Rising inflation, a higher cost of living, and tightening economic conditions have made many people understandably wonder if a major economic recession (or even a depression) is on the horizon.
The Covid pandemic offered a glimpse into what could happen in the event of a severe economic downturn. When the lockdowns first occurred, people who had previously considered the idea of prepping to be only sheer lunacy were suddenly woken up by the harsh reality that our world is not as stable as it appears.
These were the same people who flooded to the stores to buy up as much food and household supplies as they could get their hands on. The shelves were stripped bare of basic items like soap, toilet paper, and basic foods in no time.
Thankfully, the economy has been able to rebound since then, though most people would probably agree that it’s not nearly as strong as it was prior to the lockdowns. Prices of basic goods have risen in earnest since the pandemic and the value of the dollar has dropped.
These factors have continued to make people anxious about another economic downturn that could be even more detrimental than what we saw from the lockdowns during the pandemic, which is why many are stockpiling the essential items that they believe will disappear again.
But which items specifically are likely to fly off the shelves the next time? While it’s impossible to predict the future, a good indicator perhaps is to look at what happened during the Great Depression in the late 1920s and 30s. When the Great Depression hit, hoards of people likewise flooded the stores and markets and stripped the shelves clean.
Here are ten items that vanished off the shelves when the Great Depression hit:
Staple Foods
This includes foods that are usually affordable and can be incorporated into a wide variety of meals. Examples include wheat, flour, beans, rice, sugar, and spices.
Each of these foods was in extremely high demand during the Great Depression and was subject to rationing by the government as the depression continued.
That is why many people resorted to eating this superweed, which saved large communities during the Great Depression. And soon enough, we might be doing the same thing.
Modern day survivalists such as yourself would be wise to recognize that these kinds of staple foods are very versatile in regards to the dishes they can be used in, and will be targeted by people again when the next economic downturn sweeps in.
Canned Foods
Canned foods (such as canned meats, beans, and vegetables) are crucial for one very simple reason: they retain their edible quality and nutritional value while having a very long shelf life.
So long as they are kept in the right storage conditions, certain kinds of canned foods can last for five years or even longer. What’s more, is that most canned foods remain incredibly inexpensive.
During the Great Depression, people recognized the value in stockpiling canned foods just like they do today.
When people flooded the supermarkets and grocery stores in the early weeks of the Great Depression, canned foods were among the first items to go…and they will be among the first items to go again.
Dairy Products
The Great Depression inflicted a severe blow to the dairy industry, and production and distribution from dairy farmers dwindled rapidly. Milk, butter, and cheeses were in very short supply.
Related: Stop Throwing Away Spoiled Milk! Do This Instead
Meat
The cost of beef, chicken, and pork rose significantly during the Great Depression, turning a basic hamburger or steak into a rare luxury for families.
Many people were forced to hunt (sometimes even off-season) just to put meat on the table because they couldn’t afford roasts or steaks out of the store.
Comfort Foods and Beverages
Comfort foods such as coffee, tea, chocolate/cocoa, ice cream, and warm soups experienced severe shortage during the Great Depression.
While not essential for survival, these kinds of comfort foods are certainly beneficial to help with morale during trying times.
Clothing
A basic shirt or pair of overalls became a very luxurious item during the Great Depression.
People were forced into sewing their own clothes out of what rags and pieces of cloth they had on hand, and some people were even forced to live and work without shoes.
Buying spare shirts, pants, jackets, socks, and shoes for each member in your family would be wise.
Personal Hygiene Products
Basic hygiene products such as toothpaste, soap, and shampoo also became scarce luxuries when the Great Depression hit.
Modern day survivalists should anticipate a future shortage of personal hygiene items, much like how we saw during the pandemic.
Vegetable Seeds
During the Great Depression, many families managed to stay alive by planting seeds and growing their own food. But even new seeds became scarce eventually as well.
Even if you don’t grow your own crops now, you may in the future when times get tougher. Research which types of crops grow well in your area and buy the appropriate seeds accordingly.
Medicinal Plant Seeds
Fuels
The Great Depression was just as much an energy crisis as it was an economic one.
Gasoline, kerosene, and propane all became in very short supply during the Great Depression, denying them the ability to travel around in vehicles or even to heat their own homes. Start stockpiling fuels you’ll need to power your vehicles and sources of heat now while you still can.
Medications
Basic medical care and medications were denied to people who could not afford them during the Great Depression as well. Be sure to stock up on any prescription medicines you are reliant on, any off-the-shelf medical items and especially antibiotics. Since antibiotics are typically not available over the counter, here is an ingenious way to stockpile antibiotics without a prescription while you still can.
The Great Depression showed us that when economic conditions become dire enough, people may be forced to turn to themselves or each other for medical treatment. But without proper medications or medical items, even treating yourself properly can become difficult (if not impossible).
There’s an old saying that history repeats itself. Even though the Great Depression occurred nearly a hundred years ago, the behavior of people has not changed. That’s why when the next depression hits, people will act exactly as they did during the Great Depression in stripping the shelves bare of the above items, which will force the government to implement rationing in response to it.
Get ready and start stockpiling now while you still can.
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I have heard the same thing about clothing during the great depression & in WW2. In Germany, clothing was in very short supply & was the most sought after commodity except food etc. Clothing was easily tradable for other things needed. If I was going to stockpile something, clothing would be it.
In Germany, The Weimar Republic it took a wheelbarrow full of paper money or in Bitcoin mined by banks of computers sucking up tons of electricity. Bitcoins are only worth the value in investors who think this is the greatest thing like sliced bread was. Bitcoin and other computer mined currency is A Ponzi scheme at best, not backed by tangibles like gold, silver, coal and oil that has value.
Ain’t it funny how we are reliving history as many indoctrinated public have no clue about history, we are repeating it currently.
That’s why smart wealthy elite always follow the trends and preppers do their best too.
Finishing the Weimar Republic story, it took a wheelbarrow to buy one loaf of bread in that currency.
Kind of like what is happening in Bidenomics, we need MAGANOMICS, seal the southern border and drill for oil to energize our American economy. Deport all illegal, make them come through the legal ports of the USA to go through the legal laws we have. Not give amnesty and American benefits to those who broke our laws.
California and New York are not the blueprints for a better America. California smog, air quality restrictions are not the law of the land yet, Sacramento just increase the gas tax by 2 cents the highest gas prices in the 48 continuous states of consumer fraud by state government.
Sounds as though someone missed the Bitcoin bus and got on the short one, instead. LOL
Also, you may wanna learn what a “Ponzi Scheme” is. 😉
“Riddle me this, Batman”,,,, During the Depression AND both world wars, just how much of what we use/used was made outside the borders of our country?
How many products do we use NOW are imported, and from where? Perhaps countries that JUST MIGHT NOT have OUR interests as their primary concern?
If we want to stand a better chance of dealing with events that we personally have little control over, it’s incumbent on us to try to get our gov’t to bring back manufacturing of needed items to our own lands.
Far more than bullets and beans, we need medicines, foods, soaps and clothing, as well as just about EVERYTHING, to be manufactured here, including as much as possible the “ingredients” for them.
Me, I’m gonna plant lithium trees in MY garden! (pardon my sarcasm, please)
It is all about greed, currently it will be hard to get 100% manufacturing back here as many low information indoctrinated workers want to unionize.
Which makes a living wage a curse as everything else goes up in price to compensate, it’s basic economics to balance. A federal balanced budget will not happen until the DC Swamp is drained.
Right now foriegn made products are cheaper to buy than made in the USA currently. The workers demand a living BS wage.
Entry level wages were never a living wage, these were a stepping stone job to get basic work skills to move on to higher paid skilled positions. Or go to a trade school to develop skills needed to move on.
Living wages are a myth started by low wage people either low wage union types, that are a lot of illegals demanding better pay who are illegally here.
So the average and fixed income Americans are being priced out of good made USA products who favor imported made products because they are affordable . Also made with subpar materials an reflected at times in price.
We need a flat tax and remove the IRS created by congress who are many times exempt for the rules they make.
So American manufactures need to make their basic product affordable to compete. There’s no law they can’t make their upgraded products a little pricey for those who can afford the next level of quality of the same product.
The manufacture industry was driven overseas partly because of slave labor and low wages.
We pay politicians, bureaucrats, even sports athletes millions of dollars by taxpayers and event tickets for their salaries.
Now we got illegals getting a free ride from taxpayers, free everything, loans to buy a home, free school, free food, allowed to vote in national elections. They are your replacements in America, is this what you voted for as a Demoncrate in the last election?
What will we do to take back our America before the final swish around the drain of doom?
God bless legal Americans!
What will we barter in if the Demoncrats win in November 2024 election?
We are in another great depression, it’s called Bidenomics.
Are you confident keeping Bitcoin as an alternative to the petro dollar, both are fiat based currency until the dollar is backed by gold.
For those miscreants that voted for Let’s Go Brandon, who did you really vote for? Who is really running this country and our nation is really vulnerable during this 6 months for our adversaries to do damage.
Think the author is confusing WW2 rationing with the Depression era problem of 25% of the population just not having the money to buy food. There was no shortage of consumer and luxury goods, just a shortage of money for the 25% of people who were out of work. My Mom’s dad was a small town dentist, my Dad’s dad was a station master for the Southern Pacific railroad, they skated through the Depression. As Shaya says, the big problem today is the international nature of the supply chain. Thinking it doesn’t take a Great Depression to cause shortages today, just panic over anything.
Well Ivy Mile, it’s like Pres. Regan said. A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours. I am not taking you to task. Simply commenting on your observation. My parents were born in 1931, 1932. They remember the later depression and the victory gardens and scrounging for gum wrappers and cans to put on the truck every month. That 25% did not include farmers and ranchers who “gave” half their gardens and stock to the government for the Boys overseas. I disagree with people skating through that era except the very wealthy. As a boy born in 1961 most of my neighbors were WWII or Korea veterans. I listened to my grandparents talk about those days and what they did. One grandfather had a job the whole time yet lives mostly on potatoes because the stores were bare, He had workers money but not a lot of things to buy with it. My mom had two dresses made from bluebonnet flour sacks of burlap. They had a big flower on them. They survived but were for their lives, altered in thought and what they did or did not do with gardens, livestock and money. I don’t think anyone skated in that time period. The lesson I learned from them is, have your soul prepared.
You brought back great memories of listening to my grandfather tell me stories of going down to the railyard and catching chickens that escaped from the train car as they were being transferred to the trucks. If he was lucky he’d catch one and take it home and butcher it and Grandma would make a pot of soup and they would share it with the neighbors. He also told me how some people would put ketchup in hot water and pretend it was tomato soup. They learned to make do with whatever they had. He also told me how restaurants would get mad at people who’d order a cup of hot water and bring their own tea bag. I miss how entertaining he could make those stories!
My daddy’s family farmed, & they didn’t see very bad times either, as they pretty much lived off the land. Most of us are so far from that, now. Would be hard to be without the modern conveniences like hot running water, running water period, A/C, heat, refrigerators, ovens, etc.
I agree with Ivy Mike, in the 1930s, things were on the shelves, but many people didn’t have the money to buy those things, so you made do with what you had. Soon after WWII broke out, the rationing started. For some people, it wasn’t all that different as they didn’t have the money earlier to buy the items in the shelf, now they were capped at what they could get regardless of income.
My grandparents (both sides) raised their large families on their farms during the Great Depression. There was plenty of food, just no money for anyone to purchase that food. My parents never went hungry because they grew their own. It’s a lesson that we can use today. Do what it takes to find a place to grow your food and find ways to ensure your family has what it needs.
We can all learn lessons from our Amish neighbors who never seem to be unable to find work or support their families.
DDDDiana and Cygnet. I really abbreviated my comments. I listened for hours at times about the 30’s and 40’s. There are many memories and lessons if people would listen. There are far too many who live in their own reality and it’s not real. Ayn Rynd said you can ignore reality but you cannot ignore the consequences of reality. Very true.
one thing is forsure
train up a child in the way he or she should go and when they grow up , old , they will not depart
This Generation is Decieved and Believe s and trust the Gov. and the liars of the TV and Jolywood
There is a way that seems right in the eyes of every man, woman , person and that way of themselves leads to eternal Death ( anti God, Anti Christ )
When mankind choosed perversion, evil , pleasure s of selfism , this will be thier destruction
because God who is Holy is Just , forgiving , and patient
he waits until the very last moment , then after pride, arrogance , selfishness , self centerness has consumed thier every moment , they forget God , Leave God out , Serve other Fake, False, deception gods , Idols , God Removes his hand of protection and this is why so much evil , NO God , NO Peace, No Safety, No weath , Good goes away , stolen , taken , and self Take over , Day by Day selfishness
God has given Ten Commandments, the bible , The many resources to find his Truth
Maybe we need another depression to cull the herd? Tough love? Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger…whatever you want to call it. Maybe it’s what we need to survive?
JR,
Cull the herd? Isn’t that what Bill Gates, Klaus Schwab and George Soros have in mind for us?
I don’t personally recall Americans being urged to eat bugs back then, (tho I understand it’s accepted practice in some locales) as suggested by Gates, even if in some cases small animals were actually trapped for food.
Plenty MORE of us are going to perish if “it hits the fan” regardless of things vanishing, merely as a result of too many people chasing too few resources, some of whom are willing to resort to actions seen in some “blue” areas of the country NOW, when things are relatively good comparably speaking. Some are stealing and looting and robbing while the country still has half decent capabilities of producing/procuring goods. That isn’t a matter of a depression, it’s a matter of attitude, and it’s gotten substantially worse these last few years.
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Someone else mentioned the additional problem of individuals entering our borders without vetting. (thank you Sally Robertson) This is more problematic than some understand or believe, and some even encourage it. Which further adds to the gov’t. spending more than it ought to be here, GIFTING it to these people with questionable motives, let alone what money gets sent overseas (transgender studies in Iraq? ARE YOU KIDDING???) to places that have no business consuming more of our finances, which is a MAJOR resource we are wasting.
I don’t need to say where the responsibility for all that we are seeing lies, not in this posting. Aware people know that elections are having worse results than typically, especially in this last decade.
“Four more years” is a phrase both political parties are using. If you consider the LAST four, and the four BEFORE those, you can figure which party is likely to give us a good NEXT four.
Me, I want our country more SECURE, NOT more CROWDED.
Well I read all of these and quite frankly, I’m really tired of our politicians and people trashing each other. As for the presidency, in my opinion, we haven’t had a decent candidate since Ike. Maybe Kennedy.
But then I shouldn’t be talking about politics since I have basically abandoned any hope for America. I think we are on a slippery slope and it’s the people of America that have put us there. There is way too much selfish, self-centered, egotisticalness in the U.S. today. I think the people deserve what ever government they ask for.
Like “BEAR”, I HAVE INVESTED THE TIME TO READ ALL OF THIS … many points that i agree with, MANY that read like Red-neck, christian separatist ‘RAH-RAH’ propaganda … Lies, got this place started … Lies, have maintained it … Lies, will witness the end of this opera … those who know, KNOW, the “jig-is-up”, the “cruise ship” is turning, SOME, will NOT be able to hold on, the pity is that SOME really Good/Cool folks, will be in that number, and what Must be, Will be … Love to Ade Loye!!! … NEW Script, is on the table …