Preppers have been unusually active stockpiling emergency survival food in recent weeks in anticipation of massive post-election unrest. Fears of riots, power grid outages, the collapse of the financial system, and major terrorist attacks are causing a run on “long term food.”
A manufacturer and seller of such survival food says his sales have tripled in the past few weeks and his salespeople are currently “overwhelmed.” Keith Bansemer, VP of marketing for My Patriot Supply, said “this is more intense than what we saw in 2012.”
Via NBC News:
Purchases at other long term food supply companies are up as well. Emergency preparedness online store TheEpicenter reports a 6 percent uptick in year over year sales.
Another company, Legacy Foods, predicts they’ll see a 1-2 week spike in sales after the election — if Hillary Clinton wins, said owner Phil Cox.
The meals, sold by the plastic bucket or tote bin, are typically dehydrated or freeze-dried food in sealed military-grade Mylar packs. Menu items include pasta primavera, Hawaiian Style Sweet n’ Sour, cheesy broccoli and rice soup, orange energy drink mix and chocolate pudding. They’re sold in bundles based on how long they’ll feed you.
For $2,000 spent at Legacy Foods, you could eat three square meals a day for an entire year. That’s 1,080 servings. TheEpicenter has a 14-day supply kit for $235 that’s recently been “selling really well,” said owner Bryan Nelson. The most popular entry-level seller at My Patriot Supply is a 3-month supply for $497. It comes a in nondescript gray slim line totes bin designed to be easy to stack in the back of a closet or slip under your bed.
Big name retailers are in on the game. Costco sells a 1-month supply of 390 servings in plastic gallon buckets for $114.99. Wal-Mart has a bucket deal, too.
What’s feeding this new urgency? Survivalist consumers says they’re preparing for post-election unrest that could involve everything from massive riots, to power grid outages, to the total collapse of the financial system where a can of food becomes currency.
And it’s not just guys digging a hole on their farm and filling it with MRE’s who are driving sales, companies say, but schoolteachers, moms, and successful financial planners. Nor is it limited to just rural areas.
“Frederick Reddie,” a 41-year-old “urban prepper” from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is stocking up on staples like rice and peanut butter and working on expanding his 6-month supply of emergency food to two years. He has to use a pseudonym to protect his supply from any future hungry neighbors, he told NBC News.
Reddie predicts a Trump win that has the urban poor revolting across the nation and the imposition of martial law to quell riots and the burning of businesses.
But he’s also getting ready for the possibility of a Clinton victory that he says could lead to conflict with Russia and “World War 3 in 2017.”
Either way, Freddy’s ready – with both supplies and a word of advice.
“At minimum stock up your cabinets as if you knew a hurricane was coming,” he said. “It’ll be like a hurricane that could touch every city in America.”
In the event of a total collapse of civilization, survivalists say stockpiling food that can last up to 25 years is “better than money in the bank.”
Gun sales have also soared 17 percent in recent weeks, “setting an 18th straight monthly record and putting 2016 on par to be the biggest ever for gun sales at possibly 28 million,” according to the latest FBI and industry data.
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