Be Prepared, the good Boy Scout Motto, has lots of truth.
It's not hording if it's organized.
There are many professional food storage companies out there, with freeze dried or dehydrated, which prepares the same way as a Betty Crocker pkg of potatos or Brownie mix. I've taste tested, and they are very good. You can dress it up a little with home grown herbs, a few spices, but I think it's well worth the buy. We bought enough for their deluxe pkg supply (includes everything down to pudding), for 10 people for 1 yrs (Hubby & I, 3 Daughters & 3 sonin laws, grandkids). Supposed to have a storage life of 30 yrs, so if we need it in the next 5, I'm glad I have it.
Then we buy bulk from Sam's Club, what we can, extra each time. Then I have 4500 sq ft of veggie gardens, several varieties of berry patches a few ND tough fruit tree's.
I do home canning & 3 chest freezers full (freeze veggies & fruits) & (Can sauces, syrups, jams, pickles). We have 2 hunting daughters & my husband & I to help with meat.
This next year, we're adding laying hens, meat chickens & turkeys, and a couple miniture cattle for meat. We're trying to become self sufficient, which I know is harder for most. I have a daughter who lives in a fancy neighborhood in OR, and started to raise chickens for eggs beside her garden..IN a high end neighborhood, no objections, other's are doing it to. I think we'll see more of that, people learning and turning to the ways of their grandparents.
As for any novelty store, clothing, shoes, kitchen wares, or fabrics. I fear we'll see more and more going out of business signs. Our local shop closed, and didn't do the end sale, she kept it for her own stash instead of losing money to reduce inventory? I believe Ebay & Garage Sales & Local Auctions will be the place to shop soon, discount stores like Target over Gap, Walmart fabric over quilt shops. I think we'll sacrifice quality for ability to afford.
I do recycle a lot now, I love scrappy quilts. But I also collect wedding gowns with pretty fabric rather than sequins, bride maid & prom gowns. Men's silk tie's & hankies & wool suites, men's flannel shirts, asst color denim's, ladies hankies, embellishments, anything I find at a yard sale that's usable. Just need to add more wool blankets for batting, and good solid blankets work for batting also. I'd rather use fabric, but if I have to, I can use old bed sheets for blanket backs too. Our grandmother's quilted with what they had, items that wore out and got used up a new way, and what didn't work there became cleaning rags. I like the idea of a double sided quilt, make it spring/summer side bright...and winter/fall side neutral. Fun way to change the look in a room. I'm also learning to braid & weave rugs, they sure come in handy in a bathroom & back door esepcially winter boots.
I used to sell home parties, to afford all that I wanted, but they are way down in sales. If you get them to come, it's to visit and be entertained, not to buy these days.
ND has a strong economy, very low unemployed, solid housing market, but also very cautious people.
Another idea, if your in the market, we moved an old house then it was gutted to the studs & rebuilt. We added a huge hot water tank, ground source heat pump system, basement floor heet, wind generator, started planting as large tree's we could afford, and just kept adding a few here and there for win break. Hauled in very old manure from local farm & have lush lawns & very productive gardens now. We have the space, and fence in a big back garden. We've created raised beds for gardens around the house, which will help as I age, I've had a lot of surgeries. We hay the land, looking maybe doing a wheat crop then back to hay for cattle. We free range the chickens in a movable coop across the field (protects them from preditors also). And I grow literally everything you can imagine. Sometimes we have to be resourceful. I had a 30x30 garden in town, grew 18 tomatos and got 800 lbs that summer, and lots of other grops too. Partner with a friend, if you have the land, share buying tools, let her buy seeds (you have the water too probably), and get together to work the garden once a week and a lunch. Same at canning season, get together and rotate homes, and put up all you can, split the lug of peaches & cost of a case of jars for jams, etc. Buy at warehouse grocery centers when you can. Seems higher priced, but broke down, is cheeper. Save a smaller bottle to refill from the bulk bottles to easier handle at the laundry, cleaners, shampoo, etc. Get creative (like we do with our fabric stash) and store toilet paper under the bed, cases stacked in closet under clothes, or under couch.
Even in an apartment, you can put away 6 mo to 1 yr of complete storage. Never know when you have employment changes, and prices go too high to afford, or accident or illness strikes and money is needed other places besides necessities. When we were unemployed 9 months, I had enough toilet paper, laundry soap, shampoo, etc. to last and still had a couple bottles left when we got the next job. That saved our unemployment money to pay the house & medical insurance, we needed, and free'd us from needing to buy basic groceries. We simply never have cable TV, watch only local channels, and usually stay busy enough not to watch much tv (quilting, gardening, reading, games). We don't use credit cards, pay as we go, or go without. Not to proud to have items I bought at an auction, garage sale, or ebay. I have a beautiful home, hardly anything was bought new. Hope my tips can help some. And no, I do not have disability, no unemployement or workers comp... just unlucky to have lots of surgeries and currently unable to work, but I do push myself at our home and work hard here. My husband works 200 miles from home, has an apartment there, and last 2 months only got 30 HOURS off, literally. You do what you have to, so I do the local yards, gardens, etc. Debbie