What I concluded was that, at first, you need to stay holed up until the “heard is thinned” and the gangs of roaming looters have been killed off or starve.
This is assuming you’re in a semi-rural area, etc.
You need provisions for that time, then after things settle down a bit and it’s not so dangerous, that’s when you start to trade and barter.
I would agree with that. It shouldn't take all that long for the dependent class to kill each other off or be killed by those who are prepared to defend themselves. At some point, when the gang bangers see their homies dropping like flies all around them, they will stop thinking like a group and start thinking like individuals and about individual self preservation. Basic human psychology.....