In the civil war the south found the lack of salt a crippling deficiency. With no way to feed their animals in the winter and no way to keep the meat till then. And it's something that is cheap now, but might be expensive in a long term crisis. Depending of course. as someone has already said, if you are in an area that will have a shortage. The good citizens of Jericho for instance had a salt mine. And it was their main trade goods.
The Sock