I've been looking to add some variety to my stores of long-term food, and I've noticed that retailers are getting slammed with orders at the same time that stocks are low. It's not up to pre-Y2K levels yet, but Walton Feed has pushed their shipping times out to months instead of weeks. Emergency Essentials (beprepared.com) has removed a lot of their larger package deals from their website, and the guy at Survival Acres (who is, admittedly, wound pretty tightly) is threatening in his blog to close up shop due to an avalanche of orders. He is still buried even after setting the minimum order level at $500!

Are more people paying attention to the news? Is this panic buying? I think the shortages and higher wheat prices play into it a little bit, but these places seem to be selling out of food at any price.

Interesting times.