# How long would the food in your average supermarket support one person? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 30, 2011, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-the-food-in-your-average-supermarket-support-one-person/601320 "2011-10-30T22:02:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2011, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-the-food-in-your-average-supermarket-support-one-person/601320/41 "2011-10-31T22:19:08Z")
> [@BlackKnight](#): > > If the supermarket has an outdoorsy section, you might be able to live off of freeze-dried meals for decades. > > Come to think of it, the best place to survive after the apocalypse might just be a Super Wal\*Mart across the street from a Cabela’s. Where there is also a Costco and a Home Depot. ---
**Author:** ![Moonlitherial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Moonlitherial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonlitherial)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2011, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-the-food-in-your-average-supermarket-support-one-person/601320/42 "2011-10-31T22:30:06Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > Then you gotta start getting rid of that crap. I sure hope you’re stuck in the supermaket but able to open a window so you can chuck it. Lets hope in addition to the power still working the plumbing does too or even the consumed goods will cause… issues. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2011, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-the-food-in-your-average-supermarket-support-one-person/601320/43 "2011-10-31T23:02:14Z")
The series _Life After People_ often shows real life cases of abandoned properties. One example they had was a supermarket that went bankrupt. The owners just locked the doors one morning and walked away. The power went out but the supermarket was left as is for several months before some authority finally went into the place to clear it out. The show had the film of what the place and its contents looked like after sitting around unrefridgerated for several months. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2011, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-the-food-in-your-average-supermarket-support-one-person/601320/44 "2011-10-31T23:58:28Z")
Am I the only one that thinks it sounds like a pretty good vacation? They usually have charcoal, grills, lawn furniture, beer, plus newspapers, magazines and books. I’d be good for about 3 months before I got bored with doing the crosswords in old TV Guides: “let’s see, 5 letters, Murphy \_\_\_\_\_\_.” ---
**Author:** ![littlespeedysuperbike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/53a042/32.png) [@littlespeedysuperbike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/littlespeedysuperbike)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-the-food-in-your-average-supermarket-support-one-person/601320/45 "2011-11-01T03:59:12Z")
In our city, a supermarket recently closed, with no other nearby locations in the chain to transfer goods to. It was one of six or seven, so figure it had 1/7 of a 140,000 metro area population as regular shoppers. It took 20,000 people eight weeks to clear out 95% of the inventory. 25,000 days isn’t that far off a human lifetime, so my guess is that the food, if it could be preserved, could feed 100 people for five years. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-the-food-in-your-average-supermarket-support-one-person/601320.md?page=2)