# Has stockpiling daily essentials suddenly become a smart move? Are you going to do it? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 29, 2020, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-stockpiling-daily-essentials-suddenly-become-a-smart-move-are-you-going-to-do-it/850597 "2020-03-29T17:34:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2020, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-stockpiling-daily-essentials-suddenly-become-a-smart-move-are-you-going-to-do-it/850597/21 "2020-03-30T13:45:22Z")
> [@Anny\_Middon](#): > > Sugar and white rice have long shelf lives, but flour and oil can go rancid. If you store the flour in the freezer, you’ll add significantly to its life, but I don’t think there’s anything you can do to oil to make it last years. Thank you for that. I looked into it a bit, and companies sell powdered butter or powdered margarine that has a shelf life of supposedly 10 years. But price wise it is much more expensive than vegetable oil. At walmart a gallon jug of vegetable oil is only about $5 and has 30,000 calories. Powdered butter and margarine are all sold out so getting a calorie per dollar info isn’t easy, but its far less. My goal is to get the most calories for the least money with foods with the longest shelf life. It would probably be more cost effective to buy a gallon of vegetable oil, then donate the old one to the food pantry every 18 months and replace it with a fresh unopened bottle. Supposedly crisco can last 5-10 years, but I’m getting contradictory info on it as some say it only lasts 2 years. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2020, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-stockpiling-daily-essentials-suddenly-become-a-smart-move-are-you-going-to-do-it/850597/22 "2020-03-30T14:11:07Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Thank you for that. > It would probably be more cost effective to buy a gallon of vegetable oil, then donate the old one to the food pantry every 18 months and replace it with a fresh unopened bottle. Or just rotate your stock - keep 2 gallons on hand, and buy an additional one every time you use one up. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2020, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-stockpiling-daily-essentials-suddenly-become-a-smart-move-are-you-going-to-do-it/850597/23 "2020-03-30T14:28:35Z")
I generally have about 3 weeks worth of food on hand; I did grab one or two extra things over the last few weeks, for economy purposes; not only is it cheaper to buy in bulk, the less often I got to the shops, the less nonsense I buy. Where I live is also surprisingly vulnerable to supply disruption as well, both of the last two years we had a minor snowfall (unusual in these parts- and one of them wasn’t forecast) which meant the main road was blocked for a day, and it was almost two weeks before the supermarkets were fully stocked again. Sure, there wasn’t _nothing_ in the shops, but it’s still very nice to not have to either scrape together whatever’s there into meals, or add to the problem of insufficient stocks. My grandparents, who lived through WWII rationing, used to keep a wardrobe full of canned stuff, carefully rotated, just in case. Not so much in case there was no food left, but as a supplement to shortages. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2020, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-stockpiling-daily-essentials-suddenly-become-a-smart-move-are-you-going-to-do-it/850597/24 "2020-03-30T15:19:09Z")
I’m lazy and don’t like to go to the grocery store but once every 2 or 3 weeks, and have enough room to store stuff so I buy extra when stuff is on sale. I had just gone shopping before all of this got weird so I was pretty prepared already. With a one-person household it’s not too hard to be stocked up. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2020, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-stockpiling-daily-essentials-suddenly-become-a-smart-move-are-you-going-to-do-it/850597/25 "2020-03-30T15:36:27Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Supposedly crisco can last 5-10 years, but I’m getting contradictory info on it as some say it only lasts 2 years. As long as you’re actually using the things that you have stockpiled and rotating stock, that’s fine. Six month or a year worth of food won’t go bad in two years because it will get eaten. If the supply chain is disrupted long enough that a year or two later you can’t get food, well. You have bigger problems at that point. Also a brief search suggests that rancid oils don’t taste good, but that you can still eat them with negligible bad health effects. Which is better than starving! ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2020, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-stockpiling-daily-essentials-suddenly-become-a-smart-move-are-you-going-to-do-it/850597/26 "2020-03-30T16:23:03Z")
We’ve been incrementally increasing our reserve from about a week to about 2 months (of many types of items but not all). Reasons: 1 - If 70% of the country is going to get it before it kind of dies out, it seems like there is a good chance the supply chain will be impacted to some degree. I don’t think there is any way to stop it short of a sudden vaccine, so it seems like most likely we are heading towards a period of significant impact within the next few months. 2 - Wife is immuno-compromised so trying to minimize trips to the store when many people have it, vs now when relatively few have it. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2020, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-stockpiling-daily-essentials-suddenly-become-a-smart-move-are-you-going-to-do-it/850597/27 "2020-03-30T18:00:29Z")
We always bought our TP, paper towels, and tissues at Costco, getting a new package when the old one got to about the halfway point. Towels we opened the new package last week and tissues we have a couple more boxes to go before hitting the reserve. TP I hadn’t checked until the (figurative) shit hit the fan so I discovered we were down to six rolls. I’m [del]figuring[/del] hoping supplies will be back to normal by the time those run out. Food-wise I’m a minor league prepper. I have in the closet four cases of MREs (48 meals at 1,800 to 2,000 calories a meal). That a low ebb. I usually have six cases but as they hit the five-year mark I munch through the oldest for a year and replace it. I’d been doing that last year and was contemplating the replacement in early January but put it off. Needless to say, my usual supplier has been pretty well picked clean. However on top of that, I have cans and cases of long term – 10 to 20 year storage – stuff also bought at Costco. Being in Mormon country it’s a staple with them. So long as I have heat and water, I figure about three months worth of sedentary rations (say, 1,500 calories a day) even after the freezer and MREs run out because the supply chain broke down entirely. ---
**Author:** ![peedin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peedin/32/14095_2.png) [@peedin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peedin)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2020, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-stockpiling-daily-essentials-suddenly-become-a-smart-move-are-you-going-to-do-it/850597/28 "2020-03-30T19:17:25Z")
Why in God’s name would you need a gallon of vegetable oil? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2020, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-stockpiling-daily-essentials-suddenly-become-a-smart-move-are-you-going-to-do-it/850597/29 "2020-03-30T19:40:21Z")
> [@peedin](#): > > Why in God’s name would you need a gallon of vegetable oil? Cheaper in the long run. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2020, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-stockpiling-daily-essentials-suddenly-become-a-smart-move-are-you-going-to-do-it/850597/30 "2020-03-30T20:04:40Z")
In earthquake country you always have a supply of water and non-perishables just in case. Other than that, we stock up when the price is lower. There happened to be tp sales just before this hit so we’re okay. We have lots of coffee also. And since we get things like tissues and paper towels at Costco, we stock up on those naturally. But we never buy just to hoard. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2020, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-stockpiling-daily-essentials-suddenly-become-a-smart-move-are-you-going-to-do-it/850597/31 "2020-03-30T20:08:24Z")
We’ve always kept a well-stocked pantry and chest freezer. (An elderly relative gave us our first chest freezer ~25 years ago when she was downsizing; I have no idea anymore how we ever managed without one.) So we’ve always had maybe 6-8 weeks of food in the house, though the last two weeks might involve some interesting combinations, or just a lot of whatever was left over. During the current crisis, I’ve ramped that up to maybe 10-12 weeks’ supply (including TP), but having done so, my grocery runs from here on out should be 10-14 days apart, rather than the usual 2-3 days between trips. So that should minimize the risk of exposure going forward. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2020, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-stockpiling-daily-essentials-suddenly-become-a-smart-move-are-you-going-to-do-it/850597/32 "2020-03-30T20:12:46Z")
> [@Heracles](#): > > We’re not stockpiling but we have increased the size of our rolling stock of food, just in case the supermarket runs out of something. So 2 boxes of cereal instead of 1, extra cans of barbecue sauce, etc. The supermarket has been out of eggs for 2 weeks \*, but we won’t buy 3 dozen when we find some. We intend to go back to normal when this crisis is over. > > ETA: I mean there are no eggs when we go, typically on Sunday afternoons. It may be just the restocking employees who don’t work with customers present like they used to. They do have them during the week, we’re told. This is pretty much what we’ve been doing. Trying to maintain a 6 month supply sound like it could get real expensive really fast. Over the last few weeks, I’ve filled up our pantry and our very small extra freezer and even that was expensive. We could probably go for a month on what we have, but it would be two weeks of good food and two weeks of pop tarts, mac and cheese and ramen. If there’s the kind of crisis where I need 6 months of stored food, I would be concerned about defending my supply. Although it isn’t really applicable in this situation, the other item I used to save was large half gallon juice and iced tea bottles. Dozens of them. Whenever there was the kind of crisis where an issue with drinkable water was anticipated, like before a storm, I’d fill them all up from the tap.I never needed them and I’d always empty them a few days later. It beats filling the bathtub. It costs nothing and it’s ridiculously easy. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2020, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-stockpiling-daily-essentials-suddenly-become-a-smart-move-are-you-going-to-do-it/850597/33 "2020-03-30T21:02:16Z")
> [@peedin](#): > > Why in God’s name would you need a gallon of vegetable oil? In an emergency situation a 50 pound bag of rice and a gallon of vegetable oil provides a ton of cheap calories. If you are locked inside for 2-4 weeks it means the difference between hunger and not being hungry. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2020, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-stockpiling-daily-essentials-suddenly-become-a-smart-move-are-you-going-to-do-it/850597/34 "2020-03-31T00:25:05Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > In an emergency situation a 50 pound bag of rice and a gallon of vegetable oil provides a ton of cheap calories. If you are locked inside for 2-4 weeks it means the difference between hunger and not being hungry. Well, only if you can cook it. We have always had earthquake rations, and there was no reason for us to stockpile. And, unless you are one of those shop daily guys, no reason for anyone to “stockpile”. sure, cut down on store trips, but that just means a weeks worth. Not to mention America has more food than it can use, we wont have a food shortage. And there’s no reason to hoard TP, that was just idiots. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2020, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-stockpiling-daily-essentials-suddenly-become-a-smart-move-are-you-going-to-do-it/850597/35 "2020-03-31T00:27:08Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Cheaper in the long run. Not when it goes rancid. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2020, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-stockpiling-daily-essentials-suddenly-become-a-smart-move-are-you-going-to-do-it/850597/36 "2020-03-31T01:07:07Z")
There’s a sense of comfort and reassurance in knowing that you have enough potting soil, soil amendments and fertilizer on hand to get through the growing season. Still awaiting my final seed order though. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2020, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-stockpiling-daily-essentials-suddenly-become-a-smart-move-are-you-going-to-do-it/850597/37 "2020-03-31T01:18:21Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Not when it goes rancid. [From here](https://www.wikihow.com/Store-Cooking-Oil). > [@](#): > > Be familiar with which types of oils can be stored at room temperature. The following types of oils can be kept at room temperature:[3] > > ``` > Ghee oil can last for several months. > Palm oil can last for several months. > Peanut oil (refined) will last for two years. > Vegetable oil can last for a year or longer as long as it is tightly covered. > Olive oil may be kept in the cupboard (at temperatures between 57°F and 70ºF (14°C and 21ºC) for up to 15 months. > > ``` ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2020, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-stockpiling-daily-essentials-suddenly-become-a-smart-move-are-you-going-to-do-it/850597/38 "2020-03-31T02:53:29Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > We buy ‘economy size’ packages because they’re cheaper per unit than smaller ones. That means that toilet paper comes in 12- or 24-roll packages, and paper towels tend to come in 8-roll packages. It’s not ‘stockpiling’ so much as it is ‘saving money’. Toilet paper is hard to come by nowadays, but I’m not changing practices. I bought a 12-roll package of it last week, and I’ll buy more when we start running low. Hell, I can’t remember the last time I bought toilet paper or paper towels in smaller packages. It’s just cheaper and it means I don’t have to buy it as often. > [@Welsey Clark](#): > > In an emergency situation a 50 pound bag of rice and a gallon of vegetable oil provides a ton of cheap calories. If you are locked inside for 2-4 weeks it means the difference between hunger and not being hungry. Fifty pounds of rice in two to four WEEKS? Jesus, how much rice do you eat? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2020, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-stockpiling-daily-essentials-suddenly-become-a-smart-move-are-you-going-to-do-it/850597/39 "2020-03-31T05:14:25Z")
Smart emergency food; When Passover looms, many stores start selling Matzo bread (crackers) as a loss leader. Get two of the sealed five packs. Two large tubs of peanut butter. You dont have to cook it, and the matzo stays “good” indefinitely, it’s hardtack. And peanut butter on matzo is actually tasty. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2020, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-stockpiling-daily-essentials-suddenly-become-a-smart-move-are-you-going-to-do-it/850597/40 "2020-03-31T06:13:49Z")
I’m trying to imagine a scenario when we would realistically be “locked inside for weeks” and have to live off of only the food we have on hand, but it doesn’t seem very likely. We have about 10 days of “earthquake supplies,” but during the Northridge quake in '94 that was hardly necessary. It seems to me that the main reason people are stockpiling is because they see stores with emptying selves. But (as **Lancia** and others point out) the only reason the stores have emptying shelves is because people are stockpiling. It’s a self-fulfilling need. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-stockpiling-daily-essentials-suddenly-become-a-smart-move-are-you-going-to-do-it/850597.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-stockpiling-daily-essentials-suddenly-become-a-smart-move-are-you-going-to-do-it/850597.md?page=3)