09:35 – It was 55.5F (13C) when I took Colin out at 0700, partly cloudy. Barbara is off to the gym and supermarket, after which it’s back to work on science kits.
I keep seeing articles like this one about the decline in prepping. FTA:
I’ve recently noticed several survival/prepper blogs that have stopped publishing probably because of the lack of interest in prepping after Trump was elected. I think that over the next several months we’ll see many others stop posting new content. I’ve also noticed the same with prepper related YouTube channels.
I’ve talked with a couple of my former advertisers and they have noticed a huge drop in sales over the past few months. And they both told me that survival blogs were not sending any traffic or sales and that it’s not just this site but all survival blogs that they advertised on.
I’ve noticed no such decline. I suspect that Creekmore and others that are trying to make a living from preppers are encountering two problems:
1. After the 837th me-too article on building a bugout bag or choosing a retreat location, how much more can anyone say?
2. Most prepping supplies aren’t purchased via on-line ads or from specialty prepping vendors. They’re purchased from Costco, Sam’s Club, Walmart, Amazon, Home Depot, and other mainstream vendors. By now, most preppers and would-be preppers have caught on to the fact that they don’t need the overpriced items that prepping websites are pushing. And most preppers who are going to buy big-ticket specialty prepping items have already done so. Those who haven’t but intend to do so will, like nearly all consumers nowadays, price-shop the hell out of it. Rather than buy from boutique prepping vendors/ads, they’ll buy their products from mainstream vendors.
The last time I bought a prepping item from a boutique prepping vendor was … never. And I suspect that most preppers shop the same way. For example, when I exchanged email a week or so ago with my contact at Keystone Meats, I asked her how business was. She said that they were shipping product as fast as they could make it. I suspect the same is true of Augason Farms and other companies that produce products of interest to preppers.
Email from Kathy. She and Mike, following the example of Jen, Brittany, and the other Prepper Girls, have decided to run a readiness exercise over the long Labor Day weekend. They’ve hooked up with another local couple about the same age as they are and who also have two teenagers. This couple shares their interest in prepping and are similarly well-prepared. They decided to do a grid-down simulation over the holiday at Kathy’s and Mike’s place, starting Friday evening and running through Monday evening, just to work out the kinks.