For Doomsday Preppers, the End of the World Is Good for Business
The company got its start almost 30 years ago selling to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — the church stresses preparedness —
but has expanded its business to serve a wider audience across the country, according to Kevan Allbee, a marketing manager for Emergency Essentials.
“In short summary, what we understand is when the left is in power, the right panics.”
Shane Sullivan, the company’s president, said that sales at Emergency Essentials on Tuesday, after
President Trump made comments to reporters about North Korea, were double their usual amount.
“The whole industry kind of took a little pause after the election of Trump,” said Brandon J. Garrett, director
of marketing at The Ready Store, which sells a wide range of prep products online and via catalog.
Some companies that specialize in selling items to people planning for the worst — so-called doomsday preppers
— say they have had a bump in sales this week, after tensions rose between the United States and North Korea.
“I think everyone was kind of waiting to see what kind of leader he was going to be and where he would take the country.”
“This week, it kind of seemed that everything picked up,” he said.
Joe Marshall, managing editor of Survival Life, a website
that supports an online retail operation and the Banana Bay Tactical shop in Austin, Tex., said it was too soon to see an impact on sales