Americans are in crisis preparation mode

As the year 2008 draws to a close, three categories of consumer merchandise are enjoying record sales volumes—firearms, precious metals, and emergency storage food. The automotive industry may be going into the toilet, but families are spending money on crisis preparedness. We believe this shows how worried and frightened the population has become.

Firearms dealers all over the USA are having a hard time keeping any inventory on hand for anxious customers. Reports are that guns and ammunition are selling at levels up to 50% higher than previous records.

The demand for gold has similarly erupted. The third quarter of 2008 showed global sales 45% higher than the quarter before, which itself set the previous high-water mark.

Survival gear and emergency food producers are shipping product as fast as they can get it through their facilities and onto the loading docks. Using packaging technologies that deliver shelf lives measured in years and even decades, producers of storage food are experiencing unprecedented demand today for their products.

Victor Rantala, owner of the crisis preparedness company Safecastle LLC, said: “Our business volume this year will triple over last year, and most of this increased activity has come in the last 3-4 months.

“By far, our best seller right now is Mountain House freeze-dried food. It stores for more than 25 years, it’s easy to prepare, and it tastes great. Outdoorsmen and adventurers consider it a preferred staple. Our customers, those who are looking at a future that looks very uncertain, see it as a way to lock in today’s prices and to ensure a level of peace of mind that is hard to otherwise put a value on.”

Said Rantala, “Anxiety and bearish outlooks abound wherever one cares to look today. There’s precious little a concerned citizen can do in reaction to global forces spinning out of control. But we all do what we can. At Safecastle, we’re particularly happy to give our customers this holiday-season opportunity to become better positioned for what looks like rough times ahead.”

One highly respected company to deal with for emergency preparedness supplies is American Family Safety. Among the products they offer are the very useful customizable emergency kKits for home and school.

They have an extensive list of supplies for specific emergencies, including earthquakes, hurricanes, blackouts and even terrorism attacks. Although we do not believe people should panic about the times of trouble that may be ahead, it is always better to be safe than to be sorry. That is why it may be a very wise idea to be invest in a Safety Kit so you can stay safe.