You’ve undoubtedly seen videos and photos of store shelves stripped bare by panic buying long before a disaster strikes. Now sit back, kids, as I explain one of the big reasons why this happens, and the need to have your supplies laid in way ahead of time.
Damn, You’re Old, Mr. Craver
Okay, Sherman, let’s step into the Wayback Machine and travel back millions of years to the far-off year of 1987, when yours truly stocked shelves at his local supermarket.
Back in those days, if we ran out of marinara sauce or creamed corn, I’d head to the back room, which was a warehouse-sized cavern packed floor to ceiling with food, and find the appropriate box to slice open and restock the shelf.
However, if I returned there today out of nostalgia for running my rear end off for slave wages, that room would be empty, and probably repurposed for other things. Supermarkets, like factories and manufacturers, now receive their resupply daily and don’t stock up.
It’s called “just-in-time” inventory – businesses get supplies as they need them, rather than just having them sit around. While that makes good economic sense for business, it can spell trouble for consumers when the you-know-what hits the fan.
Just in Time = Out of Time
The main advantage of daily resupply is that frees up millions of dollars a year for businesses that would otherwise be tied up in storage space filled with parts and raw materials sitting idle. But the downside of just-in-time inventory is that companies become more vulnerable to shortages; a snowstorm that snarls air travel or stops the semis from rolling – or say, a disease in China that shutters the factories that build the components you need – and your production grinds to a halt.
As you can infer from the example from my far-off youth, supermarkets have adopted the just-in-time system for the same reasons that manufacturers have, and get daily resupply based on what they need. The downside is that, more often than not, when an item you want is sold out, it’s not in the back, either – you have to go somewhere else or come back tomorrow.
Which, of course, is a problem if everyone gets scared spitless at the same time and all decide to descend on stores like a swarm of locusts.
“Nine Meals Away from Anarchy”
Prepper and survivalist communities often cite a statistic that claims that most Americans only have three days’ worth of food in their homes.
In short, America at any given time is “nine meals away from anarchy.”
Regardless of whether or not this statistic is accurate, you’ve seen plenty enough news stories to know that, by the time you realize when a disaster is coming that it’s time to stock up, it’s too late. Those store shelves are going to go bare, and fast. And when they do, you’re going to be in a big building full of hundreds upon hundreds of desperate and hysterical people.
If you’re dealing with a pandemic, the only thing you’re going to be bringing back to your family is the disease.
The moral of the story? You need to have your larder of food, water, and other supplies in place long before a disaster strikes.
On a final note, I’ll share another piece of prepper parlance for you. If your “plan” in a disaster is for the government to ride to your rescue and feed you, we have a cute term for FEMA: you’re Foolishly Expecting Meaningful Aid.