Bugging Out to Wal-Mart, Costco, Sams Club: No!

[raptor]

I am going to merge this thread with the walmart thread since it seems to be a fitting place for it. If any one has any objections to that PM me and let me know.

[phil_in_cs]

I found these photos in a group from Haiti, and after discussing with raptor we decided to put them here, also, as proof positive why looting is a really bad idea.

First, here's a guy about to get his head smashed in with a chunk of concrete, fighting over a rubber ball. That's right - death or serious injury over a ball.
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f346/ ... 752781.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And here you have a looter, shot in the face by someone (caption says police, but who knows). Pretty graphic photo, brain mixed in to his hair etc. So, what do the other looters do? They loot the dead guy's body. Don't be that guy.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f346/ ... 754857.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Looting is a really, really stupid thing to do, even if a place is lawless. Someone will still smash your head in, and the rest will steal your shit before your body is even cold.

Get your preps done now, while you have time and while it is legal. Food is cheap. Life is not.

[raptor]

This is another example of why you should not plan on scrounging, scavenging or finding supplies.

I am posting this incident not to pass judgment on anyone involved herein but simply to illustrate that in a disaster it is dangerous to be walking around or going to the store.

You should plan to stay bugged in if you stay for a disaster.

Glover's fiancee, Rolanda Short, said last fall that Glover had gone out that morning to scavenge for supplies. After Katrina, with no stores open, he had been in charge of getting food, water and charcoal for the couple's extended family, several of whom lived near their apartment on Garden Oaks Drive, she said.


This was the day after Katrina and they were already out of food. Shows poor planning.


On Friday, Sept. 2, 2005 -- four days into the flood -- Warren and his patrol partner encountered two men behind a Chuck E. Cheese's restaurant near the intersection of Seine Drive and Texas Drive, Albe said.

Glover was at that location that afternoon with a friend when he was shot, according to family members.

Warren, in uniform, saw two men ge out of a truck and "charge" toward a business, Albe said. Warren believed they were going to loot the business.

"He yelled stop, halt, whatever," Albe said. "They didn't."

Warren, an expert marksman, pulled the trigger on his rifle. A shot rang out.


Link to TP Article


The rest of the article deals with the fact that shooting simply went unreported and the good Samaritans who tried to help him were detained by the NOPD because the NOPD assumed they were all looters.

Now 4 years later it is being investigated. In a true SHTF situation it is likely that all would have been liquidated.

Link to Similar TP Articles

[Finch]

thank you for opening this back up. This is arguably the most important thread here.

[raptor]

This is a free bump for this thread. It has been locked for a while and it was locked due to the fact that at 50 pages it was just getting too long to impose the restriction of having to read the whole thread before posting.

The thread has some truly extraordinary discussions that proves the inherent logic of the title.

I ask anyone who posts here to at least attempt to read the majority of the thread before doing so.

[absinthe beginner]

That would be like Katrina "refugees" bugging out to the Superdoom. No thanks! I want to be as far from the looters and the desperate - in both proximity and preparations - as I can be at that point in the SHTF.

[raptor]

Another free bump on one of the classic ZS threads.

[Sworbeyegib]

Oh the memories. This was one of the very first threads I ever read on ZS. Still great advice!

[Diecorpse]

Here's what I think. Planning is key. If you sense something is going wrong like an economic collapse or hurricane coming to your area, either you start stock piling essentials immediately or hopefully its something you've been doing for a while. I would stay inside, black out my windows, wait for they initial panic to burn out. Then when things are quiet, thats when you start planning on finding an area to move thats more isolated and has resources you can use, like a healthy population of game animals or fertile grounds you can grow a garden. But this also depends on where you live. If you live out in the country then you should be fine, though at some point you might get some visitors and they might be passing through or they might have hostile intentions. In no way is it a good idea to loot, steal, or rob others for your personal gain, but we know there will be a few who will. But if it turns out that the country went through a pandemic like the black plague, three quarters of the population is dead, no military, no rules, then this becomes purely survival. At this point, when or if you have a large group, thats when you start building a community and the slow rebuilding process begins. Its one thing to go around and collect precious resources when rebuilding a community and rendering services to those in need, but its morally wrong to take from others. I say let them join and combine resources if things permit. Taking over any kind of public facility especially right in the beginning is a death sentence. Its one thing for a large group who finds an abandoned town or a town where no human life is present and rebuilds, reestablishing a community and welcoming of others who aren't hostile or just wanting to raid your stuff. Anyway, even if something like this occurs, highly, highly doubt we're going to have a Walking dead scenario here. It won't be long before a leader steps forward and starts rebuilding and re-introducing law and order. We went through that before and we know our past. Somethings worked out great and we had many battles with many lives lost before a new country was formed. But anything can happen, what matters most is what kind of person will you be? Will your morals change? How prejudice would you be? Many things to think about.

[apocalypsepal]

These are the first places to AVOID.
My guess is that, in the event of an apocalypse, a gang of marauders will take them over. Checkmate.

[Kilo147]

Oh, I'd definitely consider bugging out to a Wally World. The one near me has an upper floor that's all offices, with windows overlooking the store. I'd have to be the first one in, with friends setting up all my proper gear elsewhere, but watching the absolute chaos? Hell. Yes.

[Stercutus]

Oh, I'd definitely consider bugging out to a Wally World. The one near me has an upper floor that's all offices, with windows overlooking the store. I'd have to be the first one in, with friends setting up all my proper gear elsewhere, but watching the absolute chaos? Hell. Yes.

Ah, lucky for you not one other of the thousands of customers that do all their shopping there and visit the store every day has thought about this. Or larcenous thoughts aside did you not read the thread?

[majorhavoc]

Give the man credit: he's sacrificing survival for a front row seat to the greatest show on the earth; not a bad trade off. I mean, have you seen YT videos of Wally Worlds on Black Friday? Imagine what it would look like at the end of days. Sure, it would be short-lived. But it would be glorious.

Humans are odd. And call me unbelievably naive, but I think a thing isn't beautiful because it lasts. It would be a privilege to be among them.

[Stercutus]

True, dying in a fire is painful but if it is for the sake of your muse....

[Guiltyofbeingtight]

Maybe this has been mentioned but I only managed to read about 15 of the 50 or so pages in this thread . But the weakest thing about the superstore plan, especially a Wal-Mart one, that I always thought was that they don't really have *that* much food. Sure for a small family or group it would do for a while. But for a group large enough to be able to secure it? Of all the Wal-Marts I've ever been to it was pretty apparent that *maybe* about 1/4 of the store is groceries. And about 1/4 or more of that is perishable IE meat, dairy, frozen foods, fresh produce, bakery items. So you're left with about 6 or 7 aisles worth of food that'll last your group. And let's face it... at least an aisle or two of that are condiments and beverages. Now subtract what was bought/taken in the first few days of this SHTF event. - which was surely most of the best stuff like canned goods, beans, grains & cereals, forumla etc. What you're left with is not worth the effort it would take. There may be some stock in the back, but it's likely they were trying to push all of that out to the shelves up to the last minute. And that would also be the stuff that was easiest/smartest for employees to take on their, "Screw this, time to look out for my own." moments.

But hey, your little army has a whole lot of arts & crafts supplies and maternity clothing to last you a looong time.

Just seems smarter and easier to stock up on worthwhile things a little at a time starting as soon as possible. Every time you head to the grocery store set aside $5 or $10 towards food and supplies for your stockpile. At least you'll know it won't all be 9 kinds of mustard and a lot of cat food.

[Barnabus]

Maybe this has been mentioned but I only managed to read about 15 of the 50 or so pages in this thread . But the weakest thing about the superstore plan, especially a Wal-Mart one, that I always thought was that they don't really have *that* much food. Sure for a small family or group it would do for a while. ......

do you not have SuperWalMarts? They have tons of food on the shelves.

[raptor]

This is one of the ZS epic threads. It is filled with lots of wisdom as well as its share of fail.

It is almost worth downloading into PDF form.

[ZombieGranny]

I have a copy on my computer up to page 49.
Never want to lose it.

[Akin]

This is one of the ZS epic threads. It is filled with lots of wisdom as well as its share of fail.

It is almost worth downloading into PDF form.

Is there a way to download threads as PDFs?

[Polar_Bear]

This is one of the ZS epic threads. It is filled with lots of wisdom as well as its share of fail.

It is almost worth downloading into PDF form.

Is there a way to download threads as PDFs?

Open it in Chrome.
Print each page but instead of using your printer change the option to 'print to pdf'

[teotwaki]

Offering up the WalMart scenario in a conversation might be a sly way to see which of your neighbors is unprepared for a disaster. In my neighborhood there is a good correlation between preparedness, American flag on display, firearms ownership and dog ownership.

[raptor]

This is one of the ZS epic threads. It is filled with lots of wisdom as well as its share of fail.

It is almost worth downloading into PDF form.

Is there a way to download threads as PDFs?

Open it in Chrome.
Print each page but instead of using your printer change the option to 'print to pdf'

That is the only way I know how to do it, then use Adobe pro to merge the many pages into 1 very large document.

I posted the question on the mod forum for a better answer but so far I have nothing better.

[Akin]

This is one of the ZS epic threads. It is filled with lots of wisdom as well as its share of fail.

It is almost worth downloading into PDF form.

Is there a way to download threads as PDFs?

Open it in Chrome.
Print each page but instead of using your printer change the option to 'print to pdf'

That is the only way I know how to do it, then use Adobe pro to merge the many pages into 1 very large document.

I posted the question on the mod forum for a better answer but so far I have nothing better.

Ah.

You can print page by page from any browser, but then trying to get fifty pdfs merged is an issue if you don't have software that does that sort of thing. If you had the patience to print each page in the first place.

Other forums I'm on have had the option to "print thread", so I was wondering if there was a way to,do it here, too. Wonder if it's so ething that could be turned on or i stalled with whatever forum software is being used...

[EBuff75]

I printed each page to .pdf and then merged them all into a single document (link below) for those who would like a copy of this thread for themselves. Sorry that the post numbers don't show, but that option appears to be turned off right now on the boards, regardless of the board style being used. If you find any errors in the .pdf (pages out of order), please let me know and I'll try to fix it (I kept all the original pages). I think that they're in the proper order, but it was still a lot of piecing things together, so there could be mistakes. Apologies in advance.

Warning for the bandwidth challenged: This file is nearly 9Mb and is 458 pages long, so download responsibly!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6ktAV ... sp=sharing

Enjoy!