A while back, I wrote about places to scavenge for supplies in a post-apocalyptic scenario. I thought I came up with quite a few ideas, but Reality Survival & Prepping made a list that’s over twice as long.
When thinking about scavenging, everyone’s first instinct is to head for grocery stores and restaurants. But if you think outside the box, you’ll realize there are many other places you could find useful items.
Even if you don’t find any food or water, you could still find barter items, spare parts for your vehicles, tools to help you fix your gear, materials to help you repair your home, or comfort items like toys for children or books for adults.
With that in mind, here’s his list of the top 50 places to scavenge for supplies after the SHTF. Also be sure to watch the video below for his commentary on these places.
49. Grocery stores.
48. Home Depot and Lowes.
47. Gas stations.
46. Department stores.
45. Restaurants.
44. Gun stores.
43. Government buildings.
42. Auto parts stores.
41. Gyms.
40. Country clubs/golf courses.
39. Libraries.
38. Movie theaters.
37. Airports.
36. Marinas.
35. Restaurant supply stores.
34. Amusement parks.
33. Zoos.
32. Pet stores.
31. Feed/tractor supply stores.
30. Recycling centers.
29. Landfills.
28. Dumpsters.
27. Pharmacies.
26. Dentist offices.
24. Ambulances.
23. Hospice centers.
22. Cruise ships.
21. Landscape centers.
20. Shipping Ports.
19. Train yards.
18. Grain elevators.
17. Factories.
16. Office buildings.
15. Urgent care clinics.
14. Fire stations.
13. Police stations.
12. Truck stops.
11. Daycare centers.
10. National Guard armories.
9. Hospitals.
8. Distribution centers.
7. Warehouses.
6. RV parks.
5. Prisons.
4. Schools.
3. Retirement homes.
2. Pawn shops.
1. Self-storage units.
olgguy says
March 20, 2018 at 2:47 amanother thing you will find at factories is propane powered fork trucks and those bottles have the same threads as all propane bottles. There will also be a number of bottles in storage as well. Have the adaptor hose that goes to a camp stove to standard propane bottle. You will find cleaning supplies and bathroom supplies, toilet paper, paper towels and hand soaps.
Nursing Homes will be like a WW2 death camp. Little of the help will show up and the residents will be unable to care for themselves. There is a realistic description of this in “One Second After” and what happened in New Orleans and Houston should show you that.
Jeff says
March 2, 2018 at 8:38 pmCommon guys all commercial building like store, supermarket, and gas station will be looted trough post SHTF. It’s the same for government building like Hospital, doctor clinics, police station, fire station because all helpless people and famillies will go there for help and rioters will go there to create chaos and hurt people so those place will be the worst place to survive after SHTF. But there is place that people wont go after because for most of the people its a work place so it is the first place to be abandoned an its all industrial building and factory people will leave those place untouch first because it is a work place but in all industrial places there is tool to repair truck, cars and machine from the company, they have a lot of first aid materials if there is injuries to the workers , they can have food in the canteen if the worker have acces to pre made meal or if there is a cafeteria. and you can have acces to a lot of raw materials like in a food factory like flour, sugar, etc. It’s the same thing for school people will abandon school first but in school the is an infirmery with first aid, or food and water in hte in school cafeteria and restaurant. In some big industrial building there is a security department so you can have acces ton weapons and ammunition. There is some other place like that so think outside the box and forget store and government building there is a bigger chance to loose your lufe there!
Jan says
February 28, 2018 at 9:50 pmSounds like a looting list to me. Very sad. Zoos? Nursing Homes?
Trish says
February 27, 2018 at 8:39 pmNursing homes would NOT be abandoned, and I don’t know about the rest of you, but I would not go raid a nursing home. I’ve worked in nursing homes, and the residents there are NOT totally helpless, nor would many of them take somebody’s stupid BS for very long. They CAN be quite feisty (men AND women). I’ve seen some pretty amazing things that residents have done to others. Think of a cane brought up the side of your head, or a regular walker slapped against your body, or having the foot rests of a wheel chair rammed into your Achilles tendon or your shin, or having something thrown at you. Nope, I would NOT underestimate a nursing home resident at all. And some of those feisty residents are still quite capable former military. You want to go there, you’ve been warned that they will not take to having THEIR possessions and supplies requisitioned for your survival lying down or without a fight. But I know that some people wouldn’t even think twice about it.
Heartless says
February 25, 2018 at 5:23 pmNot on the list. Homes, preferrably abandoned homes. They’re the most likely places to look and be relatively undisturbed or noticed doing so. It is amazing how much the average American household has that would be left behind in a panic bug-out. The big plus is that most items will be exactly what you need.
Illini Warrior says
February 26, 2018 at 8:04 amyou know you’re only one seemingly deserted home away from either being a murderer or getting murdered – ALL the homes will be looking deserted !!!!!
TPSnodgrass says
February 25, 2018 at 2:50 pmPrisons? You, can go there after s SHTF event, I won’t. That’s just asinine.
Illini Warrior says
February 25, 2018 at 12:56 pmthe majority of the SHTFs won’t be of the nature “BAM” – it’s SHTFtime …. it’ll be a long drawn out period of time with certain indications to what is coming (some preppers are of the opinion that we have been/are experiencing this now !!) …
during this period the more intuitive and better resourced $$$$ will be buying up the ready supplies – increasing that momentum to the eventual point that the JIT re-supply system is kaput and the shelves are empty – most likely resulting in the total destruction of retail thru looting & rioting …
that list of 50 places – only viable if the SHTF is an “overniter” – otherwise they’ll be sold out well in advance or shutdown and the employees taking home the resources ….
PREP NOW – expecting to get ANY supplies post-SHTF is just totally fool hardy …
lonewolf. says
February 25, 2018 at 2:32 amsurely the point of being a prepper is to PREPARE, not act like a sheeple and put yourself at risk post SHTF by going into places where looters and bad people might be.
if you get injured or even killed scavenging who will look after your family then?
Tim Strimple says
February 23, 2018 at 8:41 pmI feel much better now. More or less, not.