Important Things You Need To Know This Week

I had originally intended to send out a quick note wishing everyone a Happy New Year and sharing some of our New Year's Resolutions. However, the events that have unfolded this week have led me to an entirely different type of message. I feel an obligation to address how these events are going to impact you and the preparedness world in general.

Just four trading days into the New Year 1.6 trillion dollars in market value has been destroyed, according to the S&P Global 1200 report that was just released. Most of the blame is being put on the critical state of the Chinese stock market, which more than once this week triggered their built-in circuit breaker which halts trading immediately should losses reach a certain amount. The US stock market has subsequently taken a huge hit with investor uncertainty at an all-time high.

An already volatile the Middle East is getting worse as conflict with Saudi Arabia and Iran escalated this week. This conflict has a long list of potential outcomes including skyrocketing oil prices and expanded armed conflict that could draw in much of the world, according to several conservative radio talk show hosts.

We have our Army Rangers being trapped and killed in Afghanistan, North Korea successfully testing hydrogen bombs, two Iraqi men arrested in California and Texas on terrorism-related charges, and President Obama announcing executive action on guns.

Just yesterday there was an attempted execution of a Philadelphia police officer. The suspect gave a full confession, saying he committed his crime in the name of Islam.

All of this has happened in just the last seven days.

In August of 2015, I released an internal memo warning my employees to get ready, 2016 was going to be a very shaky year. I saw the writing on the wall and wanted our employees to get ready, not only in their personal lives but to be able to handle what I believed was going to be an incredibly busy year for us. I did not expect, however, that the madness would begin just one week into the New Year.

All of you who are loyal readers of this newsletter have undoubtedly noticed that I don't engage in hype. If I'm guilty of anything it's likely that I don't open my mouth and warn our customers of what I see happening often enough out of concern that I'll be accused of being a fear-monger. I do not want anyone to live, or act, out of fear. Living a lifestyle of preparedness should be driven not by fear, but by an acute awareness of the things happening around you.

But I have learned a lot from being in this business and I'm confident that I know what is going to happen. In fact, I'll share with you one of the most frustrating things about owning one of the largest preparedness companies on the planet and my prediction on what's next.

Like many of you, I'm an avid student of history. I believe in learning from the past so that we can be better equipped in our effort to prevent the same mistakes in the future. The problem is that not enough people are like you and me, and they often overlook these historical lessons. Looking back now it is fairly easy to armchair quarterback the crash of 2008. The challenge is evaluating what's happening right now, in front of our very eyes, and judging the likely outcome.

But I know what happens next, and it happens any time there is a crisis. The folks who don't pay attention or plan ahead flood the preparedness industry with last-minute panic purchases and the entire industry becomes backlogged and unable to fill orders in a timely fashion. This is exactly what happened during the Ebola outbreak in 2014. At that time we were still the fastest shipping preparedness company in North America, but even we were two weeks behind. Many of our competitors were backlogged and not shipping for eight whole weeks.

For this reason, I made a commitment: My Patriot Supply will always keep a 60 day supply of product on hand.

That means we keep millions of dollars of inventory in our warehouse (something my accountant hates me doing, especially come tax time) so that we can be better prepared during a crisis and have the ability to still service our customers. We keep what we expect to sell in a 30 day period, and on top of that keep an extra 30 days' supply as an emergency reserve. I would keep more, but frankly, I don't have the money or the warehouse space. Not to mention it's very important to me that we are always shipping fresh inventory, and that the food you receive from us was produced sometime in the last sixty days.

During Ebola, our 60 day supply was only enough to keep up with sales for five days!

This is the impact of the folks that only act after something has already happened, instead of truly preparing for what is going to come. The fact that so many people still don't "get it" is probably the most frustrating thing for me, as the owner of a preparedness company. They cripple the infrastructure of the entire industry because they only take action after it's too late.

My urgent call to anyone reading this is IF you plan on expanding your families level of preparedness this year, please DO IT NOW.

Don't wait for things to get worse and the entire industry to be backlogged. Don't wait until scarcity drives up the price and the products you want to purchase become more expensive because they simply aren't available. During Ebola, our cost of goods went up significantly as we had to pay a premium to some of our suppliers to have our raw ingredients shipped to us first before they shipped to some of the grocery store brands. In fact, we even stole some cheese blends that were supposed to go to Kraft!

As I mentioned, my team and I read the writing on the walls and we're ready to help you. If you want to talk to one of our preparedness specialists, give us a call today at 866.229.0927 and they'll help you find a solution that's right for you. If you're more of an online shopper, click here to get started.

However you plan to build on your preparedness plan, I urge you to do it now.

In liberty,

Grant Miller
Preparedness Advisor, My Patriot Supply