In my area - suburban metro DC - the threat of a storm always brings out the ‘milk-bread-toilet paper’ crowd. In the past, I’ve stood in very long lines, when the forecast predicted a storm for the next day.
Now, my household have become small-scale suburban preppers; so we didn’t have to do anything. Even if power should go out for awhile, we’ve always got plenty of canned stuff to eat, bread and butter in the freezer, powdered milk, and lots of sterno to heat things up.
We did go out yesterday, to get wine and the Sunday paper; and it was interesting to me that the big Safeway near us was really crowded; but the little ethnic store, where our mostly Hispanic neighbors shop, wasn’t crowded at all...
I’ve noticed that a lot of new immigrants seem to have “prepping” in their mindset to start with...If you go into an ethnic store, they sell huge bulk-sizes of rice, big bags of beans, large-size cans of things; and there are always little propane stoves, or hibachis, and the fuel to run them. (I’ve even seen huge bags of teff at a very good price, which one can’t find in any chain grocery store. And if you bought it online, it would cost a whole lot more.)
We save a lot of money shopping there for certain things; the only problem is that the fresh produce often doesn’t last as long in the fridge as the stuff at the supermarket.
But you can save a lot on meat; and sometimes the fish selection in an ethnic store is extraordinary, and very fresh.
-JT
That's why I call them "Headlies".