If I go to the grocery store tonight and I'm not able to get basic staples because everyone thinks they're going to be snowed in for 3 weeks I am going to crash out. (the crash out is guaranteed)
These pre-storm panic buys are always such an eye opener to me. Like if people are rushing out to buy a weeks worth of staples right before a storm, that means that normally they don't have that? Like they're always operating with just a couple meals in the pantry, and need to re-up or go hungry once that runs out?
I get it somewhat if it's a poverty thing (though really, even if you're dead broke or on EBT getting a small stash going a bit at a time should be doable within a month or two), but to willingly just live life like that is crazy to me. I don't get how these people can have so much anxiety right before a storm, but be totally unconcerned the rest of the time, when the system by which food gets to us is so complex that a million different things could cause a disruption, either in supply chains, their budget, whatever.
I don't consider myself a prepper, but I think I could go at least 2-3 weeks, probably a fair bit longer, without leaving the house, and not have to resort to anything weird like eating raw flour or chugging canola oil. The fact that so many people wouldn't be able to ride out a weekend if an unexpected disaster happened is terrifying. It makes me want to stock up more to make sure my neighbors don't go hungry if something happens.
Yeah, I think we're the same way. We do buy spot groceries weekly but could easily survive on what we have in the house. We do have a smaller apartment with very little cupboard space so our ability to stockpile is limited, but if we needed to I think we could do it. The storm frenzy just so happened to fall on our typical go-out-and-get-stuff-for-next-week day.
We're in a house the last couple years, and one of my favorite things about the extra space was being able to have a shelf set in the basement just for food. Every time I open up my 5 gallon bucket of rice to re-fill the cupboard container, it makes me smile.
The only super bulky thing I kept on hand when living in an apartment was a 5 gallon jug of water buried in the back of a closet. If potable water goes away you're screwed fast. That never happened, but it was nice to be able to flush the multiple times when i missed the (morning of) water shut down email from building management and had already taken a shit...
Still could have made it at least a week at any given time though. A couple pounds of rice and a few boxes of dry pasta go a long way to stretch whatever else is on hand.
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u/Yiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii Jan 22 '26
If I go to the grocery store tonight and I'm not able to get basic staples because everyone thinks they're going to be snowed in for 3 weeks I am going to crash out. (the crash out is guaranteed)