Prepper vs. hoarder — Do you remember how ammunition, especially .22LR, essentially disappeared from the shelves after Sandy Hook? Prior to Sandy Hook, some of us had stocked up on ammunition, just like we stock up on food and other things we might need in an emergency.
I found it rather amusing that folks on various gun forums were quite upset, not because they had failed to stock up, but because all of us who had set up an inventory were suddenly “hoarders”, evil greedy people who wouldn’t share.
The Hoarder
Usually when I think of a “hoarder”, I think of one of those crazy people who become buried in trash in their own home. The folks annoyed because they couldn’t find .22LR were not using the term “hoarder” that way. They meant it as a derogatory term to be hurled at someone who happened to have done a better job of anticipating the shortage than they had, like planning for shortages was a bad thing. The term was intended to imply greed, but was a greater reflection on the poor foresight of the person using the term.
This got me thinking about the difference between a “prepper” and both types of “hoarders”. Basically, the only thing that changed with Sandy Hook was an abrupt change in supply and demand. That change could be any SHTF event. In fact, a SHTF event that lasts more than a few days is likely to change supply and demand for a variety of goods.
Prepper vs. Hoarder Before SHTF
If you are a prepper before SHTF, like now, people who don’t prep and don’t understand, tend to look at you like one of those hoarder folks on television in need of an intervention. In their eyes, you need help. 
What are you going to do with all that rice and pancake mix? You’ll never use that! Why do you have all that camping gear? You haven’t been camping since 1969! Since they fail to anticipate an emergency, they fail to see the utility of the preps you have accumulated.
If you aren’t careful, you could become buried in all that stuff!
Prepper vs. Hoarder After SHTF
If a SHTF event of some sort occurs, all that “useless” stuff will suddenly become valuable. You are still a “hoarder”, but now you’re the evil, greedy, hoarder who won’t share, not the nut job unable to throw away trash. Amazing transformation, isn’t it? You change like a caterpillar into a butterfly, from a psychiatric case, into one of the robber barons!
After SHTF, you are now a “hoarder” like the guy with .22 ammo after Sandy Hook, an evil greedy profiteer! Interesting that you are considered “greedy” despite the fact you aren’t selling anything. Except now you are “hoarding” food, water, medical supplies, .22 ammo, etc.
I remember several online arguments with folks who couldn’t find .22. They were mad at anybody who had .22. They were mad at folks who would stand in line at WalMart, then sell the ammo at gun shows, but they weren’t willing to stand in line themselves, or pay the price at a gun show. Somehow, it was the fault of the folks who had ammo that the unprepared folks didn’t have ammo.
I would generally point out that this was not the first ammunition shortage we had experienced, and it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that keeping a little supply on hand was merely prudent. Of course, when someone has a problem, the last thing they want to hear is that it’s their own fault, and by the way they aren’t very smart, since they didn’t stock up after previous shortages.
I enjoy flame wars on the Internet. Flame wars are cheap entertainment!
Summary
Basically, the term “prepper” has a mildly negative connotation (unless you are a prepper), but the term “hoarder” has one of a couple of very highly negative connotations, depending on context. Exactly what that connotation is depends on whether the person calling you a hoarder wants your stuff, or just thinks you are nuts.
You can tell whether you are a prepper vs. hoarder by asking yourself why you’re keeping so much stuff. If your answer is it will help yourself, and perhaps others, in a disaster, you’re a prepper. If your answer is you think it is worth something, try selling it. If your answer is confusion, seek professional help.
If you find yourself being called a “hoarder”, don’t let it bother you. It implies your OPSEC is still sound because the fool staring at your preps hasn’t figured out what they are. It also means you have accumulated enough preps that the person talking will be jealous when SHTF. Time to buy more ammo!
“If your answer is confusion, seek professional help. From what I have seen Most of those professionals are just as confused but charge Big Bucks for bad advice.But I agree with the rest of your points.
There is always Waste Management Corporation.
Paranoid,
You bring up numerous salient points. Possibly others would agree that the situation that led to the shortages of .22 ammo (and everything else in the shooting sports field) was similar in some ways to the tulip bulb hoarding of the 17th century. A LOT of folks became “opportunistic feeders” and attempted to garner excessive profit from the situation. I am of the opinion that this exacerbated the supply situation.
I choose to use it as a learning opportunity. I thought my ammo (and everything else I kept “in stock”) was in a fairly good state of order.
I learned that I lacked a proper inventory system, and even worse very poor stock rotation system. After hours of sorting through mountains of partial boxes of all sorts/brands/ calibers of ammo I corrected that, and transferred that system to all other items in stock as well. I guess I am now a more organized and less confused hoarder…
You might be interested in one of my earlier posts on why prices fluctuate. The .22 ammo example relates there as well.
What would be a minimum quantity of food that a prepper should have? I mean how much cans of tuna should I buy or how many waters bottles should I keep stored?
It would be impossible to recommend any specific amounts as everybody’s situation varies but I have some things to think about when it comes to storage food.
For example, how many cans of Tuna do you eat every month. Assuming that a can of tuna is something you like (don’t stock foods you won’t eat), and assuming a realistic shelf life for Tuna is 4 years, how many cans will you and all your other tuna-eating group eat in 4 years? That would be the max, because you don’t want to throw food out.
A good way to start to figure this out is to take a good, solid look at what you are eating now, what you would want to be eating in a prepping situation (remember refrigeration, cooking, water etc. all is a challenge) and start working from there.
I have to agree with Salty that personal circumstances dictate, but I would add that the key drivers in my mind are how long are you preparing for, e.g. a week long event or a year long event? and how many people are you preparing for? yourself? A family of four? A couple dozen?
I have a large group, so what I have done is set goals to be prepared for a certain length of time for that group. When I achieve that goal, I bump it out in time a bit.
There are several “food storage calculators” online to give you some idea of how much to food to aim for. You plug in the number of adults and children you are prepping for and they give you an idea of what to store. When I started I ignored the “whole wheat berries” because I had no way to grind them. Later I added some because they can be cooked for cereal and/or fed to livestock.
Some people say to track the amount of any given food you eat per month and start from there. I tend to disagree with that, in that I would not being eating the same kind of food in an emergency situation. For example, right now I eat about one can of tuna a week. In an emergency situation I might eat one can of tuna a day because I can make tuna salad, eat it all for one meal and not worry about refrigeration. (BTW Mayo does not require refrigeration according to “Dear Abby’s” experts.) So counting how many cans of tuna I eat a month x 12 and buying that many to equal a year’s worth isn’t how life would really play out in a SHTF situation.
Same with Soup. I eat very little canned soup in my regular life, but in an emergency situation (like power outage) a can of non-concentrated soup heated on the wood stove would be a very nice dinner. So I stock soup. (and make myself eat the cans that are close to expiration each winter)
As you build your stockpile, remember to keep accurate inventory and to rotate your stock based on expiration date (which can mean first in, first out….but I find that some stores have longer expiration dates than other stores, so I put the expiration date in marker on the front of the label and rotate by expiration date, regardless of when it was purchased. Also, remember that many dates are “best by” dates, not true “expiration” dates. I have eaten crackers 2 years past the date on the box and lived to tell the tale. (didn’t even get ill, even a teeny tiny bit) So experiment with “past date” food and see what store well past the date and what become animal food the day stamped on the box.
Hope this helps.
After Sandy Hook, I wasn’t angry with those who had .22 ammo – – I was envious!
I’d like to say I was well prepared, but the truth is the election was about six weeks earlier and that prompted me to make a bunch of purchases. Six weeks later Sandy Hook occurred. I was just lucky, but sometimes luck is just what you need.