You don't want to reach for food, only to see that it is bad. I have some MRE's, but overwhelmingly prefer Mountain House and Provident Pantry.
Agree on barter. A box of cheap foreign military sidearms like the 9mm Astra or similar and compatible ammo seems to me like the thing for barter since barter is based on scarcity, utility and value per pound. I think ammo is overrated because it won’t really be consumed much unless the squirrels are on the menu.
As for food, I think its all in the calories. If your stored food doesn’t have the calories as well as being edible, its a waste. Call me a fool but I think MRE’s give you the biggest bang for the cubic inch. I have lots and eat them regularly not only to rotate the stock but because they are good. And, at 3000 calories per MRE, one could eat two a week to survive in a dormant state or one every other day on the move. 10 cases of MRE’s costs about $600 and they will last for ???? I’ve eaten five year old MRE’s and you can’t see any aging.
Finally, everyone should have an off road capable DIESEL vehicle. There will be endless supplies of diesel in dead rigs and heating oil tanks. Gasoline? None. I have diesel truck that is direct injection requiring nothing to run other than fuel oil and a couple of rotations of the motor, a nice long hose and a battery operated pump.
Oh, and I am all over the Bear Spray. Call me old fashioned, but I don’t think every troublemaker deserves a load of 00 from my shotgun. The Forest Service says the Bear Spray will discourage a bear on the run so I’ve added several cans to my self defense arsenal. I have to remember to look up whether the one in my truck console requires a CC permit????
A lot depends upon the demand.
The ammo I have was bought with an eye toward making sure that I had enough for myself and my family. I haven't bought ANY with the expectation that it would be bartered.
Part of my approach was to obtain a firearm in most of the common calibers and to have on hand an "adequate" supply of ammo in each of those calibers.
I can imagine a whole lot of us being pretty tight-fisted with our ammo during an extended emergency.
The question then becomes, how many people have not prepared? Assuming that they can get a firearm, how determined will they be to get ammo for it? How much ammo would they need to be comfortable that the gun will remain useful?
I think in a pinch I could supply my household with sufficient water using a pint of gas per week. How many cartridges should I part with to get a pint of gas?
Ammo has the properties that it is relatively compact, it has standard specifications, and a long shelf-life. It would be hard to carry a gallon of gas without being noticed. How much ammo, measured in the gallons of gas that it would buy, can a person carry?
It depends on the situation. During the LA riots, some Korean store owners were on the roofs with their rifles. They would fire at the ground near the rioters when they came too near their stores. They were trying to avoid actually hitting rioters if it could be avoided, to avoid problems later. Eventually they ran out of ammo, had to pull back, and the looters got the stores.
In a situation where you need to fire two rounds per minute to keep rioters away, you might run through a thousand rounds in one night.