I got an up-date from emjoe up in Boise, Idaho. It seems they have the highways cleared and trucks are moving into the area and supplies are being delivered. The potential disaster has been cleared up, at least for the time being.
But it behooves us to remember a few facts about America. We got sold a bill of goods back in the early 90's, I believe, called Just-In-Time delivery. You go snooping around on the roof tops of most of America's major selling companies and you will find little small antennas. They will most likely be microwave transmitters. You go to McDonalds and order a meal and the cash register is going to transmit a copy of your meal to a warehouse and maybe to an accountant, when you pay. The data does not say the Paul Prepper bought anything, the data merely transmits the number of buns, patties, condiments, wrappers, soda straws, slices of cheese, napkins, and carrying bags you bought. The warehouse on the other end of the radio link is tabulating all of this and putting it on the account of the particular restaurant you are using. At a certain time on the day the accounting is turned into an order at the warehouse and everything that was purchased since the last order will be replaced in the next shipment. This goes on all over the country every day of the week.
And it works, as long as nothing goes wrong. But you let a blizzard come into the area and shut down the roads and you will find out soon enough that things go wrong. Those restaurants and big box stores don't have much storage space anymore. Back in the day, big stores had big storage. But this is a different day. And you and I can't do much about this. But we can prepare for it's failure. Because it WILL fail. You know that water runs downhill but in the early 1800's it ran uphill in the Mississippi and the Ohio rivers, due to an earthquake at New Madrid. We have a huge government agency called FEMA, with lots of money and big offices and plenty of people, but you saw how they blew it during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The certainty and security that government promises us is a joke. The certainty of having food after a blizzard is a joke. The only measure of security is what you can provide for yourself. Your neighbor is more prone to help you than anyone working for a government.
Do not be fooled. Security is a flimsy thing at best. Leaving it up to technology and government is completely out of the question. Ever heard of an electro-magnetic pulse? It will shut down most of America. Anything electronic will be stopped. Your electric can opener will probably not work. Your fancy radios and TVs will not work. Your electric range will probably not work. And McDonalds will be out of business. Got preps?
Stay alive.
Michael
mboone@rtccom.net
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6 comments:
...cutting off supply lines,first rules of warfare,eventually yer enemies will run out of 'stuff'...unless they're self sustaining...Ours will be a conflict of attrition.
Yes, I do got preps!
Good article. bad thing is that JIT inventory is a boon to most businesses and individuals for that matter, but things have got to work right or BOOM BOOM, out go the lights!
Years ago, if there was something you wanted, but your size wasn't on the shelf, someone would go to "the back" and get it for you. Nowadays, if it ain't on the shelf, yer outta luck.
I remember Best Products. Huge building, and half of it was warehouse. The salesperson called what you wanted upstairs (I think they had those vacuum tubes like a bank drivethrough), and the box came down on a conveyor. The local China Mart has maybe 1/8 of the building for storage, and half of that is the unloading dock.....
"We can have that here for you on Thursday when the truck comes in".........
This is not an attack, but rather a view from the other side..
The other side of the coin from Just In Time is what? Vast warehouses of Spam and beans just in case everyone wants to buy a six month supply?
And when the sheeple fail to buy all that food sitting in those warehouses in every major and mid-sized city a great deal will go bad. And guess where the cost of those goods will go? To the end consumer in the form of higher prices for the form of higher prices. I am still waiting to find an authoritative website which states "There is a three day supply of food in the average grocery store in the average city in the U.S. at any time". I have not found it yet every SHTF writer cites it like they are the CEO of Safeway in their spare time.
During the Cuban Missile Crisis in 62 we had no Just In Time Delivery, yet Piggly Wiggly and Safeway ran out of food in several cities as everyone did their patriotic duty and stocked up on canned goods at the last minute.
My argument is there is no solution for grocery stores running out of food. The only solution is that we the people need to get used to having several weeks/months of food on hand much in the same way we keep money in the bank for a rainy day. It is not the governments job to bail businesses out and not private businesses work to keep food stocked for just in case. My .02. I will go back and click on something for allowing me to soapbox on your space. Thanks!
Reminds me I need to buy a couple extra manual can openers. The Gerber will do the job in a pinch, but it's not the best at it.
@John - Actually, I thought the point was that you personally need to stock up, not that the grocery store does.
You prepare yourself now for when/if the grocery store runs out - that way you know you'll have what you need.
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