Be Responsible as the Adult
Never be that Dad, Granddad, Mom or Grandma who, when your loved ones look at you and ask, "I'm hungry! Why don't we have food?" you have to say, "We don't have any Honey. I'm so sorry."
Instead, make sure you are able to say, "God has blessed us with abundance. Here, let me fix you something to eat and drink."
Learn how important civil defense is for children. The article in the Journal of Civil Defense can be downloaded here.
The Miracle of American Grocery Stores...Most Times
American grocery stores are miraculous. Use them now to stock up before the collapse and chaos.
Each contains hundreds of thousands of items vital to your everyday survival. The three day supply chain that keeps them fully stocked works like a machine most times...except when manmade disasters like the recent pandemic or natural disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes, and floods strike.
It took almost a year for the survival supplies, especially cleaners and paper products like toilet tissue, to restock, but they are in abundance now. Buy them.
Remember, often manmade and natural disasters often happen at the same time.
With an economic collapse due to rapidly escalating interest rates, you will still have tornadoes, hurricanes, fires, floods, earthquakes, riots, and other events. Best to get ready now while there is time.
Big Box Stores Empty First
In 2020, due to the Wuhan Flu panic, big box stores were under severe pressure to keep up with the demand for survival provisions.
Mass panic led to millions running into their grocery stores and clearing out the products until many shelves were empty. Especially hard hit were bottled water, baby formula, diapers, toilet paper, milk, meat, pasta, canned goods, cleaning supplies, medical supplies, vitamins, and many other items.
Big box stores were wiped out of survival supplies. Grocery stores were hit hard, but less hard than the big box stores.
I know this because I did weekly Periscope videos analyzing and showing what items were in short supply and where. Periscope was shut down but my knowledge of what happened during the Wuhan Communist Chinese Party bioweapon attack is still fresh in my memory, so I pass along my lessons learned here.
My analysis is that the big box stores like Costco were drained rapidly as hoarders favored those.
Grocery Stores Empty Second
Grocery stores were the second level of the food supply chain that were hard hit.
Essentials disappeared first. I can still see the shopping carts piled high with items as consumers went crazy purchasing anything they could get their hands on.
I remember talking to numerous grocery store managers who said items disappeared off the shelves as soon as they were put out. Worse, customers would drive around the back of the store to the unloading dock and try to grab items as they arrived.
So, yes there were real shortages, but the problem became far worse due to public hysteria.
Convenience Stores Empty Third
Convenience stores, especially those with a gas station (WaWa, Rutters, 711, Sheetz, and hundreds of others) are all over the country. Convenience stores were hit hard but resupplied faster.
Many people switched to convenience stores and shopped there when the big box stores and convenience stores were out of items. And they were willing to pay the higher price to get the item they wanted.
Dollar Stores were Hit Fourth
The final level to be hit during the Wuhan virus panic were dollar stores.
About 95% of what you need to survive can be found in a dollar store. Their business doubled during this panic.
Dollar stores for the most part were able to maintain their supply chains, except for the usual toilet paper, milk, and baby food shortages that were experienced in the grocery and convenience stores as well.
Specialty Stores Empty Last
Specialty food stores like McCutchen's Apple Products, Wagner's Meats and Hahn's Pork and Beans were hit last.
Specialty stores were better off for two reasons:
- One, they create their own foods and are protected from the supply chain constraint.
- Two, because they rationed supplies sooner and thereby contained the hoarding that was so catastrophic at the big box and grocery stores.
Prepare in the sense of Provident preparing...not hoarding. In other words, prepare under God's directions as written in the Bible.
For good guidelines for how to prepare, and what to purchase and store, see the Provident Prepper.
In my position as volunteer vice president of the American Civil Defense Association, I have known the family that runs this enterprise for 15 years. The mother has edited most of my 15 articles for the Journal of Civil Defense.
As the Provident Prepper says so well: The definitions of the word provident include; making or indicative of timely preparation for the future, having or showing foresight, providing carefully for the future, providing for future needs or events, and exercising foresight in the management of one’s affairs or resources.
Buy your survival products now that they are easily available. Stock up on your emergency supplies while they are abundant.
Obviously, perishable foods like those in these photos are not for long-term stocking or storage in your survival supplies.
But they are critical for your health and building your immunity that ARE critical to your long-term survival. Purchase and eat fruits and vegetables that are vital to your robust health and strong immune system.
The Wuhan Flu is not the first manmade disaster to hit us, nor will it be the last. Natural disasters and manmade disasters strike everyday.
Prepare for them now to be able to survive them tomorrow.
Do not be a panicked hoarder when the next disaster strikes. Instead, be a provident prepper.
When I was in college I tutored Vietnamese and Cambodian "Boat People." I took them to grocery stores and introduced them to the abundance of our food production, storage, and sales. I can still see their wide eyes as they viewed what was fantasy in their homeland.
After college, I tutored Russian Jewish emigres. I saw the same look in their eyes. Having come from the communist Soviet Union, the many choices on the American grocery store shelves were overwhelming for them.
As they were used to standing in line for basics in the Soviet Union for meagre or non-existent provisions, the super abundance of the average American grocery stores was hard for them to manage.
Appreciate your blessings in the food that is abundant now. Store up your provisions in prayer and in practical items you and your family need to survive.
I write this with a heavy heart knowing that most Americans will ignore what I am saying. In some ways, I am like the doctor who tells their patients over and over to lose weight to reduce their medical issues.
I have been educating Americans for 40 years about civil defense tasks and ways to reduce the loss of life and damage to property due to manmade and natural disasters.
Be the 1% who are prepared and who has prepared their family for future disasters. Do not be that guy in the Ninth ward of New Orleans after hurricane Katrina struck saying to the media day after day, "Where's FEMA!? Where's FEMA?! Where's THE MAN!!!
The man is not coming to save you. FEMA arrives weeks and months later and mainly writes checks for those who can prove they had property destroyed and who do not have private insurance to cover them.
God is good and provides mightily for our needs.
Honor Him by doing your duty by purchasing, storing, and maintaining what you need to build up God's Kingdom on his Holy Earth...NOW!
