Is it the economy, recent disasters around the world, movies , new reality shows or the governments efforts to make preparedness a more forefront topic? Across a wide spectrum of preparedness related products we are seeing an increase in both awareness levels and actual product purchases. Is the tide really starting to shift from being just reactive to taking steps ahead of time to be prepared?
My personal opinion is that it isn’t one factor leading to this change but more of a sum of all the different factors that is driving the awareness and growth in the space. In the past few years we have seen an increase in severe disasters both in the U.S. and abroad (an earthquake in Haiti, a massive Tsunami, Hurricane Irene, the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan just to name a few). At the same time we have seen over half a dozen TV’s show hit the air related to preparedness and survival (Bear Gryll’s Man vs. Wild, Les Stroud’s Survivorman, Dual Survival, Man Woman Wild, Doomsday Preppers and so on).
The Federal Government, FEMA, The Red Cross and local community government also seem to be doing much more outreach to raise awareness levels and encourage preparation.
I truly hope this is not something temporary. I hope that more and more people continue to take the necessary steps to make themselves, their families, their businesses and their communities better prepared. In the long run..time is our greatest asset and if we use it wisely…we will all be better off.