FSR Newsroom

Abandoned carts at Walmart after the melee ended.

Last week a technical glitch at Xerox knocked out the electronic food stamp program in several states prompting widespread panic and fear. In Mansfield, Louisiana, the chaos became so bad shoppers cleared off entire shelves and prompted intervention from the police department.

Springhill Police Chief Will Lynd confirms they were called in to help the employees at Walmart because there were so many people clearing off the shelves. He says Walmart was so packed, “It was worse than any black Friday” that he’s ever seen.

Walmart allowed shoppers to keep using the cards during the “blackout” but then shut down the nice gesture when the system came back up and revealed many shoppers were purchasing more than what their balance would allow. One woman rang up a bill of over $700 when it was discovered here card only had 49 cents. So much for people doing the right thing in an emergency.

We’ve talked many times on this blog how fragile the food chain really is. Most Americans only have 3-5 days of food in their homes. Most manufacturers run a very lean-compliant logistics operation meaning there is only a week or so of food available at any one time. That means if there is ever a disruption, people could go several weeks or more until food returns to the supermarket shelves. Three to five days of food reserves will not cut it.

If you are still waffling about whether or not to purchase food storage, just do yourself a favor and buy a little right now. Start with a few weeks and gradually build up to a few months. We can help you get started. Just click here.