I started prepping over 30 years ago, first flee bags, 72 hour kits, family based practice drills (we did evacuation drills and park visits with meals out of 72 hour kits), 3 month supply of food, learning survival skills, increasing food storage a little every year. We started all this while living in an apartment...
I pushed it into overdrive about 15 years ago, I kept reading world crop reports that showed lower end of year stores. Then I started seeing things that said, "It's time to get ready". I didn't do a lot at first, buy and extra $500 in grocery's, add a freezer, start canning, buy more supplies. The year before COVID hit I was almost to 100% of what I though I needed. When COVID hit, I turned my focus to longer term sustainability and re-assessed my stock piles. I used the first year of COVID to cycle through my short term (Less than 5 year) supplies to get everything up to date, then I readjusted my targets to almost 200% of my original plan. This readjustment made me reorganize my storage (to make more usable room) and I still had to buy 6 more 4'X2' metal shelving units to store shelf stable foods and stuff. Then my attention turned to growing food, just enough to stop having to buy things in the store, no surplus but a steady stream of fresh food..... I will not say that I have a lot of seeds, but a family member visited me the other day and I let take anything they wanted seed wise. Today I can't tell that they were even here, and they took a gallon bag full of seeds.
I guess what I am saying is that there are long term preppers out there who have been "in overdrive" getting ready for stuff for a long time. Many of them tried to encourage common folks to pick up the pace and get ready, but the common folks feel secure and they will not move till their bellies are empty and their hair is on fire.... For decades my wife and I taught preparedness classes, game processing, food storage, cooking basics, situational awareness, and first aid; But you see the same people over and over again and no one was doing anything for themselves. At a point you just say they aren't your problem and go dark. What people know about you can hurt you, so we stopped sharing.
When the masses realize the situation they are in and "their bellies are empty and their hair is on fire"; they will start searching you out.....
Edit: I when grocery shopping this morning and I saw a sign on the door "ETF Machine not working" no foodstamp purchases, cash, debit, or credit card only.. There were a group of people standing there speaking with unhappy voices. The day the electronic food stamp system goes down Nation wide there will be a lot of people who are shifting into overdrive....
