If you remember the fast-zombie movie, 28 Days Later, there was a scene where the survivors find a supermarket and load up. One of the interesting things in the scene was that the irradiated produce held up much better than the non-irradiated. On a side note, irradiated produce is far more common in Europe than it is in the US because, it seems, we in the US have a knee-jerk reaction to the word ‘irradiated’. If you knew how much stuff in this country is sterilized through irradiation (esp. in the medical industry) I think you’dbe quite surprised.
Anyway, its a trope of apocalypse fiction that survivors either a) find supermarkets that are looted and beyond salvage or b) spared from looting and are treasure trove of unimaginable stores. Which raises an interesting question: if you had a supermarket all to yourself, how long would you be able to survive? Well, someone did the math:
I very much like the fact that they address the issue of food spoilage for the dairy and deli counters. But I think that if you hit the home canning aisle, and then the housewares aisle, you could at least get enough gear to water-bath can some of the produce. If they had a pressure canner on the rack in the home canning aisle you’d be freakin’ golden.
Realistically, I doubt getting locked inside a supermarket is an actual apocalypse thing. Even in post-apocalyptic fiction you’d have to do some pretty deus ex machina to contrive a logical reason for people to be locked in a supermarket (Stephen King’s “The Mist” not withstanding). More likely, you’d have survivors ‘own’ the supermarket and guard it as an extremely high-value resource…assuming they don’t start methodically taking the contents back to their stronghold.
But, if you were forced to stay in a supermarket, how long would you be able to keep from starving? TL;DR = 63 years.
I can’t think of any disaster that would preclude me from being able to otherwise source food for 63 years but…good to know that if I hit the local Safeway as the sole survivor of..whatever…I can cross ‘food’ off my list for the rest of my life.
Every time I go to Costco, I imagine it being the center of furious firefights to establish ownership in a SHTF situation.
Literally tons of good stuff there. Hardly any windows. . . just need a few belt feds on the roof and at the main doors with some wet bailed cardboard as bullet stops. .
Would become local warlord if you could get and hold it. . .
In the kid’s book The Girl Who Owned a City, they find a supermarket regional warehouse that is untouched. Their stronghold is a 1950’s style high school, iirc.
Regional warehouses don’t have big signs out front. I know where two of them are in my area, HEB and wal*mart. Also the Home Depot disaster center, fwiw. The delivery drivers and employees know where those type of places are too, so I don’t think you could walk right in. None the less, I have pointed it out to my kid, and referred to the book…. just in case.
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Yeah, there are a couple of regional distribution centers in my area.
In a few conversations with an LMI friend about our zombie plans I’ve always said I target that for a supply run.
Word will travel……quickly. If you want to get in the middle of that shit-storm food-fight, be my guest. It’ll make Black Friday at Walmart look like a garden party.
Anyone who needs to ‘stockpile’ should do so yesterday.
I read an EMP book by a cop where the cops raided the local Sysco distribution center. Yep, there was a gunfight in it. Pretty realistic book. Blood Dimmed Tude by Don Shift (obvious pseudonym) if anyone is interested.
He finally hit on the obvious near the end of the video: growing your own.
This was only obvious since The Martian.
And it isn’t just the potting soil and compost.
He’s assuming that over the course of his lifetime, Evan wouldn’t
a) dig down into the foundation, and crack into actual dirt
b) gain roof access, and trap endless numbers of birds, including
c) any breeding pair of pigeons, which would provide an inexhaustible supply of fresh squab
d) dig into soil early, punch a hole in the roof, and cultivate any number of fruit trees from the pits and seeds in the produce section. Plums and apples alone: inexhaustible supply. One functional grapevine or olive tree? Fuggedaboudit.
And I dunno about website guy’s Stater Bros., but mine has a seed rack.
Even if they’re all hybrids instead of heirloom seed, that’s another two seasons’ worth of fresh everything, and potentially another decade’s worth of canned or dehydrated food from that.
So the answer is forever, squared.
And the market is .87 acres.
Anyone who can’t live endlessly on nearly an acre isn’t trying very hard.
Aesop,
About hybrid seeds, they are constantly dissed on survival blogs. “With the harvested hybrid seeds, you’ll never know what you’ll get.”
Yet, in the first two, or even three years after a major meltdown, I expect that most people would be better off planting hybrid seeds to reap the benefits of the abundance they produce, although germination rates will vary from one vegetable to the next.
At the same time, if available, some heirloom varieties could be planted in order to produce seed stock for what comes after.
Just to be devils advocate, even modified varieties could be good as they will germinate. You just need to be picky about which seeds you keep. Good producing plant, keep one fruit and use that for seed.
If you understand plant genetics you could make your own hybrids just as we have done for centuries.
I don’t think it would be very easy to break thru the concrete or roof, but there are windows for sun if not fresh air. Depends on the windows.
But I wondered why he limited the compost to such a small amount and only to growing mushrooms. There would be a lot of rotting plant material from the fresh produce & frozen foods that the survivor wouldn’t get to, along with human waste and bird & possibly bat manure. Compost turns into dirt, so one could grow quite a bit of fresh food.
Well sir, in a nutshell it depends. It depends upon how well stocked it was when you got stuck there, and how many people are actually stuck there with you, and then is the water, electricity, etc. going to stay on or is it going out and all those marvelous food items you have been so blessed with are simply going to spoil and all you can do is stare at a blank big screen TV.
Conceivably for a very long time, if it’s secure from a raid from the outside. Simply chill out and enjoy. Course one of the first things to consider would be – Ok, we’re not subject to raids form the outside, so it’s a matter of how long the supplies will last. Then of course you are going to consider, of those stuck there with you which ones you are gong to whack to leave more for you and your preferred. Don’t laugh, it’s crossed everyones mind. I think I’ll opt for staying put on my little piece of dirt.
“Well sir, in a nutshell it depends. It depends upon how well stocked it was when you got stuck there, and how many people are actually stuck there with you, and then is the water, electricity, etc. going to stay on or is it going out and all those marvelous food items you have been so blessed with are simply going to spoil and all you can do is stare at a blank big screen TV.”
I believe all of these issues were clearly addressed in the video…one person without utilities, and they detailed the quantity that was on hand.