Fear of election chaos and civil unrest stokes stockpiling of food, guns and ammunition

At the Katadyn North America foods plant in Rocklin, where freeze-dried and canned foods are processed and packaged for sale around the West, the rush to meet demand is becoming increasingly intense.

A big reason is the most volatile election season in decades.

“It may be a combination of election craziness, the wildfires, a lot of unrest — political unrest, societal unrest,” said Shawn Hostetter, president of Katadyn North America. “I think there’s a lot of nervousness.”

Last spring, survivalists, “preppers” and millions of ordinary Americans went into a frenzy when the coronavirus pandemic struck, stockpiling food and other supplies in anticipation of quarantine and shutdown orders.

Now, executives say, business is being driven partly by fears of unrest around the contentious election fight between President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden.

Hostetter said Katdyn’s Rocklin plant is struggling to keep up as customers place orders for packaged meals with long shelf lives. “Demand is outstripping supply,” he said.

According to USA Today, recent polls show about half of all Americans are stockpiling food, or planning to stockpile, because of the election and concerns about a new wave of coronavirus infections.

Trump’s baseless warnings about fraudulent voting — and his refusal until Thursday to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses — appear to be contributing to fears of a chaotic election that could disrupt society at large.

Denis Korn, who sells mail-order food, water-filtration systems and other supplies from Nevada City, said he’s hearing from Trump voters and Biden voters alike.

Democrats are worried that if Biden wins, Trump supporters will see it as “a total fake, and they’ll rebel,” said Korn, whose company is called PrepareDirect.com. Republicans, meanwhile, are worried about protesters taking to the streets if the president is reelected.

Korn said the election-related sales aren’t as strong as the surge in business he saw in early spring — “those numbers were astronomical” — but he said the figures are impressive nevertheless. He said business this fall has been about five times higher than it was a year ago.

The stockpiling doesn’t appear to have affected mainstream supermarkets yet. Catalina, a Florida-based market research firm that tracks the grocery industry, said supermarket sales increased 11% last week compared to a year ago. But that’s nothing exceptional; Catalina spokesman Wally Petersen said grocery sales have been rising an average of 7% to 13% for the past several weeks.

‘There’s a lot of people stocking up ... over civil unrest.’

National mail-order suppliers are warning customers to prepare for delays in shipments. Legacy Food Storage, a supplier based in Salt Lake City, says on its website that a week’s delay in some orders is likely “due to the extreme high-demand increases caused by COVID-19, rioting, election worries and other concerns.”

Keith Bansemer, president of My Patriot Supply, a Utah company popular among conservatives, said business began spiking again when Trump hospitalized for COVID-19, and has remained strong.

“There’s a lot of people stocking up ... over civil unrest,” he said. “The supply chain could buckle. And you may not want to go to the store.”

Like Korn, Bansemer said he’s getting business from “both sides of the political spectrum.” Business is so strong, his company is struggling to procure enough raw materials to keep the processing lines moving, he said.

It’s not just about food.

Patrick Henry Jones, the owner of Jones’ Fort gun store in Redding, said his shop had the busiest summer selling guns and ammunition in its 58-year history.

“Very brisk sales, to the point there are now shortages, and we’re having a hard-time replacing product,” Jones said.

“It’s a lot of new buyers and there’s just a lot of nervousness. First, you had the riots. You had COVID kind of starting it a little bit, and the riots really picked things up, and now, as the riots have kind of stabilized a little bit, there’s great uncertainty in the election.

“Trump calms the fears of gun owners, and Biden-Harris really scares gun owners. It’s a combination of everything that drives all this stuff. .... You can really tell there’s a tenseness in the air up here in the north state. People are very nervous about this election. We’re fearing it’s not going to go very smoothly. ... There’s all kinds of talk of unrest and it just makes people nervous and that creates buying.”

As far as food is concerned, some products are simply gone. Mountain House, a popular Oregon-based maker of prepared foods, said on its website that multiple items aren’t available, including its $624.99 “Just in Case” package of four weeks’ worth of freeze-dried beef stroganoff, spaghetti and other meals.

At PrepareDirect, Korn said freeze-dried meats of any kind are hard to find. Powdered eggs are flying off the shelves. Oddly, though, staple items like canned beans are still plentiful.

“Beans and grains — how much do you want?” Korn said. “They’re available.”

This story was originally published October 16, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Fear of election chaos and civil unrest stokes stockpiling of food, guns and ammunition."