Purposeful Stockpiling

Some people stockpile certain things on purpose. I have know people who have had fetishes for vast quantities of paper products for both kitchen and bath or for canned goods.



My friends mom had more paper products than seemed reasonable to me; I usually buy a multi-pack when they're on sale but one seems to be enough. I can always buy more later. I do not need a huge mountain of packs of paper products. In addition to sheer bulk, they're not terribly cheap.



Other people stockpile canned goods, whether canning at home or buying from the store; in the 1950's people were told to have canned goods on hand in their bomb shelter and this mentality may just have pervaded society. While I don't think my sister has quite gone over the edge, she does keep a lot more canned goods on hand than I think is necessary. I'm sure she has sufficient to fill a couple of paper grocery sacks in their entirety. She has at least two types of emergency in mind; the greater portion is related to the possibility of power outage, being snowed in or, since she seems to have a lot of tomato products, a worldwide shortage of canned tomatoes. The other possible emergency, for which she stockpiles soup, is when you haven't been grocery shopping in awhile, forgot to thaw something out for dinner or don't feel like cooking.

I have some canned goods, but usually not stockpiles. The odd can of water chestnuts or soup. Not much else. My emergencies are clearly not going to be tomato-based.

There are probably Sociology students doing studies on this for inclusion in their theses. What would trigger stockpiling of a certain item? In my case, sales, carelessness and not being quite so poor that I've had to pay that close attention result in stockpiles of products. I'm working on changing that.