The desperation of retailers grows by the day. I head to Wal-Mart and Giant in Harleysville every Sunday morning at 7:00 am. to do my weekly grocery shopping. I go to Wal-Mart at opening to avoid the freaks we see weekly on the People of Wal-Mart post. The workers at Wal-Mart are only a small step above the customers. They can barely communicate, rarely look you in the eye, and generally act like they are prisoners in an asylum.
I’m in winter/bad times ahead prep mode. I had a load of fire wood delivered yesterday which I wheelbarrowed to the back yard and stacked with my already decent sized stack. Last week I took an empty propane canister back to Wal-Mart to replace it with a full canister. That would give me three full propane tanks. I left the empty tank outside next to the propane cage and went in to pay. The old lady cashier with the gravelly smoker voice told me she would call for someone to get me a new tank.
I went over the cage and patiently waited for a Wal-Mart drone to come out, unlock the propane cage and give me a full tank. Two minutes, five minutes, and eventually ten minutes go by with no one coming out to help me. The cashier pokes her head out the door and shrugs her shoulders and says no one is responding to her calls. What a well oiled machine they have at Wal-Mart. Eventually the old lady abandoned her cashier post and in a painstakingly slow manner proceeded to unlock one bin after another until she found a full tank. I’m sure a line of unhappy customers were piling up at the only register in the garden center while she spent ten minutes getting me my propane tank.
A transaction that should have taken five minutes from start to finish ended up taking closer to twenty five minutes, with another five or six customers also dissatisfied with their extra long wait. This is a perfect example of how not to do business. Maybe Wal-Mart’s problems are bigger than households having less to spend. They are attempting to maintain their profit margins by reducing staff hours, hiring low quality people, and paying them shit wages. In the short run it may keep profits higher, but in the long-run customers will go elsewhere. Except most of the elsewhere stores closed up years ago when Wal-Mart arrived and underpriced them into bankruptcy.
My shopping experience at Giant is generally pleasant. The staff are nice, competent, and have been there for years. They know what they are doing and serve you with a smile. But their store is part of a worldwide conglomerate, so things have changed for the worse over the last four months. They renovated the entire store, creating bigger aisles and moving stuff around. That’s annoying, but after a while you figure out where they moved the stuff you want. The real negative change was the dreaded “Everyday Low Pricing”. This weasel phrase means you will be paying more. This is what the Apple idiot CEO – Ron Johnson – did at JC Penney. It put them on a rapid path to bankruptcy.
The weekly sale items at Giant have virtually disappeared. This has coincided with the drastic increase in beef, pork and fresh produce prices. Since “Every Day Low Pricing” went into affect our weekly grocery bill has gone up 20%. And I am buying far less beef and more chicken. In the past I would stock up on sale items and put beef, pork and whatever was on sale in our storage area freezer. Now I am stuck buying what we need that week. No bargains, just fully priced food items. Be forewarned, whenever you see a store announce “Everyday Low Pricing” you are getting screwed.
The Boos Begin in August & Bells Start Jingling in October
The desperation of Wal-Mart and most of the other mega-retail chains is no more clearly evident than in their relentlessly ridiculous acceleration of holiday marketing displays. I was flabbergasted when I saw Halloween candy, decorations and costumes in row after row BEFORE Labor Day at my local Wal-Mart. Selling Halloween candy two months before Halloween is idiotic and a sure sign of desperation. Retailers have run out of merchandising ideas. I wouldn’t even consider buying Halloween candy until the week before Halloween. Do Wal-Mart freaks of the week actually buy Halloween merchandise in September?
Holidays used to be special occasions that lent a sense of sales urgency for retailers for a week or two, to pump up sales. Now Wal-Mart and the rest of the dying retailers have Christmas, Easter, Fourth of July, and Halloween displays up for 80% of the year. There is no sense of urgency to buy. From September 1 though October 31 there are rows and rows of bags of corporate produced chemicals disguised as candy. I suppose the obese masses buy this crap in anticipation of Halloween, tell themselves they’ll only take one, and then shovel the entire bag down their gullets.
So last week, still a full two weeks before Halloween, Wal-Mart had already converted their entire garden center into a Christmas wonderland of cheap mass produced Chinese cookie cutter Christmas decorations and lights that will blow out after three hours of use. They had also converted aisles at the front of the store to Christmas displays. Who the hell shops for Christmas crap in October? There is nothing like having cheap Chinese Christmas crap available for over two months to create a sense of urgency to buy. Wal-Mart and the rest of the mega-retailers have got nothin. They have no original merchandising ideas. They don’t even try anymore. They source low quality goods from China and compete solely on price. I can’t wait for the Easter candy to appear on Wal-Mart’s shelves in late December.
Black Thanksgiving
Black Friday is dead. Long live Black Thanksgiving. The riots and stampedes by the ignorant masses for toasters and HDTVs on Black Friday are now being replaced by retailers and malls across America opening at 6:00 pm on Thanksgiving. It actually seems fitting. How better to give thanks for our mass consumption, debt financed, materialistic, iGadget addicted society than to open stores on Thanksgiving. Spending time with family is overrated anyway. If you had to spend six hours with cousin Eddie and aunt Bethany, you’d be looking forward to an early opening at Macy’s.
The bullshit message from the mega-retailers is: “We’re not opening on Thanksgiving out of desperation or greed. We’re doing it simply to satisfy the demands of our customers”. It’s a racist national holiday anyway. We should be going to an Indian run casino on Thanksgiving to make up for our past sins. Opening stores and forcing workers to work on Thanksgiving is pathetic, disgusting and a truly desperate measure in this consumer empire in decline. The law of diminishing returns has been invoked upon the mega-retailers that dominate our suburban sprawl paradise.
These retailers can start holiday merchandising three months before the actual holiday. They can open their doors on Thanksgiving, Easter and Christmas. It’s nothing more than shuffling the deck furniture on the Titanic. We’ve allowed bankers, politicians and corporate titans to financialize our economy, gutting the once thriving middle class, sending manufacturing jobs overseas, and convincing the clueless masses that consumer goods purchased with debt is equal to wealth. But, we’ve reached the point of no return. There are 248 million working age Americans and 102 million of them are not employed. Of the 146 million working Americans, 82 million of them make less than $30,000 per year.
While retailers have added billions of square feet since 1989, real median net worth is 5% lower over 24 years. Retailers are attempting to get blood from a stone. The stone is in debt, approaching retirement with no savings and dead broke.
We have one entity that deserves the most credit for destroying the American Dream. Real median household income is lower than it was in 1989. The 2008 collapse was caused by the easy money bubble machine at the Federal Reserve. We had the opportunity to hit the reset button, implement rational economic and monetary policies, take our lumps, and make the banking culprits pay for their crimes. Instead, the easily manipulated masses believed the Wall Street storyline and allowed the Federal Reserve and feckless politicians to save the banking cabal with extreme money printing and debt creation. This has pushed the middle class closer to the breaking point, while further enriching the oligarchs. The Federal Reserve saved their owners and lured the masses further into debt.
The Fed, Wall Street, and Washington DC have successfully driven consumer debt to an all-time high, blasting through the $3 trillion level. Declining real incomes and rising debt are a sure recipe for success.
Our entire economic paradigm is built upon desperate measures. Zero interest rates, $3 trillion of QE, systematic accounting fraud, fudged economic data, and doling out subprime loans to auto renters and University of Phoenix wannabes have failed to revive our moribund economy. Delusions don’t die easily. But they do die. We are reaching the limit of this delusionary dream built upon debt, denial, and deception. Make sure you wolf down that Thanksgiving feast before 5:00 pm. There are HDTV’s to fight for at 6:00 pm.
Thanks Admin. That student loan explosion is worrisome. Holy shite, that is not going to end well. The US sense of entitlement is gonna end in tears. Complacency will be repaid in pain.
Was just reading how, for the first time in US history, the current generation of Americans will be less educated than their parents. 20 percent of kids will be better educated than their parents, and 29 percent will be less educated than their parents.
The empire is collapsing. That parents no longer seem to push their kids to do better than they did is a troubling trend.
The piper will be paid.
It’s a different land. The kid is buying a house. Mom asks if he and his girlfriend will marry. He says no one does that anymore. First time she fucks up, she’s gone and the next one will follow, he says.
That’s how it is when women outnumber boys.
They voted Obama in and will probably vote for Hillary. Call it women’s revenge.
Admin,
The high beef prices were called 2 years ago. There was a drought, which resulted in a shortage of hay. Instead of letting their cattle starve to death, cattlemen had a massive selloff and saved their breed stock. Beef prices fell like a rock. After the glut of beef cleared the market, there was an obvious shortage. Since we’re still in the 2 year window it takes to raise a cow till its big enough to sell, prices will stay rather high. This coming Spring/Summer, beef prices will probably start to come back down…
If you’re wanting to augment your diet and save some money, maybe you’d like to try your hand at deer hunting? Down here, under normal circumstances, a hunter can take up to 6 deer (excluding special hunts, etc). If you max out at 6 deer, that is a lot of meat in the freezer… anywhere from 600/700 lbs up to 1000, depending on the size of the deer you take…
Even with processing fees, etc, it’s still cheaper than buying beef.
Wal-Mart overall still has some of the best prices on anything from food to bullets. So be happy and shop like there’s no tomorrow.
Saw a lot of dead deer one November on the road into Austin. It looked like summer in the desert when jackrabbits litter the roads.
Someone gave the old man a side of deer meat one year. Nom nom does not even begin to describe how delicious it was.
Billy , Fuck deer hunting . There’s no sport to killing a deer.Now wild pig hunting is where you will find danger and excitement. .A big pig will charge and fight even after being shot several times.You can take 1000 pounds of meat off just 3 big pigs and where I live you can kill all the wild pig you want.I usually take my 308 Ruger gun scout rifle .308 takes most down but sometimes they will get back up and charge. Its a lot of fun but you got to be careful. I usually give the pigs I shoot to my buddies I huntwith.
bb,
I hunt deer to feed my family, not because I’m out for some daring do… I’ve had plenty of danger and excitement in my life hunting men.
We have wild pigs here as well. But, I don’t trophy hunt. I take what we need. No more, no less.
Perhaps I might go after the wild hogs and such we have around here someday… but I’m pretty busy these days just getting the doomstead ready. I’m usually a live and let live type when it comes to critters, unless they’re causing me trouble or I’m actually hunting. There are exceptions, but they’re rare… I have a particular respect for apex predators and go out of my way to leave them alone… But I suppose wild feral hogs don’t count.
I wish I could write like this.
While bb and Billy are very good sports writers, they can’t shine a light on your writing about nature and life.
A lot of us wish we could write like you. We can try but first we would have to live in your shoes for a spell and speak like you do. Trying to write like you do without having your voice and speaking manner would be like a grackle trying to imitate a canary.
It’s funny: I find virtually nothing overpriced at the farmers’ market or raw milk food club (though I buy the least expensive stuff), but virtually any edible item at the grocery store seems grossly–and I mean grossly–overpriced. The price tag is always much lower at the grocery store, but the quality is SO much lower, I find the stuff overpriced.
Americans’ love for cheap also means it’s hard to find products that last. Nothing worse than a product that breaks quickly and realizing, “I worked an hour and half for this . . . “
I usually go with several other hunters when I go and none of the animals are wasted . There’s so many wild pigs and they cause a lot of damage to farms and gardens that people see hunters as blessing. I never realized wild pigs could get so big and mean until I started hunting with these guys . One guy has had two of his dogs killed this year hunting pigs. They are big ,mean and deadly animals especially if they knock you down on the ground. That’s when these pigs really tear in you or your hunting dogs. I also carry my Colt 45 just in case I get knock down.
Don’t forget the first two QE’s (TARP and stimulus) they were close to a trillion each. I’ve got a friend who works at Publix, our local grocer. The changes in the last couple of months from the top are staggeringly short sighted. They can’t order any product in the exact amount they need, they have to order the quantity to get the price break. All the extra merchandise is stacking up in the back and they are rapidly running out of room. They are also shuffling the store constantly, overtime is verboten, and all new staff is haitian, to collect the huge tax break for disadvantaged. Used to be a top 100 company to work at, just a few years ago.
“I head to Wal-Mart and Giant in Harleysville every Sunday morning at 7:00 am. to do my weekly grocery shopping.” ———— Admin
Ohmigod!!! That’s a horrifying thought. Walmart … for groceries?? What, you hate the well-being of your body that much? lol
I’m sorry if that sounds judgmental. To each his own.
We probably spent $150 at Walmart this past year. To be sure, a can of Hunt’s tomato paste is the same whether bought at Shop Rite or Walmart. But, we don’t shop much in the aisles … we prefer the edges … where the FRESH stuff is. I understand some Walmarts sell fresh (supposedly) produce … ours here does not, hence, we buy our food at a more reliable source.
But, the more surprising aspect is that I thought you didn’t like Walmart. Of course, I may have misinterpreted your comments in other posts. When I dislike a company, I boycott them. I hate Walmart for many reasons, so I say ‘fuck them’, and frankly, I’m pissed at myself for even spending $150. I need to make a New Year’s resolution to get that down to $0.
BTW, hopefully you are not surprised by the shit service you get from the maroons employed at Walmart. You get what you pay for.
Stuck
I don’t buy food at Wal-Mart. Mine is not a Super center. I buy toilet paper, paper towels, paper plates, napkins, cleaning stuff, vitamins, contact solution, cat food, cat litter, ammo, and other everyday needs.
All the food is bought at Giant. They are next to each other in the same strip center. There are no other options in my area. All the mom and pop retailers are long gone.
“Holidays used to be special occasions…”
Amen to that! Shopping used to be something done out of necessity, not boredom. Special occasions were a time of love and joy, not “what did you get?” I am in Canada and we have exactly the same problem here with these big corporations shoving their “buy now” attitudes down our throats. The answer is pretty simple, “don’t buy into the hype”. 4 years back I went into one of my favorite gas stations for my regular fix of morning coffee, (they have a small deli in the back with coffees and fresh eats), it was 1 week before Halloween and standing right beside the till was a 6 foot stuffed santa. Not one to stay silent, out of my mouth were the most thought provoking words I could muster without getting arrested by our shoot first ask questions later cowboys.
Point blank I told the manager (who I was getting to know pretty good after many years of going to the store) that he had seen the last of me, to date I have been in there maybe 5 times for emergency fuel.
It is getting so bad that we are becoming doctrine to accept Christmas in October. A radio station has this commercial selling new cars, and the ad states (complete with bells in the back ground) come get a new dodge ram for the holidays… what freaking holidays??? 1 night of turkey dinner and then a mad rush for the boxing day sales? Oh ya that is a fucking holiday in my books.
Let them all go broke!
cheers
Hobby Lobby went into xmas mode in JUNE. Vomit.
“Hobby Lobby went into xmas mode in JUNE. Vomit.”
in a way though i can see their point, wife does quilting and sewing for gifts, she is in full mode now to get it done for late December. Crafters are different for these people have talents that aren’t imported from china.
“I don’t buy food at Wal-Mart.” ——- Admin
Whew!! God bless you and yours!!!
.
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“All the mom and pop retailers are long gone. ” ——- Admin
That’s one of the most tragic observations ever.
We went out to eat yesterday with Ms Freud’s son and family (for his birthday). Of course, we asked him where he would like to go. He said, “Applebees”. I said, “No!!”. He said, “Why? It’s my birthday and I like it there.” I said, “Blow me, asshole.” Well … no I didn’t. lol I did say, “I do not support Nation Chain establishments if I can help it. I prefer mom&pop stores. Make another choice.”
So, we ate at The Stage House Tavern (below). He quizzed me about my aversion to chain stores. I tried to explain it to him. He looked at me like I just arrived from another planet. So, I changed the topic to something simpler for his stockbroker brain …. we talked about the NFL … it was such a fucking joy.
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“All the mom and pop retailers are long gone. ” ——- Admin these giant chains are corporations is and can be considered a person and maybe even a mom or a pop???????????? EAH!!!! “What a world what a world what a world “
“They (Giant) renovated the entire store, creating bigger aisles and moving stuff around. That’s annoying, but after a while you figure out where they moved the stuff you want.”
—-Admin
My local Safeway did the same fricking thing a couple of months ago. Moved shit all around to create a scavenger hunt atmosphere. Lots of really old, retired people shop there, and the poor souls were absolutely lost. Some still are. I asked the manager who made that brilliant decision and was told it was a corporate Hqs decision with NO input from local store managers. Dumbasses all over the place.
As for wider aisles, yep, they did that, too. Now the aisles are clogged with floor displays of Halloween candy and other such nonsense. Nothing like some dipshit parking his or her cart right beside a floor display and blocking the whole fucking aisle.
The one thing the store didn’t do was move the produce department and frozen food section because of the expense of moving the coolers and freezers. So what DID they do? Move all the produce and frozen food to different locations!!!! WTF? Nothing like the thrill of playing “hide the green beans” to brighten your day.
I had that fucking store memorized. Past tense emphasized. Every now and then my wife will ask me to pick up a few things. Always included on the list is a sleeper item that a bloodhound couldn’t find. And she wonders why I come home in a bad mood.
Christmas music started here in the Sunshine State over two weeks ago. Local discount club BJs has a snowman display that ‘comes to life’ every 30 seconds (or so) and plays “Frosty the Snowman”. The cashiers and customer service employees have to listen to that crap for their entire shift.
The Commissaries do the same thing. The purpose is to get people to impulse buy while looking for things on their shopping list. They also move certain items to different locations so you have to launch a treasure hunt to find them, MRE’s (meals ready to eat) seem to be moved almost monthly.
You do superb work, but this may be your opus magnum. This was epic commentary.
welcome back Stuck
Damn I have been gone so long Stucky has been gone and I did not notice
but the Halloween decorations and candy are already going on clearance down here in NC. To make room for Christmas junk……….Marketing fail or what? Last minute shopping pays
Up here we have Matanuska Meats which does their own butchering and offers a large selection of meats besides cattle, as well as all sorts of different preparations including smoked meats, jerky etc.
For veggies, we have Farmer’s Markets in Palmer and Wasilla which operate during the growing season and several commercial Greenhouses which supply the two main chain groceries here, Carr’s and Fred Meyer. Carr’s is a Safeway store, not sure who owns Fred Meyer or if it is independent. 3 Bears is a Food Warehouse with the largest and best price selection of meat, there you can by whole sides of beef, Rib Roasts, Filets etc which they will slice up to order.
Prices have gone up some, but by no means is meat either unaffordable or in short supply here. When I got here, typically I could pick up a Ribeye for $5.99/lb on sale at 3 Bears, now more like $7.99.
You can also join Farmer’s Cooperatives and get a weekly or monthly delivery straight from the Farm.
Most of the produce & beef however is shipped up from Washington State, where there is also a commercial Bison Ranch so Buffalo Steaks and Ground Beef is always available. Produce also comes mainly from Washington, except in Winter when it gets barged up from Mejico and Chile. It’s actually cheaper to ship stuff up from the west coast of Chile to Alaska than to the East Coast of the FSoA, because there is virtually no Land Transportation involved, only the Last Mile from the Port of Anchorage. Faribanks has higher prices though, and anyplace off the main corridor of the Alaska Railroad has outrageous prices.
Walmart here does carry food, but their prices aren’t better than 3 Bears or Fred Meyer, and their meat selection and quality is for shit.
RE
You need to carry the analysis a little further. 34.4% of all of the jobs paying over $30,000 are government jobs. I suspect that government contractor jobs account for another 10% to 15% of jobs paying over $30,000. The private sector has been absolutely strangled. This will collapse and the collapse will be epic and remembered for thousands of years.
Millions Percent
Unemployed 102 41.1%
Under 30,000 Income 82 33.1%
Over $30,000 Income 64 25.8%
Total Working Age Population 248 100.0%
Government Employment Total Employees Average Pay
Federal 2,792,736 $72,474
State 5,286,102 $45,794
Local 13,961,268 $43,682
Total 22,040,106 $47,837
http://www.census.gov/govs/apes/
overthecliff
Thanks.
sensetti
I was only “gone” for about 4-5 days. bb and his ilk really pissed me off … plus, I had a lot of shit to do here and at my parent’s house.
But, I’m much better now. I have been re-filled with the Holy Spirit. You will see a kinder and gentler Stucky … at least for a day or two.
Stuck – I believe we came to a meeting of the minds. I think the folks that were being unreasonable may have come to their senses a bit.
We seem to have reached agreement that we will fight like cats and dogs, but the basis of the fights needs to be over ideas/differences of opinions. We are trying to tone down the fighting for fighting sake. It will never be eliminated – nor should it be – but things had gotten out of hand.
I mean, after all, you post plenty of dumb shit worthy of an ass-kicking, so there is no need to force the issue. All we have to do is wait a few minutes, and you will give us some real reason to go all postal on your ass, without having to invent a reason. For instance, if you keep posting recipes and girly stuff like that, I am gonna have to take you to the woodshed, again.
I think even Billah’s Wife has eschewed her ways, which I am much appreciative of.
Glad you are back in stride.
Stucky , you ungrateful big fat turd .I went on a hunger strike for you and this is the appreciation I get .Fuck this ,Fuck you ,Fuck every body , I’m going home and I’m not coming back until tomorrow.
bb …. thank you for your sacrifice. I love you, man. (Man … this being filled with the Spirit crap really works!)
Llpoh … I have never posted dumb shit. Do not confuse me with bb. I’m working on a new thread — “American Indians: Myths and Misconceptions”. Should be good … I’m learning a lot. Maybe you can do one on Austrians??
Stucky’s Apprentice doppler —- I must say, you did a HELLUVA job. Stick around.
I had to chuckle today while watching the Raiders/Browns. Did anyone see the latest BestBuy “Best” themed commercial? They literally show a BestBuy store packed with shoppers like its Times Square or something. It was unlike my recent foray into the store where there were like 5 people milling around and no one buying anything. You literally can not make this stuff up. The only retail activity I see are people spending money at the chain restaurants wasting their nest egg or at the food stores which at least are supplying essentials. Getting back to Best Buy, hasn’t the nation as a whole pretty much bought their flat screen already? I mean I would never buy stock in this POC as everyone already has the tv. This company will not be around in 2 years. Just my opinion, but I think you can take it to the bank.
Hon
I chickened out with the whole suicide thing. I mean, obliterated existence and all started freaking me out in a major way. I’m still here, and very much loving Jimmy Q’s pen on fire.
My own very very humble opinion, based on Billy’s subdued participation the last week, is that the BW project (now terminated) was a success.
God Fucking Damn
I am drunk as a mother fucker
Dirty Martinis my drink of choice are kicking my ass.
So fuck all ya all mother fuckers that don’t like me.
The big box stores have dedicated a sizable corner of their premises to seasonal displays. This means that as soon as Christmas is done, the Valentines stuff is put out. When Valentines Day has passed, Spring/Easter appears. Then comes summer/Fourth of July paraphernalia. When that’s old news, it’s time for Back to School. That leaves only three months to push Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, which are currently all on display. Ho hum. It’s tedious and boring and I ignore about 95% of it.
Administrator Why do you shop at Walmart Here in Illinois there are many of us – no organized movement actions not words – that do not shop there as a way of voting with our pocket book. We recognize the evil, and decide to sacrifice and do something about it by supporting local business and farmers Hard but simple
Boycott
No local retailers left within a reasonable distance of my house that sell household goods. I could buy everything at Giant, but they are just another massive corporate retailer. I do try to shop at the local Ace Hardware store rather than Lowes and Home Depot, but they are really part of a national chain.
I don’t shop much in the brick and mortar any more, but I would echo the observation that the “holiday” shopping is coming earlier and earlier, that the shelves are further apart and less well stocked, and that there is no inventory “in the back”.
Just part of the decline.
Carry On!
Like admin, we shop at Wal-Mart for non-food essentials, and make sure we do it before 9 a.m. The closest grocery chain store is also a Giant Food, but the one near us has really gone downhill. They only stock about 70% of the food choices they once had, the lines are often too long with few lanes open, and the quality of ‘fresh’ foods is poor. So we do our grocery shopping at Wegmans. They opened here about 10 years ago and it quickly became their top selling store, and remained so until just recently, but are still close at #2. They also recently changed their layout which threw off many shoppers but you get used to it after a couple of weeks. There must be some sort of science of where to place items in grocery stores because it happens frequently.
As to the article…
“We had the opportunity to hit the reset button, implement rational economic and monetary policies, take our lumps, and make the banking culprits pay for their crimes. Instead, the easily manipulated masses believed the Wall Street storyline and allowed the Federal Reserve and feckless politicians to save the banking cabal with extreme money printing and debt creation.”
Admin, other than full-out, blood-in-the-streets revolution, what are we “manipulated masses” to do?
What is our solution? I whole-heartedly agree that a reset was the right opportunity and was missed.
(if the monkey sniper is a veiled reference to a solution, “let’s roll”.)
@rise up: There is likely NOTHING the “manipulated masses” are going to do other than sit around with their collective thumbs up their collective asses with the big crash finally comes. What we are seeing is a series of little crashes, carefully timed with other disasters to keep the masses from noticing too much.
Hey Lookey! Kim K is showing her boobs in that dress!!!
Seriously, you need to prepare to be OWN YOUR OWN for 4-6 months, defend same and be good with God, your family and your community.
Sorry, but that’s just the way it is. Admin is doing an amazing job of trying to wake up the folks but I fear most are in a terminal coma and it won’t happen in time to change things, if at all.
We passed the Point of No Return in 2008-2009 and it’s all over, IMHO except for the screaming. Of which there will be a lot.
@Hope…I’m prepped for 4-6 months. Only issue is water, but I’m good there, too, as long as the creek behind my house keeps running (yeah, I’ve got the filtration ready as well). The big question is, what are we preparing for? Civil war, martial law, economic collapse?…all three are likely, and possibily at the same time, or at least cascading. We’re a few years out, I hope, but the time to be ready is NOW.
@ Rise Up, Hope, etc..
I’ll try to keep this brief and on point. I’m in a time crunch, and this subject bears more scrutiny than just one puny post… but, we do what we can.
– First: 4-6 months is a good start. Thing is, what happens if it’s a long term crisis, a real earth-shaking Failure of Civility that lasts longer than that? Most of our foodstuffs are produced in a flurry of activity, just after harvest, then released slowly over the coming months after being trucked clean across the country. If the crisis happens at the worst time of the year, the crops that are in the fields will wither and rot and it won’t be until next year that you get another bite at the apple… I’d go for at least one year’s worth of food, if you can.
– Second thing: ammo. Figure how much you might need, then double or triple it. In a long-term crisis, nobody will be making – or trading – ammo at all. Which means you run what you brung. After that, there ain’t no more. Period. There is no such thing as too much ammo!!!!
– Third: water. Rise, you mentioned you got a creek behind the house. That’s good and all, but what if you can’t get to it? Know how to dig a borehole? In your basement? How much water do you have in the basement? 4 gallons of water, per person, per day is what’s needed. Water is heavy, and if someone knew you had eats and ammo – it’s hard to hide not starving to death – they could just as easily cut you off from your water supply. Which brings me to point four:
– If you try to make a stand, alone, against a group of bad guys, you will fail. Let me say that again:
You.
Will.
Fail.
Even if you have half a dozen folks, sooner or later, you’ll go down. You might have a Dying Moment of Awesome and take some of the bastards with you, but you’ll still be dead. Along with your family members… or worse. So, you all need to Tribe Up.
Hook up with like-minded folks around your area and form a mutual support and defense network. The more folks in your tribe, the more resources, skill sets, more fingers to pull more triggers… you won’t be able to stand against a group of ex-military kitted out with military grade weapons (especially explosives and heavy machineguns), but your numbers and organization will dissuade the more-common gangs… DO NOT get stuck in a ‘fortress’ mindset. Even the walls of Constantinople fell. It took a 1,000 years for it to happen, but it did happen… and the slaughter was legendary…
You need a mobile, flexible defense. And someone who knows what they’re doing ramrodding the defensive efforts..
I got more, but I got to get cracking…
Luck and fortune…
@ Rise, Hope, etc…
Afterthought:
In regards to whatever defensive measures you come up with, I have two words:
Infinite Monkeys.
You know the old saying? An infinite number of monkeys on an infinite number of typewriters, typing for infinity, one of them will eventually produce the complete works of Shakespeare?
Means no matter what you think up, it’s almost a given that with enough bad guys, sooner or later one of them will think up a way to defeat your defenses… if you can think it up, then they can think up a way to defeat it… all they have is time. Stay flexible. Don’t be afraid to try new shit… if it’s stupid, but works, then it ain’t stupid….
@ Billy, thanks for the tips. Everything depends on the severity and length of the crisis. Obviously very few will survive what your scenario implies.
@ Rise.
18% survivability rate…
At the end of Year 1, expect half of everyone to be dead.
At the end of Year 2, half of those will be dead.
Eventually, the population will stabilize. Best guess by folks smarter than me puts it at about 18% by the end of Year 3 and it will hover there. The strongest, the best prepared, the most ruthless. In such a situation, you have to set aside any sentimentality you have. Not saying abandon your humanity, I’m saying you have to be prepared to do things that you considered distasteful during The Before Time.
You have one full regimen of penicillin left – enough to cure one person of one infection. Unfortunately, you have two people you have to treat. One is older, a wealth of knowledge – he was an Engineer – but due to age, he is unfit for labor or defense. Still, he knows things that you need passed on. The other is younger, stronger. At 100%, he will contribute mightily towards survival of the tribe.
What do you do?
Not trying to build a box you can’t get out of… I’m saying sooner or later, you will have to make a command decision. Both your options suck. No matter what you do, one will die. It’s not personal, it’s just life at it’s worst. So, you do the best you can and hope like hell you made the right decision…
Remember the first rule of leadership: Everything is your fault. No matter who did what, when, why, if you knew about it or not… it’s still your fault. That’s the price of leadership.
Lead, follow, or get out of the way.
RE – Fred Meyer merged with Krogers years ago, in the stores you will find their house brands labeled Kroger’s.
Anybody heard from Muckabout lately? I haven’t seen any of his comments lately.
Muck is still around. We’ve emailed in the last few days.