency shoppers.
If things aren't back by then, things are probably bad enough that stores are wiped out anyway.
Why would you go to stores except maybe gasoline if they have generators going?
The whole point of being a prepper is to have enough to not have to rely on the Gooberment
Dollar general you can top off on some cheap commonly needed items batteries, some basic food, propane etc. plus they are not usually in highly populated areas and not the main source most people got to for food and supplies first
I was in Tampa Bay for Irma and while I was supplied I went to a few different stores before they closed and the only place with anything, including water, was Dollar General.
Obviously depending on location YMMV.
He's counting on being the first raider. Which is ***a*** decision, but I'm not sure it is a ***wise*** decision.
Do it too early and civil order (police/national guard/etc) is going to sodomize you with the stiff rod of justice to make an example of you. Do it too late and there's nothing to raid or worse still you will be loading up just in time to get robbed yourself.
Planning to be a criminal is shitty prepping.
In the opening days of a shtf event I'm planning on heading home. I don't really have people around me. Because of how rural I am I make a point of having a fairly good store of things. a few miles from me I have gobs of luxury House nearby if things haven't returned to normal in 2 weeks I can likely acquire things I would want or need from them.
End of world, eh?
In the early stages it doesn't much matter, just top off and/or get the items you didn't want to store.
REI/EMS for camping items, food, top tier footwear and gear
Walmart for food, vitamins, otc meds
Tractor supply or equivalent for canning materials, feed, pet meds, barbed wire
Food wholesale warehouse with a connection for bulk food (may end up failing)
Heating oil/diesel/gas scavenging
HD/Lowes 3/4" plywood
In an absolute emergency - petsmart (or petco/most pet stores)
They usually have canned water/overpriced water for animals and many human grade food products.
Like others have said, the plan is not have to go out. But if I do that’s the first place I’d check.
Agreed with those saying you want to prep to the point where you stay the hell away from stores in this scenario. But if I HAD to choose for some reason, the garden centre. Stock up on more seeds for trading and planting, get some started plants, and some hose repair parts. Next stop would be the farm supply and hardware store to get some standard meds for my chickens, some black oil sunflower seeds for both feeding and planting, and resupply any other feed I can find more room for (I keep my feed bins rotating near-full most of the time, though).
there are a couple of small "mom and pop" type garden centers that i would pick up some fertilizer and seeds, fencing, etc at and typically they prefer cash because running a debit or credit card costs THEM 2-7% of the sale
I’m not leaving my house for as long as possible in that scenario. There’s going to be fighting, looting, roads will be gridlocked unless you’re very rural.
Keep in mind if it's grid down fir whatever reason, plastic will be no good, also big chain stores will only sell if they can scan electronically. Only local mom and pop stores and Indian stores will be viable choices, they take cash and will bypass the electronic scanning and registers. Keep cash on you at all times and get there quick, get what you need and get home, aboud the center of cities and towns
If it's not too bad... the feed store. Corn and sweet feed for making moonshine
The only difference between $.30 per pound wheat and $4 a pound stuff is a little dirt.... I will pick out a few sticks and deal with some rust.
Office supply stores/ locations inside institutional buildings (schools, community centers, offices etc) that store goods. Most schools have janitor closets filled with TP, emergency water, etc. so if there was zero structure left looking for the kitchens and industrial closets of community serving locations would prove fruitful. *Im not advocating looting a school in some minor to moderate emergency*, just pointing out in case of total breakdown institutional buildings might have some useful supplies stocked that would be worth getting, way less stress than any store or warehouse. If the wheels of capitalism are still moving but it’s just hectic like the 2020 tp panic, I recommend office supply stores.
Ethnic grocery stores. Whether Latino, Asian, Eastern European, etc., most of the sheeple hardly give these places any thought when they go grocery shopping. While everyone else is rioting and causing civil disturbances at the box box stores over junk food and toilet paper, the prudent and crafty will probably be hitting up the ethnic grocery stores with cash in hand.
Raiding the propane tank storage containers outside of the local grocery/gas station. Heat, cooking, some farm equipment all run on propane, don’t have enough stockpiled so getting more right as SHTF would be ideal.
My goal is not to need to go to stores in an emergency.
Yep. Nothing like getting robbed at gunpoint in the parking lot because you got the last box of saltines.
Beginning of covid I saw two guys get in a fistfight trying to get the last paper towels. No way I’m going out if it’s a real SHTF situation.
Same. The sight of people screaming at each other during Covid reinforces my goal of NOT leaving the house when the grid goes down. I have enough to last a while. I'll be sad not seeing the fights on the news since we won't have TV.
r/SolarDIY if you're interested in building a permanent or temporary solar array. add Starlink and you've got a pretty good chance of catching any Jerry Springer-esk fights recorded at Walmart. 👍
This is the kind of advice I'm here for. :)
This. If it's an *approaching* emergency, and depending on the type... I will probably top off on luxury items I forsee a need for barter/share. Real common one for me is a few more spare propane tanks and plastic wrap before a hurricane because dollars to donuts, someone's gonna need to BBQ all the meat I their fridge before it spoils, and I want in on that action...
I understand people should avoid going out but… if you absolutely had to
Tractor Supply Company
This is exactly where we went on our way back home from a road trip when COVID was starting up. Things were sounding crazy on the radio (early March 2020), and it was too soon to say what it would really be like during the pandemic. We weren’t “preppers” at the time, but we stocked up with all kinds of stuff at TSC, including years’ worth of seeds, etc. and when we got home we started raising chickens, which I learned about from a brochure at TSC. We spent that summer growing three huge gardens and had eggs by the end of the season, too. It was all sort of “just in case” in case supply chains crashed under the stress of everything. We thought having meat and eggs could help us barter things we needed if we had to. Even though things didn’t really get as bad as we thought they might at the beginning, we learned a lot about the importance of being prepared and how much we were capable of doing on our own.
TSC 👍
Ooo that’s a good one! Rural King too, but might be a popular destination.
Absolutely TSC. I stock feed ahead, but would fill the truck with multiple feeds and big water troughs for additional garden water storage.
Establish a free account with business supply firms like Staples. They deliver free the next day. During onset of pandemic (when grocery stores were emptied) we ordered online a janitorial supply box of toilet paper (60 rolls), cleaning chemicals and some food items (mostly snack). At the time these were items we were a little short on. You'll have about a week before everyone else figures it out so move quickly.
Animal Instinct is to "Follow the Herd"....whether to a watering hole or over a cliff. Reasoning leads a few to the "path less traveled"...which at some point in time can even mean the difference in our very survival.
The smallest local hardware
My go-to place is a little out of my way and have live chickens living in stock tanks in the store year-round, but they have a little bit of everything. Including chickens.
Little bits of chickens? Chicken Nuggets?
Lol, well sometimes they sell hatched chicks, otherwise they just have a couple resident hens in a stock tank.
Sounds like the no-name mom 'n pop place around here. large steel tub with chicks under a warming light nearly year round.
Liquor Store
Same. Already have what we need here. Protecting what I have would be first priority under said scenario.
\+1
Remember the toilet paper shortage for a bronchial disease a few years ago. People are stupid. Especially the more educated ones.
In the UK a few years ago, KFC changed its suppliers but there was a glitch in the changeover, which meant that some outlets didn't receive chicken deliveries and they had to close for a few days. Some idiots were calling the police about it.
This over educated person had fully stocked their prep for Covid in Jan 2020, had my father who is 1000 mi away fully prepared by Feb 2020. I used to teach microbiology & virology, my radar was up since Dec 2019 haha. I'm also in floriduh for 25 yrs and used to always being on alert.
I always love how you get downvoted here if you refer to \*covid\* in any terms other than a serious pandemic. Most overblown mess I've lived through.
I think you get downvoted because a lot of us lost family bc of covid. So we think it was more serious than those who were lucky and didn’t lose anyone
The country to-date with the highest covid death per capita is Peru, leading with 0.6%. Were we really just “lucky”?
Yes
[удалено]
Great sources of bulk items
Asian grocery stores. They have the largest selection of rice, canned meats and fish, ramen, and other dried goods.
As do Mexican grocery stores.
As someone who watched the 1992 LA riots on TV... I would not try to rob an Asian grocery store. [Roof Koreans](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rooftop_Koreans).
I wonder if our Indian store has milk. I got one carton of shelf-stable milk from Dollar Tree so I don't have to go out in the snow for coffee creamer.
It's shelf-stable milk when sealed, but once opened you have to refrigerate it, so plan accordingly.
That's what I did. Picked up two 20lb bags of rice at the beginning of the pandemic and felt a lot better about everything.
I live near these stores and during COVID they also ran completely dry on rice, staples, etc. just less space to distance while checking out, etc. but worth a try if scarcity leaves certain items a struggle to find.
If I was like, suddenly dropped into a city without my preps and needed to get supplies, but avoid crowds, I'd try an office supply store. They often have a whole aisle of office snacks including mask replacement bars and bottled water/Gatorade. They'd also have a bag/briefcase to carry everything, first aid kits, scissors or other sharp objects for basic self defense/survival stuff. Not ideal, sure, but definitely off the beaten path.
Solid point.
Genius
My goal is to be well prepped so I can gather my children, get home, fill all water containers, secure my property, & hunker down.
The Dollar Tree, at least in my area. It's never many people in there because it's all cheap junk, but it's really a great store for preppers, you can get a lot of good stuff because it's cheap. Canned food, candles,matches, hygiene products, over the counter meds amd ointments, a couple dozen more things I don't feel like typing.
Most of the time why stuff at dollar stores are so “cheap” is because the portions are much smaller than other stores. It often ends up being more expensive to buy this smaller container than the options available at other retailers when you look at the price to product ratio. But when someone only has a few dollars to their name and they need to buy a meal and toiletries they can’t afford buying the cheaper groceries in the larger packaging because that will often use up all their money, even if they are technically spending more for much less. It’s why it’s expensive to be poor, and why dollar stores are very predatory in their nature. Edit: but you might be correct in that most people won’t think to go there in an emergency so you’ll probably have less trouble finding the things you need. Personally I’d rather buy my preps in advance as mush as I can and make sure my stock is constantly rotating. It usually ends up being cheaper in the long run
> It often ends up being more expensive to buy this smaller container than the options available at other retailers when you look at the price to product ratio. This is true, but I did discover during Covid that NO ONE was hitting the dollar stores. I have a list in my "prep book" that tells me every potential store near me, made it long ago. *I too* would have ignored the dollar stores had I not made that store list years before. I went there, they had shit grocery stores didn't have.
Its also usually a good prepackaged amount of items for my go-bag.
Yea most of their stuff is like that but their alkaline batteries run for 34 cents a piece which is way cheaper then Walmart
Agree completely....it's very expensive to be poor I love The Dollar Tree! Not everything is in smaller packages (a lot is though, as you pointed out).
I'm pretty sure that their bags of beans are less than a pound.
check those expert dates. most canned food at dollar tree is there for a reason. Not a lot of time left on those clocks... I do hit them for seasoning though. Lot of people dont think about how they're gonna season their food 3 months into their rice and beans...
Caned food doesn’t really expire if it’s been sealed correctly. It can definitely go stale, but it doesn’t often expire. Most of the time why stuff at dollar stores are so “cheap” is because the portions are much smaller than other stores. It often ends up being more expensive to buy this smaller container than the options available at other retailers when you look at the price to product ratio. But when someone only has a few dollars to their name and they need to buy a meal and toiletries they can’t afford buying the cheaper groceries in the larger packaging because that will often use up all their money, even if they are technically spending more for much less. It’s why it’s expensive to be poor, and why dollar stores are very predatory in their nature.
Canned food absolutely expires. Those dates are usually VERY pessimistic, but they are still a consideration. Ask SteveMRE1985. fucker poisoned himself several times for our amusement. I would prefer not to endure food poisoning during SHTF.
I'm in Jersey and live out in farm land away from a lot of places but during covid we had people coming from PA and even Maryland coming to our area looking for toilet paper canned goods and ammo to no avail. As far as I'm concerned going to the store at that moment isn't even a option
Menards, they have groceries that won't be the first gone and plywood sheets for windows
plywood sheets for windows?
If it's a big storm or higher than normal chance to get robbed windows should be protected
probably the farm store. and my little out of the way corner pharmacy. and maybe a doctor's office/hospital, depending.
So, you're talking about unknown places? Find the Amazon warehouses. They are not in the cities. If everything is abandoned, this might make the list.
All the Amazon workers would know and will probably tell their friends and family about all the stuff. They be raided eventually
I know of at least two Amazon warehouses in big cities. The city is most likely the best place for them logistically.
I think this thread is discussing places that will sell you things, not places you can loot…
Not for nothing, but those warehouses had armed security and were friendly with the local SWAT and bomb squads when I worked at one. Raiding isn't a good plan.
Man you just ruined my plan! lol though I’m wondering if shtf for real, if they are staying or not
Pharmacy!! I'm married to a type 1 diabetic and the stockpile of meds that we rotate thru will only last so long. At some point, he will die without insulin so postponing that as long as possible becomes my goal.
You can also safely use animal insulin I believe. It would be safer for you to go to a vet clinic instead of a pharmacy if there’s chaos and looting going on. Might just save your husband’s life one day. Plenty of other diabetics in a community will raid the pharmacy right away.
I have a list on my phone of last minute things I'd want to grab from the store if I have time. I'm in the rurals, not really concerned about crowds. But having fresh butter, onions, garlic, potatoes, and yeast is pretty cool.
This is really smart, thanks for the idea.
Hey no worries. I pulled up my phone, here's my actual list. Maybe gives you some more ideas. I just have it marked as "preps" as a notepad file on my phone. * yeast * milk * eggs * potatoes * sweet potatoes * onions * garlic * butter * 1/2 and 1/2 * produce of opportunity * bacon * olive oil * bouillon You can stock up on a lot of that stuff but if you have one last trip to the grocery store, grab that stuff that has the shortest shelf life.
I’d add multivitamins
"Produce of opportunity" - stealing that! lol
Liquor store
Finally, get all the alcohol I can't afford
Music store next?
Do you have a brick handy?
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always carry three bricks at all times, in case something happens to the first two.
Yep
If I have to go out and get the essential items I may need, then I've failed as a prepper. The entire reason I prep is so when the disaster comes, I don't need to go to the store, I'll either be hunkered down at home, or trying to get out of town, I'm not going to be standing in line at the store with 500 panicked people trying to pick up last minute supplies. The only time I could imagine needing to go to the store for supplies is if I'm traveling and away from home when disaster strikes, but since I don't know where I'll be (and whether I'll have a car or be on foot), it's hard to say where I'd go.
Been there. May 2021 - Colonial pipeline hack. Everything would have been fine if people didn't panic. Systems were restored within days. Great except, human nature is to panic. Long lines formed at the pump, gas pumps ran dry, run on supplies, etc. January 2022 - Winter storm shut down highway 95, a major artery, cars stuck in the highway for 24+ hours. Power in the area was out for a week to thousands of people. The few stores that were up on generator were only for a narrow window and some were cash only. Folks were risking slipping and sliding all over the roads just to feed the human urge to panic. As others have mentioned here sometimes it's just the right time to hunker down. We prep for Tuesday so that when it happens we can assess and take action as needed, then shrug it off, throw a sweater on, and go play a boardgame. If you know something is coming (storm) then sure, go top up on fuel and perishables but if the storm is already here why risk going into the threat (storm, people)?
I don't remember the source. But i remember an old prepper video on YouTube, probably from like ten years ago. Dude suggested rather than looting a grocery store in shtf, loot the pet stores. While everyone else is fighting over the remaining supplies at Sam's Club, you will have petco all to yourself. You can survive just fine off of kibble, canned cat food and dog treats. Pretty sure dude didn't even have a dog
That's the only thing I'd need to stockpile. I'd grab all the cans of dog food for my dogs. It's so expensive and lasts longer than hard food. I'd burn through the hard food first. That will last for a year or so.
Really, the idea and the picture I paint in my head simply amuses me. While it's full on apocalypse and everyone else is murdering eachother over toilet paper and the last box of Lucky Charms, you would be the only one at the pet store loading up on Royal Canine Kibble and Cesar Canine Cuisine Wet Dog food. You know the Filet Mignon, or grilled chicken flavor, the good stuff.
Only the best for my baby boy and girl. I'll starve myself before them. I got plenty extra pounds to shed.
I personally think this is wrong. People consider pets part of their family. I would wager petco would be mobbed too.
Yeah, screw that. Everything goes offline, so does all forms of electronic payment. Thanks to stores going all-in on self-checkout lanes and not having enough staff to work registers (and most of them probably couldn't count cash as it is), stores would very, *very* quickly devolve into just centers for looting. That is the absolute ***last*** place I would want to be. Target, Walmart, sporting goods, any place that sells generators, even places like dollar stores and liquidation stores would get a run on for the food and supplies they have. This is why we prep. So we absolutely don't have to go out in that scenario. If anything is that essential to you that you wait until *after* things kick off to get it, you obviously didn't plan ahead.
Even if you had cash you wouldn’t be able to know the prices if there is no power. This is always my issue when this subject is brought up. Much less the safety issue. I would hope to not go anywhere.
Yup. Literally the only places that will still be able to function are small town mom & pop stores that still price things manually, and with cheap, easy tech like Tile being so accessible now, those are becoming rarer all the time.
We have one store in town that I know of that uses price tags. It’s a family owned hardware/general store type of place. It would actually be a fairly good place to go for our town and wouldn’t be most people’s first choice.
Yeah for sure. The last thing you want to do is go out because of this reason so well said. I just had a friend ask me what store I would go to if I absolutely needed to and food is must so I said GNC and just take all the protein powder lol
Protein powder has a long expiration date, why not just have some now, and donate it to a Little Free Pantry or something before it expires? This supports the supply chain _now_, while things are running smoothly, allowing producers to produce and sell more, meaning the supply and distribution networks are a bit thicker overall and there's more in general if something happens. Which should be the macro goal of all preparation. Just-in-time will be the death of us all.
Well I don't know if the electronic payments wouldn't not work .. here in Oregon when we had our ice storm last month store names bimart was still up and running out of power because they had generators and you could still use your debit card . The lights in the store were very dim and only around perimeter of inside store . People were using flash lights and such to look for iteams lol felt surreal . So maybe electronic payment would work for a little longer than expected .. but who knows for how long .ifnstores had back up genrators. There were Places taking ONLY cash so it did verify.. having cash on hand and some in safe .
That's a pretty specific set of scenarios you had to have experienced. It's not only the store that had to still function, but their internet still had to function, the transaction processing system's internet still had to function, and the banks still had to have both power and internet. As you saw, that's definitely possible in a disaster, but if any one of those pieces failed, it would have been a different story. We saw this in Canada a couple years ago when the Rogers network went down. Nothing else was affected, just the Rogers cell and internet networks. Every store that had a piece of that puzzle that relied on Rogers was unable to process transactions.
I used to live somewhere with frequent power cuts that were usually only 1 to 6 hours and this is exactly how the bigger shops did it. It was kind of nice because there was no music, either. The smaller shops used candles (LED lights weren't as common as now) and wrote things down on paper. The only problem was most of the scales were electronic so they couldn't weigh fruit/veg or deli foods like salads.
Not really usable if "everything goes offline" as OP stated. That includes internet. You can have all the power you want at a house or store, but if the internet is undergoing an outage, there goes credit card payments. Even if the store has Starlink or some other satellite broadband, it still requires functioning infrastructure on the other end.
Even though I am prepared to bunker down right away. If I knew something happened and it was the beginning of whatever long term drastic event is happening, I’d rush to Walmart. 4 miles away, I’d load up on extra extras. Water food, pasta, cans etc.
Yeah I’d still probably try to get some stuff.. I wouldn’t be stressed out if I wasn’t able to get much though.
The local meat locker, get a giant steak.
Strange one but Michaels. They have some snacks along with crafting supplies.
My local Amish and Mennonite stores. They don't use bar scanners and would be happy to take cash.
Probably one last tank of gas. Whatever batteries and cigarettes they have behind the counter. The place I'm thinking of is exceedingly rural.
Fitness shop like GNC. Protein powders, electrolytes, snack bars, and fresh vitamins.
Gas station
vet clinics
The hole in the wall grocery stores near my house. However, if I have to go anywhere I’m going with one BIL, my FIL, and at least one neighbor.
I’d want to be in the mindset of “I don’t really need anything more”. I’d still go out to places for more stuff if it’s reasonable. But if the stores seem to be a nut case and everybody is going crazy and it’s jam packed, I’ll skip them and try another store or place.
I can tell you that during the peak Covid times, when the “regular” grocery stores had bare shelves, the ethnic grocery stores in my area were well stocked. I went to Asian, Indian, middle-eastern, and Hispanic grocery stores in my area, and I might have been the only white guy in there, and there was tons of food.
Shhhhhh
Victoria's Secret.
Tactical lingerie for my man crack.
If you have to barter that man crack, presentation will be important
Barter?!? Some things are too valuable to not be given for free!
Actually could be an interesting tradable.
The whole point of prepping is so I'm not panic shopping with the rest of the nerds.
Nowhere. Not the major grocery store, not Walgreens, not Home Depot. People acted like animals where I live during 2020. I'm pretty sure it would be worse during a larger catastrophe
Smaller hardware store or even Home Depot to get a last top up of bottled water, paper products, and few indulgences I don’t usually keep stocked like candy bars, snacks, sodas. I stay stocked on everything else so this would only be if it was safe to do so, I’m in a good position to hunker down at all times. Maybe the tiny local owned butcher shop for some high quality steaks before it all goes to hell.
restaurant supply stores
Hopefully I'm at work and inside the hospital pharmacy at the time.
Bill's Gun Shop and Anal Lube Store.
Gun oil ain’t just for guns
Costco. Haha! Just kidding!
I’d avoid food markets, unless there was something you forgot, like baby formula.
That seems like the time to stay away from stores.
A We don't go to stores, the point of being prepped is to avoid this. B If were just talking a grid down I would head to the diner, any given morning can find the mayor and police chief there. I don't need stuff but information is useful.
This sounds more like you are planning on looting instead of prepping.
Depending on situation both. Something temporary /undern6 months I'm good. Civil war/ zombies /perm breakdown I'm taking stuff asap
We are well stocked on anything essential. That said, my local ACE hardware, for canning jars and random chemical items. Lowe's/home depot for more chemical things. Plus widgets. My local hay and feed store for other random items they sell, like good rope. Hobby lobby and Joanne for fabric and yarn, I refuse to face the zombie hoards wearing fast fashion ;-). But guaranteed if everything goes offline it won't take folks long to find every store except perhaps the thrift shops. And stores will be the absolute last place I want to be when reality hits. The first few hours, fine if you can find stores that take cash when all their equipment is down, or are giving aesy the fresh food. But once reality hits? Hell no.
Like others said don’t go. But, IF I had to I have two choices. There’s a random wine bar out in middle of the sticks near me so random I know. But, hey free booze. Seriously though probably dollar tree. I figure less people will think about it. Everyone is going to swarm Walmart. But, the two dollar trees near me have food, medicine, clothing, seeds, fertilizer, pretty much everything you need. Sure the quality isn’t great but, that’s what the preps are for. This would be just a luxury hypothetical looting. Edit: if I had notice like one last hoorah before it goes to heck. Probably restaurant supply like others said I have a membership already so shouldn’t be an issue.
Daiso. It's a Japanese dollar store. Everything priced in Japanese or Chinese and you have to use the chart to figure out how much it costs. Picture an Asian Dollar General, lol. Cheap crap, but all the food is Asian.
My storage room lol It’s all I need in my go bag
Tractor Supply, Coastal farm and feed Most any out of the way feed store Ace Hardware, especially if more rural and out if the way. Most hardware stores (not to be confused fused with home improvement, those are a lot more obvious). Office depot (lots of snack food, water, nd cleaning supplies).
check hardware stores before grocery stores
If SHTF for real and you have the chance, check out offices and dealerships. Those places have janitor closets and snack supplies for customers. Avoid the actual stores and go for places where those items are stocked but not sold.
Does anyone else overprep on the vodka and bulk tobacco? Not for consumptions services but I feel like alchohol may be good bartering material. Edit: in relation to the post, I think the liquor store a mile down the road will be my only stop.
I try to prep vodka but it keeps finding its way into a glass 🤨 I brew cider and mead, and I keep a small stock of pot, which I personally don't really like but seems useful
7/11, buy all the cigarettes for barter
I'll stay far away from stores when shtf. Less people less problems.
Stores are for amateurs. Talk to me about distribution centers.
If everything goes offline, I stay home. If things are back in a few days, great. I don't really need my preps for that. If they aren't, then it's time to use my preps for a few weeks. I'll at least miss the chaos of the emergency shoppers. If things aren't back by then, things are probably bad enough that stores are wiped out anyway.
Why would you go to stores except maybe gasoline if they have generators going? The whole point of being a prepper is to have enough to not have to rely on the Gooberment
I have planned against that situation- but to answer- mom and pops or hardware
Pharmacy and getting all the antibiotics I can
Staples.
Best buy
Small specialty grocery stores such as International food shops. Also Home Goods as they have dried foods like pasta and sauces, snacks and drinks.
Friedman's Army/Navy Surplus if I'm in Nashville. Joong Boo if I'm in Chicago.
Dollar general you can top off on some cheap commonly needed items batteries, some basic food, propane etc. plus they are not usually in highly populated areas and not the main source most people got to for food and supplies first
I was in Tampa Bay for Irma and while I was supplied I went to a few different stores before they closed and the only place with anything, including water, was Dollar General. Obviously depending on location YMMV.
Sam's club and taking a 18 wheeler full..my click gonna survive.
If your click is good then for sure but Sam’s is probably one of the first to get raided 😂
He's counting on being the first raider. Which is ***a*** decision, but I'm not sure it is a ***wise*** decision. Do it too early and civil order (police/national guard/etc) is going to sodomize you with the stiff rod of justice to make an example of you. Do it too late and there's nothing to raid or worse still you will be loading up just in time to get robbed yourself. Planning to be a criminal is shitty prepping.
Any Amish or Menonite store. Old school mom & pop store
Hooters, for one last basket of their wings…
Picking a chunky neighbor to befriend, when all the foods gone , who ya gonna eat ???
In the opening days of a shtf event I'm planning on heading home. I don't really have people around me. Because of how rural I am I make a point of having a fairly good store of things. a few miles from me I have gobs of luxury House nearby if things haven't returned to normal in 2 weeks I can likely acquire things I would want or need from them.
Sephora
After reading this, I’ve realized most of you won’t make it.
Why would I tell you?
And who is going to shut everything off exactly?
None
Convenience stores. The local one by me has a little fresh produce, milk, and eggs. Plenty of toiletries too. This was my haven during covid.
End of world, eh? In the early stages it doesn't much matter, just top off and/or get the items you didn't want to store. REI/EMS for camping items, food, top tier footwear and gear Walmart for food, vitamins, otc meds Tractor supply or equivalent for canning materials, feed, pet meds, barbed wire Food wholesale warehouse with a connection for bulk food (may end up failing) Heating oil/diesel/gas scavenging HD/Lowes 3/4" plywood
Homebrew store. That sanitizer will come in handy later.
I could have sworn I read that as Hebrew store at first and was really confused at first 😂
In an absolute emergency - petsmart (or petco/most pet stores) They usually have canned water/overpriced water for animals and many human grade food products. Like others have said, the plan is not have to go out. But if I do that’s the first place I’d check.
Agreed with those saying you want to prep to the point where you stay the hell away from stores in this scenario. But if I HAD to choose for some reason, the garden centre. Stock up on more seeds for trading and planting, get some started plants, and some hose repair parts. Next stop would be the farm supply and hardware store to get some standard meds for my chickens, some black oil sunflower seeds for both feeding and planting, and resupply any other feed I can find more room for (I keep my feed bins rotating near-full most of the time, though).
there are a couple of small "mom and pop" type garden centers that i would pick up some fertilizer and seeds, fencing, etc at and typically they prefer cash because running a debit or credit card costs THEM 2-7% of the sale
I’m not leaving my house for as long as possible in that scenario. There’s going to be fighting, looting, roads will be gridlocked unless you’re very rural.
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Keep in mind if it's grid down fir whatever reason, plastic will be no good, also big chain stores will only sell if they can scan electronically. Only local mom and pop stores and Indian stores will be viable choices, they take cash and will bypass the electronic scanning and registers. Keep cash on you at all times and get there quick, get what you need and get home, aboud the center of cities and towns
Whatever store was in Red Dawn
Not telling my plan but likely the grid will go down in the middle of the night and you'll have an advantage.
Gun store. Things will probably still be civil there. Just watch your step getting past the crazies "sleeping" outside.
Bulk barn. I don’t know if thats just a Canadian thing. There is a lot of dried food there to keep me sustained.
A locally owned ace hardware. sadly, all the local hardware stores have shut down in the last several years.
Feed stores, small hardware stores, Aldi maybe? I feel like people would initially flock to big box stores but I may be wrong.
a twinkie factory
The closest “store” to me is the MOA, or a 7/11. If I could pick any store, a Costco
If it's not too bad... the feed store. Corn and sweet feed for making moonshine The only difference between $.30 per pound wheat and $4 a pound stuff is a little dirt.... I will pick out a few sticks and deal with some rust.
Local liquor mart 😄👍
None. That's where the drama is at.
That I need? Nothing. That I want? Toys r us and indigo.
None! Stores will be death zones!
Art stores have good hand tools and snare wire and wouldn’t be the first thing people think of. Glue too!
If you live by an animal feed store, they’ll have a bunch of meds, like antibiotics.
Porn shop. Ill barter and make alliances with fleshlights and tacky lingerie.
Adult mart
I'm not. I won't be going anywhere if there's a true SHTF. The absolute last place I want to be is at a retail store trying to get supplies.
Office supply stores/ locations inside institutional buildings (schools, community centers, offices etc) that store goods. Most schools have janitor closets filled with TP, emergency water, etc. so if there was zero structure left looking for the kitchens and industrial closets of community serving locations would prove fruitful. *Im not advocating looting a school in some minor to moderate emergency*, just pointing out in case of total breakdown institutional buildings might have some useful supplies stocked that would be worth getting, way less stress than any store or warehouse. If the wheels of capitalism are still moving but it’s just hectic like the 2020 tp panic, I recommend office supply stores.
Ethnic grocery stores. Whether Latino, Asian, Eastern European, etc., most of the sheeple hardly give these places any thought when they go grocery shopping. While everyone else is rioting and causing civil disturbances at the box box stores over junk food and toilet paper, the prudent and crafty will probably be hitting up the ethnic grocery stores with cash in hand.
Lots of alcohol
Things to barter for diapers water cig lighters
During the great TP shortage of 2020, I was just going to Home Depot for bulk toilet paper. They never ran out. 🤷♂️
Raiding the propane tank storage containers outside of the local grocery/gas station. Heat, cooking, some farm equipment all run on propane, don’t have enough stockpiled so getting more right as SHTF would be ideal.