Are You Prepared for a Disaster?
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Are You Prepared for a Disaster?
The disaster preparedness industry is booming. Americans are spending billions of dollars on emergency kit items like non-perishable food and medical supplies.
The stereotypical prepper is an oddball hermit living in a bunker, grasping his bug-out bag and armed to take on a zombie horde. But in the wake of the pandemic and amid rising geopolitical tensions and high-profile natural disasters, prepping has gone mainstream. A lot of college-educated professionals are “taking measures,” to use the popular euphemism.
According to a survey by Finder, a financial media company, 29% of US adults spent a collective $11B on prepping supplies over the last year. The share of Americans spending on emergency items has risen by +9 percentage points since 2019. The most popular supplies are non-perishable food, toilet paper, medical supplies, and survival kits.
Companies that sell emergency kits have seen an explosion in sales. Preppi, whose kits range from $100-$450, reports that YTD sales have risen +29% from 2022. And Judy, whose kits range from $156-$1,180, reports that its YoY sales quadrupled when smoke from Canadian wildfires engulfed the East Coast last summer. Even Yeti (YETI) wants in on the action: It has partnered with Uncharted Supply Co. to develop a $730 emergency kit.
These products are attractive to both Millennials and Xers. (See “Planning for the Worst.”) For Millennials, emergency kits appeal to their desire to mitigate risk. For Xers, they appeal to their rugged survivalism mentality.
Did You Know?
Does Sex Still Sell? Many popular teen TV dramas, like Euphoria and Sex Education, highlight the sexual experiences of high schoolers. But according to a recent survey by UCLA’s Center for Scholars & Storytellers, many adolescents want to see less romance and promiscuity. 44.3% of 13- to 24-year-olds think “romance in media is overused.” 47.5% say sex isn’t necessary in most movies and TV shows. And 51.5% want more plots centered on platonic friendships. As we have written in previous NewsWires, teenagers are also shying away from sex in their personal lives. According to the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey, the share of high schoolers having sex has declined by 15 percentage points over the last decade. (See “Homelanders: In Mental Distress but Well-Behaved.”)