Twelve Stores Looters Will Hit First And How Prepared People Stay Home

The fastest way to lose a bet with chaos is to assume you can “just run to the store.” When the grid fails or unrest spreads, crowds surge toward the same aisles, alarms, and exits. We map the twelve store types most likely to turn dangerous in a prolonged crisis—dollar and convenience stores, liquor shops, pawn shops, small hardware and auto parts, precious metals dealers, electronics and pharmacies, big box retailers, gun shops, and home improvement giants—and show why the smartest strategy is to never stand in those lines.

We speak candidly about human behavior under stress: how sugar, stimulants, and status goods get grabbed before true essentials, and why that mismatch fuels mayhem. You’ll hear practical insights on barter value versus real utility; why pharmacies and distribution centers become flashpoints; and how injury data from past disasters reveals the hidden cost of looting. From plywood and propane to radios and first aid, we connect the dots between what disappears first and what actually sustains your family when systems stall.

Most important, we pivot from risk to readiness. We share a simple, common-sense blueprint for stocking what you eat, rotating supplies, building a lean medical kit, setting up layered power and lighting, and planning comms that work when cell service doesn’t. You’ll learn how to craft get-home routes, pack a small bag that matters, and make choices early that keep you far from the frenzy. Preparation isn’t paranoia—it’s quiet freedom. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs a nudge, and leave a review to help more people trade panic for a plan.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Topic Setup
• 0:47 Why Not Looting: The Core Message
• 2:32 12–10: Dollar And Convenience Stores
• 3:35 9–7: Liquor, Pawn, Hardware And Auto Parts
• 6:20 6–4: Precious Metals, Electronics, Pharmacies
• 7:59 Top Three: Big Box, Gun Shops, Home Improvement
• 9:12 The Real Risk: Injury, Frenzy, Violence
• 10:16 Flip The Script: Prepare, Don’t Compete
• 12:25 Distribution Centers And Escalation
• 12:46 Routes Home And Comms Planning
• 14:03 No Cavalry Coming: Self-Reliance
• 14:43 Closing Reminder And Sign-Off

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:17

To the Common Sense Practical Prepper Podcast, where prepping doesn't have to be complicated or expensive. Coming to you from a well-defended off-grid compound high in the mountains. Coming to you from his Florida room in Richmond, Virginia. Neither off-grid nor well-defended, unless you count as chickens and cats, here is your host, Keith.

SPEAKER_01: 0:41

Everybody is Keith and welcome back to the Common Sense Practical Prepper Podcast, October 26, 2025. And what I want to talk about today is during an extended SHTF situation, grid down or extreme social unrest, I'm going to give you the list of the top 12 stores or types of stores that I believe people will gravitate to to loot to get the items that they need or they think that they need. Now, here's the caveat. This is not looting 101. I'm not telling you where to go loot and why. It's the exact opposite. We're prepared and we don't have to go to those stores and loot and steal and put ourselves into a tremendous amount of danger. Because if somebody will shoot you over your iPhone down the street when things are good, what do you think they're going to do when you grab the last generator from Lowe's? Everybody around the world, and it's rather embarrassing, everybody has seen the videos of Black Friday and Cyber Monday here in the United States, when a Walmart opens their doors at three in the morning on Black Friday and people stampede and trounce each other because they want to get a beanie baby, the new Xbox game, whatever's hot. So folks in the EU and folks in Australia, folks in Australia, when I say CVS, you think chemist warehouse. When I say grocery store, you think IgA, Big W or the equivalent. Folks in the EU, Sainsbury's, Aldi, Lidl, Tesco, you get the picture. So we're going to start from number 12 and work our way up to number one, and I'll explain why I think people will loot in this fashion. Number 12, dollar stores. Easy pickings. Candy, ramen, drinks, batteries. Folks that are unprepared, that really don't know their priorities, will go to these stores first because it's quick, it's simple, and it's easy. Number 11, convenience stores. So here would be your local stop and rob, 7-Eleven, your corner markets. The gas pumps will be down, but the folks will learn how to siphon fuel. Same thing with drinks, chips, snacks, jerky, monster, beer, quick in and out. These stores are not secured very well. Most convenience stores here in the United States are open 24-7. Very easy to get into these stores. Plus, some of them have ATMs. Folks might think they need to break into an ATM. Number 10, sporting goods. Cabela's, Dick Sporting Goods, Bass Pro here in the United States, guns, ammunition, bows, sleeping bags. I'm not sure if everybody's running to grab a bass boat and a bunch of fishing gear, but that is there as well. Number nine, and I had I didn't know whether to put this a little bit higher or not. Liquor stores. Now, when I think of a liquor store, I don't drink, so when I think of a liquor store, I think of alcohol as a bartering item. Well, again, 90% of the population in the United States is not even prepared for a three-day, a 72-hour event. So put yourself in their mindset. Oh, I can go to the liquor store and grab as much whiskey, vodka, whatever as I want. Those places will be hit hard. Pawn shops. I'm not sure we have pawn shops in Australia, in the EU, but here you can go to a pawn shop and take a watch or a gold ring that might be worth$1,000. The pawn shop will give you$100 for it. And then you need to pay that back, or then they will sell it. It's a big game. It's a racket. It's a scam. But if you've ever been into a pawn shop here in the United States, they have everything. Some have guns, a lot of jewelry, a lot of electronics. Pawn shops are, I don't want to say they're armored, but pawn shops are not open 24-7. And a lot of them have some security measures. Stronger doors, mesh or wire over the doors, over the windows. Not too easy to get into, but as I've said before, desperate people do desperate things. Okay, your small hardware stores, so your mom and pop hardware stores, crowbars, propane, tools, axes, some lumber, some plywood. Nothing like the big box stores that we'll talk about in a few minutes, but there are items there as well. I want to group in an auto parts store and kind of mush that together with hardware stores. I think auto parts stores are going to be overlooked initially. In an extended situation, you need oil. What about if you have a car and you need parts for it? There are a lot of things at an auto parts store that you and I might think would be necessary during an extended situation. I think the unprepared folks would not necessarily be thinking that way. I'm going to do a separate podcast about things at an auto parts store that you might want to prep, although it's going to be kind of low on your list, but I think that might be worth exploring one of these days. Coin shops and precious metals coming at number six. People will understand very quickly that paper currency is worthless. They want the gold, they want the silver, they want the coins, they want the bullion, anything they can get their hands on. Now, coin shops, most of them are fairly secure. But again, people want something, they're gonna get it. Electronics stores, the big box stores for electronics, like here in the United States, Best Buy Micro Center. CB radios, flashlights, solar chargers, not so much about PlayStations and Xbox and some DVDs, if they even sell DVDs anymore since everybody's streaming. But people are not thinking correctly in situations like this. And you would be amazed at the people that will run in and grab the iPhones and a bunch of desktops and a bunch of laptops. What they're gonna do with them, I'm not really sure. Because in a grid-down situation, if I need something to barter with, I'm not sure if I'm gonna give them the latest MacBook for whatever they might have. But who knows? Pharmacies, CVS, Walgreens, antibiotics, first aid supplies, vitamins, supplements, painkillers. Now, what better place to go for someone who's looting to feed their habit or to be used as a bartering item? Hydrocodone, oxycodone, insulin can all be used to barter. We'll talk about that a different time. Three, your big box stores. Walmart, Costco, Target, everything under the sun from tortillas to tires. Number two, gun stores. Self-explanatory. Folks need to be armed in extended SHTF situations like this. They will go to the gun stores. Gun stores are secured. I can imagine a gun store owners will probably sleeping at their gun store to try to keep people from stealing their guns and their ammunition. And at number one, should not come as a big surprise. Home Depot, Lowe's. If you're in the Midwest, it's going to be Menards, because when the lights go out, all of a sudden everybody's a DIY survivalist and they need chainsaws, plywood, extension cords, tools, nuts, bolts, everything that's in these stores, propane tanks, grills. If you've been in these stores, they have everything that you need. Those places are going to be absolute mayhem. The CDC here in the United States, the Center for Disease Control, actually tracked looting injuries and deaths during Hurricane Katrina. Believe it or not, Walmart, Walgreens, and a lot of these stores, over 50% of post-disaster injuries and deaths happened while people were looting, being harmed and killed by other looters. 50%. So, in a sense, in a major situation, you have about a 50-50 chance of making it out of a store alive with your extension cord or your six-pack of Budweiser. People will kill you, people will knife you over your iPhone on the street today. What do you think they're going to do if you've got the last six-pack, or you've got a tube of toothpaste, or you have a bunch of first aid kits under your arm, or you have a whole basket full of prescription meds, half of them you can't even read, but you're just grabbing them off the shelf. How bad do you think it's going to get when you have people running past you and you have what they want? Now, let's flip it around a little bit. That is not freedom. That is frenzy. We don't need to go to Walmart to get canned chili because guess what? We've got 30 jars already on our shelf in our pantry. We don't need to go to the international grocery and get a 50-pound bag of rice because you guessed it, we are already prepared. We don't have to go to the precious metal shop or the coin store because we've been collecting silver, collecting gold over the years, whatever the situation might be. And we have sold maybe some of that silver or some of that gold since the prices have spiked. And now we have our reserve cash in our safe. When it comes to food, I don't need to go through all the lists that you need to have, but the idea is to have what we need so we don't have to go out there. Here's something else. I've talked about this before. In the event you are away from your home, you're at work, you're on the other side of town, and something hits, you need to have multiple ways back home. You need to have emergency communications. We don't have to go to Best Buy because we already have our radio. We don't have to go to a different store and grab a power bank, solar panels because we're already prepared. Can you imagine the hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands, of Amazon warehouses, Walmart distribution centers, grocery store distribution centers? Can you imagine? I guess if I had to make a list, those distribution centers would have to be right up there with number one, with your Walmart, your Home Depot, your Lowe's, your Menards, that sort of thing. If you think Walmart has everything, can you imagine what a grocery store, a major grocery store chain distribution center would have? They have a frozen section, they have a cold food section, and then they have the stuff that does not have to be refrigerated. So think of a Walmart, think of a grocery store times 100. I can't even imagine how popular, I guess you could say how popular those types of facilities are going to be in an SHTF situation. So remember, folks, we're going to be prepared. We do not have to put ourselves out there in danger when something like this happens. You've seen the videos, you've seen the riots that happen for much less of a situation, you've seen people political rhetoric, you've seen what that can lead to, assassinations, assassination attempts. And these are just people that are saying things. These people still have power, they still have food. But in a situation like this, the government is not going to come help you. You can't call 911 if you're if you go to a grocery store and you see a bunch of looting, don't call 911. You need to get out of there. If you are on your way home and something kicks off, oh, I need a gallon of milk and some toilet paper. No, we're not going there because very soon after one of these SHTF situations hit, I would say within 12 to 18 hours, maybe 24 tops, people are going to think, holy crap, this isn't going away. I don't have anything that I need for the next 24 hours, let alone for the next week or two weeks or three weeks. Another reason why everybody needs to be prepared. Folks, thanks for stopping by. I really do appreciate it. And as always, take care of one another, be safe out there, and until next time.