emergency

#Survival #Communications After a Collapse: “Pringles Can And Broadband Routers Could Create a WiFi Network”

May 6, 2016 by mac slavo

Are you truly prepared to survive what is coming?

It could prove to be the darkest period yet for modern civilization and the age of technocracy.

An EMP, a natural disaster, a nuclear attack, an economic collapse or a declaration of martial law rank among just some of the worst scenarios that could befall our society. And if you are not prepared, you will fall along with the masses.

Not long ago, the London Guardian interviewed global crisis expert and author Nafeez Ahmed, extracting lots of great info to think about prepping for survival.

Ahmed, who was involved with advising on a video game that included realistic portrayals of crisis aftermath, brought up lots of good points, including basics like:

1. Don’t hole up alone with hundreds of tins of baked beans
“There’s a survivalist response which is ‘I’m going to hide away all by myself’,” says Ahmed. “You’re probably not going to survive like that – you have to cooperate with other people… The more people who band together, the more likely you are to be able to rebuild something like a society.

2. You need to go rural … but not too rural
“Cities are found to be extremely vulnerable simply because there are so many supply chains that are interdependent… People will be competing with each other for these scarce resources, which creates violence… You need a group of differently skilled people who can work cooperatively in order to build your own supply chains and flourish…”

3. You need access to running water and agricultural land
“There’s also the need to grow your own food,” says Ahmed. “Again you’re better off doing that with a group of people on a large area of land where you can apportion labour. That’s not going to work as well in an urban environment.”

5. Don’t necessarily trust the government or law enforcement
All major governments have contingency plans in place to ensure their survival after a global disaster…. What we can be fairly certain of, however, is that it will involve the suspension of constitutional government and the instalment of martial law. To some degree.

But the most interesting discussion was on communications during a survival situation.

Of course, a lot of it has been brought up by different survival sources, but it is amazing how inventive people could be in setting up networks, even if the main internet went offline or was inaccessible.

4. Establish communications
The basic method of acquiring information will be a wind-up or solar-powered radio. However, to actually communicate with the outside world, or with members of your community, you may be back to walkie-talkies, two-way radios or even a citizen band radio…

Apparently, using a few repurposed items in tandem with alternative sources of energy could go a long way, and in the right configuration might even successfully set up a worthwhile local network.

If the internet providers and content sources go down, you can go it alone on a small scale, according to Ahmed:

Your best option, then, may be to set up your own community computer network – and the most sensible technology would be Wi-Fi, as the components are easily available. “You could loot a PC World for broadband routers and then hit a garage or supermarket for some Pringles cans,” says Bloch. “With those, you can probably build a reasonable network across a scorched suburb.”

Why a Pringle can? Well, it can be used to create a cantenna which would be capable of boosting a Wi-Fi signal from your computer. “Some students in Kansas made a cantenna that transmitted over 100 miles a few years ago,” says Bloch. He suggests using a cheap Raspberry Pi as the combined communications hub and router (although a basic netbook may be a good alternative). “I ran an old Pi off four AA batteries for four hours just to play a video game a while back, and that was wasting power on bluetooth and speakers. They can shift a lot of traffic, and run little servers, so I imagine you could run tiny hubs off a car battery for 1-2 weeks at a time.

“If you ran an old-school email network off those, it’d be quite handy and expandable piece by piece as you contacted neighbouring villages, cleared the zombies out, etc. I guess that’s the nice thing about the internet: the oldest protocols still adapt to this situation. I think some people really want to see this happen, just so they can prove it.”

A Pringles can to create a “cantenna” for wifi transmission? That bears some further explanation:

Getting a wifi antenna from pringles tube (DIY Cantenna)

Along with a number of low tech alternatives, there is also the chance that you and a network of survivors could piece together a wireless mesh network with radios or cell phones:

Broadband Over Radio Wireless Mesh Network Experimentation for Emergency Communications

It’s all very technical, so if you are serious about survival, it is obviously essential to test it before things collapse. Nevertheless, it offers up some rewarding possibilities.

According to Ahmed, who posts his work regularly to his personal website, it would be

“a long time before everything is safe… If you really wanted to stay safe, I think you’ll need to survive for a decade before civilisation sorts itself out.”

There are too many scenarios to list here, and every reason to think the world is titled towards ensuing chaos, and a grander attempt at “order out of chaos” than anyone has yet seen.

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Deadly Reliance on Tech: “If Internet Goes Down… Preppers Will Be Last Ones Standing”

This Rural Community Stopped “Relying on Corporate America” and Created its Own Internet Service

How To Survive Occupied America: “We Will Eventually Face a Totalitarian Dictatorship”

SHTFplan and Mac Slavo www.shtfplan.com

“ #DIY #Antibiotics”: What To Grow to Protect Your Health In a #Crisis

April 29, 2016 by mac slavo

What will you do in a crisis without life saving medicine and antibiotics?

If society breaks down, hospitals, pharmacies and clinics will be unavailable, and the medicine you or a loved one need may be unavailable.

Clearly, this means you need to have to supplies on hand, particularly for anyone who is dependent upon insulin or other medications that can be deadly if disrupted.

But those supplies will only go so far. Something that is also important to do is become familiar with medicinal herbs and plants, and grow some of the ones that could be most useful to your family or network.

Wilderness and homesteading survival teacher Marjory Wildcraft shows how you can grow and process your own medicines – many of which are more potent and potentially beneficial than those developed in the medical industry. Best of all, it is relatively simple to do:

Yes, you can make your own anti-biotics at home. I’ll show you how to make a really super powerful one (it’s easy to do). Anyone can do it. Most people will want to do this in their backyards or on a patio. But I suppose you could do it indoors too. This one I’ll show you how to make is way more complex than anything the pharmaceutical companies can produce, yet it is simpler and easier to make. No, you won’t need a lab of chemistry set. No, you won’t need microscopes or chemicals. Nope, you won’t even need a spectrum analyzer….

This particular anti-biotic not only helps boost your immune system for any time you have an infection, but it is also good for when you have a cold, it’s known to help lower cholesterol and high blood pressure, it’s been known to help balance blood sugar, fight cancer, fight fungus, and more.

The answer is simple… Garlic is perhaps the single best natural antibiotic, and very well known for staving off colds, infections and for overall supporting a healthy immune system and restoring good health.

Quite simply, garlic is well worth growing, eating and having around, as this video demonstrates. Adopt some of the best practices for growing and storing it, and it will always be around.

There are, of course, many other important medicinal plants that can be grown and utilized than just garlic:

Sara an expert in Medicinal plants explains the properties of several different plants and what their uses are for different ailments. This is information that could save you lots of money in buying medicine and can help you live a healthy diet. Filmed at the eco village of Valdepiélagos, Madrid

According to Sara (in the video above), these plants and many more can address many health issues, including some of the most serious.

• Stevia isn’t just a “sweet leaf” to be used as a sugar substitute, but eating the leaf or its extract can help regulate blood sugar (not in the processed form used by soda companies).

• Kalanchoe Daigremontiana can strengthen the immune system and reportedly even fight cancer.

• Melissa and Evalouisa – Plants from these families both have similar medicinal properties for digestive and stomach relief, as well as as a sleep aid.

• Caledonia can help with cataracts (the orange liquid can be put in the eyes) or for cuts on the skin

•Artemisia Annua is another powerful anti-bacterial that can fight malaria and other serious diseases.

• Galio can be used to regulate the hormonal system

• Epiolobium can reduce inflammation in the prostate

(Note: some of these names may be more familiar to Spanish speakers, or go under a different name elsewhere)

There are, of course, hundreds of more varieties of plants that you can cultivate, but you will need to do your own research. Many plants are found in certain regions only, and others may be difficult to grow outside of their typical climate.

Though they have been used for centuries, no one can guarantee they are safe for everyone, and most doctors and hospitals refuse to recognize the potential of these natural (and unpatentable) medicines.

Regardless of whether or not you endure a collapse or prolonged crisis situation, these are valuable skills that could improve your personal well being, or come in handy as a tradable and necessary skill within a self-reliant community or survivor group.

Along with goods and precious metals, exchanging skills & service is a useful part of any barter economy that could thrive under the right circumstances of determined and freedom loving people.

Tom Brown’s Guide to Wild Edible and Medicinal Plants (Field Guide)

First Aid Kit Best 100 Piece Compact Multipurpose Essential for Survival & Medical Emergencies with Durable Canvas Bag & Ideal for Auto Office Travel Home Camping Hiking Sport & Outdoors. Be Prepared!

The Four Prescription Drugs You Must Have in a Crisis… And How to Get Them

3 Barter Items You Probably Haven’t Considered But Will Be Valuable Even If the Poop Doesn’t Hit the Fan!

SHTFplan and Mac Slavo www.shtfplan.com

29 Essential Tips for the New #Prepper: “Start Small. Develop Your Skills. Create a Plan”

March 25, 2016 by mac slavo

Whether you are just starting out with prepping and are figuring out what to focus on first, or whether you are a veteran prepper tracing over your plans for potential flaws, you can always make improvements.

These videos can help you cover the essentials, boil down to the most important factors and start actually putting your preps into action.

Don’t wait until the trouble starts, because it will already be too late.

How would you survive if the food supplies stall out, the economy and digital grid crashes, or para-government forces unleash a round-up plan?

Have you made your family as secure as they can be with stored goods, equipment and a fool proof bug out plan for continuity of life off the grid?

There are some good answers on where to start and how to account for just about everything, but the point is that you must start somewhere.

For beginners, the best tip may be to start small and build up from there as you learn what you’re doing:

10 Tips for New Preppers: Supplies, Survival food and Emergency Essentials

Survival Know How explains his Top 10 Tips For New Preppers:

1. Start small. There is no need to prepare for the zombie Apocalypse if you don’t have enough supplies to last you 3 days without power.
2. Start with Food and Water. To often new preppers want to focus on guns, knives and ammo. It may not be as glamorous but your first preps should be food and water.
3. Develop your skills. Prepping is not just about what you buy but is also about developing your skill set and expanding your knowledge.
4. Build a prepper community. Talk about prepping to your friends, co-workers and family.
5. Tailor your preps to your geographical location. If you live up north you need to focus on keeping warm in the winter, if you live down south you need to focus on staying cool in the summer.
6. Develop a plan B. AKA a Bug Out Bag. Bugging in should always be your plan A. Only Bug Out if you absolutely need to.
7. Practice with your preps. Having preps is not enough, you need to be proficient with them and know how to use them when shit hits the fan.
8. Use List to stay organised. Create prepper supplies list, emergency food list and anything else. This will help you stay organized and buy everything you need.
9. Get into shape. When the shit hits the fan and you are forced to fend for your self you want to be in the best shape possible.
10. Learn First Aid. Skills in first aid will literally save your and your family life.

Even if you have everything you need to survive at home, there are many bad situations that could force you to leave your home and seek survival somewhere else – if you can make it.

Here are some important factors to consider when planning to bug out. What will the roads and highways look like during disaster? Likely they won’t be easy to travel on, and could be downright dangerous. Foreknowledge of the back roads and other alternative means of travel are essential if you are in a serious situation.

Setting up cache sites along your bug out route could also be vital to your survival plan, particularly if your travel plans hit a snag.

Bugging Out: What to Know Before You Go! 19 Tips for Preppers for SHTF Escape Planning!

The Healthy Prepper explains her 19 Tips for Preppers for SHTF Escape Planning:

1. Know your routes.
2. Have multiple forms of travel. (car, bike, foot, zodiac etc.)
3. Preload car with bug out bag
4. Bury caches along routs.
5. Know your final destination.
6. Lay low and blend in.
7. Choose off roads, back roads etc.
8. Sleep in a different location than you cook your food or build a fire.
9. Have back up fuel on the car.
10. Keep bug out vehicle maintained and full of gas.
11. Know when it is time to go.
12.Learn to use maps, compass, star navigation
13. Expect to get lost forced off route.
14.Avoid ridge lines and tops of hills.
15. Have alternative bug out locations in mind if the first one does not pan out.
16. Practice you bug out plan with your family.
17. Know where water, food, fuel can be found along your bug out routes.
18. Be prepared for interactions with others.
19. Be prepared someone may have already pillaged for bug out location or has already set up camp there.

Realistically, you may not be able to cover all of these points, and may find some of them to be contradictions with your real world situation. Regardless, you must prepare for all eventualities.

The point is to consider the best information you can, match it up with the realities of your area, your home, your financial situation and the reliability of the people around you (or lack thereof).

Plan ahead, and avoid becoming paralyzed by fear and inaction if and when the SHTF.

5 Mistakes Every New Prepper Makes

12 Bad Strategies That Will Get Preppers Killed

Report: Feds Take Down Preppers Accused of Stockpiling Guns and Ammunition: “Federal Conspiracy Charges”

SHTFplan and Mac Slavo www.shtfplan.com

Who Is a Threat To You? “Dangerous People to Avoid After the Collapse”

March 9, 2016 by mac slavo

Who can you trust, turn to or rely upon during a collapse?

Morals are effectively suspended in the midst of a great crisis. And, as the Canadian Prepper explains, you will want to consider and profile high risk people, dangerous personalities and groups to avoid during a disaster – well in advance.

Those with nothing else to turn to will act in desperate ways, and could act unstable during a collapse, during martial law or civil unrest. Many will turn to the system, and go willingly into FEMA camps – but others may drag, steal or lean on you. Worse, they may expose your hideout and compromise your carefully laid survival plans.

Just a few of these types are discussed below:

– MEDICALLY DEPENDENT/DRUG ADDICTS: People who are dependent on medication may become desperate for drugs when prescriptions fall through, and could become unstable, dangerous or a liability to your survival plan. Most wouldn’t mean

– PANICKED/WEAK MINDED: Emotionally unstable, prone to upset, who can’t keep their cool under pressure and those who are temperamental are difficult to trust, and who put your life in danger

– GANGS/CRIMINALS/LOOTERS: Then of course there are always going to be violent gangs, looters and outright criminals. It’s pretty obvious what they want, but it may still surprise you how far they are willing to go to get it. Only, some criminals won’t be as easy to spot, and historically they have taken advantage of hard working, prepared and ultimately naive individuals using any and every tactic they can think of. Keep in mind, this includes color-of-law rogue government agents, too; historically the appearance of authority will be used to gain entry, take advantage and catch you off guard. During Hurricane Katrina, some cops were caught on tape looting Wal-Mart… just imagine the type of stuff that wasn’t seen by cameras.

– WANNA-BE LEADERS: Narcissists, selfish, egotistical, grandiose and those willing to use psychology and tactics to gain advantage of your group and your resources, let you down when a plan needs to come to fruition, or turn tail when the going gets tough. These people are in it for themselves, would create a mutiny if they thought they had the leverage to do so, and will be even more undependable than the easily panicked and the addicted.

– ALSO BEWARE OF: The above category is closely related to those who are overly macho, those who hold obvious and disproportionate gun fetishes, those prone to uncalled for paranoia, the weaselly and conniving salesman types, and the foregone-conclusion doomsday nihilist who secretly wants to fulfill his entimes fantasy and die in a fight, rather than living to fight another day. There are other variations of these types, but few of them will be all that helpful when reality sets in, regardless of how big they talk as things gear up.

– PARASITES AND NOSY PEEPERS: Perhaps the most dangerous type of person, at least immediately when the SHTF, is the one who knows about your prepping, your supplies and stocks, and expects to come over to your place and join you without contributing any skills or having prepped in advance. Even worse, if a reward or a position of power is offered, this person is far-too-willing to turn you in and turn you over to a FEMA camp if they can derive any benefit. Though this individual may be a nosy neighbor or family friend during times of normalcy, they are a very dangerous liability for you and your family during times of emergency. Here’s what to do when those types come knocking…

Good character and common sense just aren’t as plentiful as they used to be, so be careful about who you willingly associate with. These kind of mistakes could easily cost your life.

There are many people worth working with, trusting and helping during a collapse, but you should be very judicious in determining who these people are – and careful to keep away from the rest as much as possible. If you find yourself in captivity in a government facility, many of these same types will cause you just as much or more trouble inside the system.

Ideally, you want to be working with those people already, and eliminate anyone from the group and from your confidence with unstable and dangerous personalities. Moreover, you should be able to read and identify people to screen out these traits and avoid the people who will endanger or prey upon you.

Above all, don’t lose sight of the fact that they are all still human beings, and unless they are physically attacking you, should be treated as such. Nonetheless, they can and will work against you if you trust the wrong people. It is simply human nature.

5 Mistakes Every New Prepper Makes

If you don’t use a bank, where should you stash your cash?

“I’ll Come To Your Place When SHTF” – No You Won’t

10 Prepping Mistakes That Could Get You Killed (And How To Avoid Them)

SHTFplan and Mac Slavo www.shtfplan.com

Clamp Down on Cash Is the Ultimate Surveillance State: “Citizens Shouldn’t Be Under General Suspicion”

March 7, 2016 by mac slavo

The war on cash is more than just a currency war to clamp everyone down on the electric grid. It is also a war on your privacy, and the nail in the coffin for the free market of low level transactions.

Soon, restrictions on cash will become so severe that even spending $100 will arouse suspicion, despite the constant inflation on the value of such a denomination. One day, physical currency may become obsolete.

When that day comes, they will know everything you do.

Conducting transactions in anything but digital creds will be not only increasingly difficult, but seen as outright criminal behavior. It might even make you a terrorist.

Don Quijones argues on Wolf Street:

There are two sides in the global war against cash. On one side are many of the world’s governments, central banks, fintech firms, banks, credit card companies, telecommunication behemoths, financial institutions, large retailers, etc. According to them, the days of physical currency are numbered, so why not pull the plug already, beginning with the largest denomination bills such as the $100-note and particularly the €500-note?

On the other side are people who like to use cash – most of whom, according to the dominant official narrative, are either criminals or terrorists. After all, they must have something to hide; otherwise, why would they use a private, untraceable (not to mention archaic, dirty, dangerous and unhygienic) form of payment like cash?

Although it may seem like a foregone conclusion, cash still accounts for a majority of transactions in many European countries, and still factors in significantly in the U.S., though use of cash is in decline.

Many leaders overseas are calling out the moves to kill cash – albeit in slow motion – as nothing more than an attempt to impose a police state where every transaction, every purchase and every activity is monitored and databased.

Likewise, the use of cash is linked with terrorists and criminals, every bit as much as using pagers was linked with drug dealers in the pre-cell phone days.

Don Quijones writes:

[I]n recent weeks the unlikeliest of defenders of physical money has emerged: the national central bank of Europe’s biggest economy, the German Bundesbank.

“I have my doubts that introducing a cash limit or getting rid of bigger denominations can really prevent terrorists or criminals from engaging in illegal activities,” Carl-Ludwig Thiele, Bundesbank board member in charge of cash issues, said in a speech last week. “We also should ask ourselves: what sort of an understanding of government forms the basis of these proposals? Citizens should not be put under general suspicion.”

[…]

And in Germany and Austria, the EU’s plans to suppress cash have already provoked a backlash.

“We don’t want someone to be able to track digitally what we buy, eat and drink, what books we read and what movies we watch,”said Austrian Deputy Economy Minister Harald Mahreron on Oe1 radio. “We will fight everywhere against rules” including caps on cash purchases, he said.

The NSA surveillance has never been limited to just ferreting out terrorists, its mass surveillance of every conceivable communications device has created a Big Data tracking system that can hone in on specific behaviors of anyone in the country, or can track the mass patterns of human society like a school of fish.

Standing by complicit with the elimination of cash is surrendering yourself to a society based upon nothing more than Big Brother teamed up with the Big Banks – and what good could come from all of that?

Banning Cash “Necessary to Give Central Banks More Power”

Americans Face Impoverishing War on Cash: “More Big Banks Are Shunning Cash”

‘Cash Is Being Eradicated’: Digital Payments Take Over Western World

SHTFplan and Mac Slavo www.shtfplan.com

Expert Warns That Unparalleled Financial Destruction Is “Just Six Months Away”

March 4, 2016 by mac slavo

The time is nigh.

The crash is coming. It’s waves can be felt pulsing through the system, foretelling its arrival.

But how long will it be until it hits, and how big will its magnitude be?

According to Yale’s Vikram Mansharamani, it is only months away.

Via London Express:

FINANCIAL bubbles across the globe are imploding and the problem is only set to get worse... Prices are falling around the world thanks to the collapse of China’s debt fuelled economic growth and this has triggered a succession of disastrous events that are starting to be realised, according to Vikram Mansharamani, an author and, lecturer at Yale University.

Fears are growing that the world could face a financial crash of unprecedented levels and could even be just six months away.

Bubbles created by the mountain of cheap money made available by low interest rates since the last financial crisis are now starting to burst, said Mr Mansharamani.

[…]

Mr Mansharamani added: “We’ve got a bubble bursting, I would argue, in Australian housing markets — that is beginning to crack; South Africa — the whole economy; Canada — housing and the economy; Brazil. We can keep going on and on.”

The details have come out in warnings posted here at SHTF and elsewhere, but the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing program changed the metabolism of the global economy.

Like a diabetic or a heroin addict, people in the United States, and in countries abroad all borrow on cheap credit, and face a debilitating spike now that repayment is being demanded – all while oil prices have bottomed out and destroyed the fragile livelihoods of those who depended upon these and other commodity prices.

Nightmares are surfacing. Entire sectors are being destroyed. New technology is causing extreme upheaval in jobs, and economic warfare is subtly sucking away life and stability from the ranks of the hard working, aspiring and once prosperous. It is punishing and leveling out all those who haven’t learned to work inside the system.

All the rest will end up on welfare, until that collapses too.

Robots will replace millions of jobs in the next few decades:

That’s ok, though, according to the guy in the video, because we’re supposed to live in some technologically-planned future where computers figure out how to address the needs of everyone. But that’s not OK, because that leaves no room for freedom.

When you lose the ability to support yourself independently, you become a government serf overnight. And the rest is history. We are being pushed and shoved into a new collectivist state with strikingly few liberties.

The criminals who orchestrated the last round of looting in 2008 have grown in power and wealth in the years since, and are now poised to come back for the rest – and use finance as a tool to condition societal behavior. Puppeteer bankers Goldman Sachs admitted that we are entering the third wave of a debt-supercycle that has been unleashed through predatory policy:

This wave is characterised by rock-bottom commodities prices, stalling growth in China and other emerging-markets economies, and low global inflation, Goldman Sachs analysts led by Peter Oppenheimer said in a big-picture note.

This triple whammy has its roots in the response to the first two waves of crisis — the banking collapse and European sovereign-debt crisis — and it is all part of the so-called debt supercycle of the past few decades.

Central banks all rushed to lower interest rates in response to the first two debt-fueled crises, encouraging investors to lend in emerging markets such as China for a decent return.

Now that interest rates are looking as if they might go up, lenders are heading for the exits and investors are pulling out of commodities, which are closely linked to the fate of the emerging economies.

Once they are done, everyone you know will be either working for the government, or under close government regulation. Wall Street crimes are instituted as policy, and competition and free enterprise from the little guy is yanked out of the system, and his salary is capped at the level befitting a modern day serf.

The borg is assimilating the economy and taking everyone as an asset/hostage now.

Time to make your final preparations, and place any wealth you have in carefully considered positions.

Goldman Sachs: The Third Wave of the Financial Crisis Is Upon Us

Global Economy Grinds to a Halt: We’re “Already in a Recession”

SHTFplan and Mac Slavo www.shtfplan.com

This Is The Collapse: Discount Grocery Store Serving Poor Cleaned Out: “Bargain-Hungry Shoppers Emptied the Shelves”

February 19, 2016 by contributing author

This article was written by Michaela Whitton and originally published at The Anti-Media.org.

Editor’s Comment: This story isn’t quite what you might think at first if you just scanned over it, but it still demonstrates an alarming trend: namely, just how desperate so many have become.

Basically, it amounts to riot-prone and often struggling people fighting over bargain-basement junk food after it was put on sale. But what does this level of reaction say about society and the level of economic crisis the world has reached? Basically, that almost anything can make things come unhinged.

If people are reacting this strongly over undercutting food prices, it suggests how much food insecurity exists, and how difficult it has become for most to pay the bills. Food banks have been overwhelmed nearly everywhere. In fact, this grocery chain found the problem to be big enough to create this cheap food marketing niche – which will now need to rethink its business strategy. What happens when the food isn’t just cheap, but unavailable? Multiplied against the whole environment of economic stress, there is every reason to think things are practically just falling apart.

Grocery Store Forced to Review Trading Rules After Shelves Go Empty

by Michaela Whitton

London’s new EasyFoodstore has been forced to review its trading rules after it had to close temporarily when bargain-hungry shoppers emptied the shelves. The mega-discount food store is the latest venture of EasyJet entrepreneur, Stelios Haji-Ioannou.

The millionaire businessman was inspired by the idea after seeing the widespread use of food banks in Britain. “This is another way the Easy brand can serve the less well-off,” the budget airline owner said.

Easy on the wallet

With a weekly shop for a family of four costing just £15.75, it’s no surprise the store rapidly became a victim of its own success. After a promotional offer charging just 25p for everyday food items generated so much publicity, hundreds of bargain-hunters cleared the shelves and the store had no choice but to close until it was able to re-stock.

The recently opened food shop in Park Royal, north-west London, carries a basic range of 76 cheap and cheerful items including pizza, tea, coffee and tinned goods. It has been quickly forced to bring in a 10 item purchasing limit to deter its competition from stockpiling products.

In her brilliant opinion piece for the Guardian, Joanna Blythman says the EasyFoodstore is in a different league from the “no frills” food shopping that she claims is now such a familiar feature of the British retail scene. She adds that poverty is a money problem, not a food problem, and won’t be cured by artificially “cheap,” nutritionally impoverished, lowest-common-denominator food.

“Surely no society on earth can ultimately afford food this cheap? If we factor in the hidden costs to society, from grave public health issues to climate change, it most certainly doesn’t constitute a bargain,” she said.

The predictions are that EasyFoodstore products are to rise from 25p to 50p after February. However, with Foodbank use in austerity Britain at record levels, is it any wonder that rationing is required?

SHTFplan and Mac Slavo www.shtfplan.com