With the prospect of nuclear annihilation coming ever closer, some Doomsday preppers have already started preparing for the end of days, stockpiling resources to keep them going
Brits are hoarding canned goods on the sly in record numbers, buying dozens of cans-a-week and stashing them at home – as they prepare for the apocalypse. Some ‘doomsday preppers’ have been building up a stockpile of items needed to survive an ‘apocalyptic event’ for years, while others are just beginning to build up a cache.
Whether it’s cyber attacks, power shut-downs, invasion by a foreign army, nuclear blasts, a robot-takeover, or a zombie apocalypse, a study found that 8% of Brits confessed to having a ‘secret stash’ of supplies. That’s just under 5m of us.
Experts say that the Covid pandemic, fragile peace in the Middle East, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and ‘instability’ around the world had seen a huge rise in folk building up a stash of essential ‘survival’ items. Prepping stores across the UK have reported a huge increase in sales over the past five years, with freeze-dried and tinned foods — which can last decades — among the top sellers.
Other items flying off the shelves include wind-up radios, water-purification tablets, gas masks, bolt-cutters, rope, and compasses. Brits are also stashing matches, flints, maps, tents, batteries, petrol jerry cans, generators, puncture repair kits, first aid kits, tarpaulins, waterproof backpacks, torches, rain buckets, compasses, sleeping bags and walking boots.
Sales of baseball bats have also rocketed. A poll of 2,000 Brits by Toolstation, which has 550 stores nationwide, found that 54% reckoned they could survive an ‘existential event’ if they had the right tools and supplies.
A total of 8% said they had already put in place a stash should an ‘existential event’ occur, with tinned food, water, water purification tablets, torches, and hammers among the first on the list. Of those who already had cache of ‘grab and go’ items, a massive 76% said they had ‘increased’ their cache of items — including canned goods, loo rolls, tool, and batteries — over the past six months.
A total of 45% said they planned to ‘get prepared’ for ‘the worst’, but hadn’t got round to it yet, with just 47% saying they had ‘no plans’ to do any ‘apocalyptic prep’. Actor Nick Frost, who played Ed in Shaun of the Dead, said he and Simon Pegg, who played Shaun, had already picked out where they’d go if zombies rose from the dead.
He said they decided in Twickenham Stadium in south west London, saying: “When me and Simon used to live together, we always had places we’d go should the zombie apocalypse actually happen. We had lots of rules and plans…Twickenham stadium [stood out] because it’s completely fenced in.
“You could turn the pitch into quarters: one would be for grazing livestock; I’d have an orchard in another; wheat or corn, in the third; then I’d leave one fallow for each season, then just rotate. And I’d live in Vodafone’s executive box.”
In the movie, Ed convinces Shaun to head to the Winchester pub to ‘see out the zombie apocalypse’, saying: “If we hole up I want to be somewhere familiar, I want to know where the exits are and I want to be allowed to smoke.” Asha Potter, 34, said she’d ‘tool up’ if the zombie apocalypse kicked off.
The personal fitness trainer, of Norwich, said: “All I’d need is a decent truck, lots of petrol, a baseball bat, water and tinned food – that would do me until I found other survivors. I can easily outrun zombies, and I know their weak point – their brains – so as long as I don’t let myself get surrounded by them, it would be a walk in the park.”
Lewis Dartnell – a zombie survival expert and author of The Knowledge: How To Rebuild Our World After An Apocalypse – said having a head torch was ‘essential’. He said it allowed you to see where you’re going, while keeping both arms free to wield an axe, chainsaw or hammer, to smash zombie skulls; Toolstation chiefs said it seemed that many Brits ‘had it covered’ when it came to sorting out surviving the apocalypse.
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