72 hours of food is just grocery shopping
this post was submitted on 26 Mar 2025
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Thank goodness that wars only last for 3 days exactly.
72 hours, the average length of a special military operation.
That has been the recommendation for civil protection for a while already. Not so much because of the risks of war, but e. g. floodings, power outages, storms etc. And most importantly you should stockpile water, because at a power outage, there will be no tap water anymore. That's the most important bit people here seem to forget. So nothing new here, actually.
My grandma lived through WWII and rationing. After she died, we were cleaning out her house to find she had hidden cans of food stockpiled everywhere: behind the washing machine, in the pit in her garage, in the corners of her loft, everywhere.
If rationing ever came back in, she was more than ready for it.
I'm from EU and this is way less than my country suggests, which is 2 weeks.
I actually have 2 weeks supplies, but I'm gonna eat baked beans and vegan chocolate and drink coke zero the last few days 😅
Yeah, 3 days is a joke. Do they expect a war to be over in 3 days?
It’s an estimate on how long you need to survive on your own, before the government is able to help.
I think that's very optimistic. Looking at how COVID went, I have no faith at all in people's ability to stay calm. The government isn't going to be able to help those in need 3 days in with the masses of idiots around. No way.
Well, during COVID the idea was still that things should run as normally, with a market economy and stuff. During an actual war, any sensible government would immediately take control of the distribution of food, water, energy and other essentials. Scalpers would be immediately detained, rather than to allow them to run rampant.
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It is not just for war, but disasters in general, imagine a colapse or jamming of internet network or credit card buying or isolation from a flood or erathquake, help and minimum delivery infrastructures may take easily 3 days in effectively reach the people in need, is a reasonable amount to recover from the shock having around in average the minimum to survive in the mean time. Worse problems will be waiting for solution but this could save lives and improve significantly circumstances.
More likely they expect to be able to get support/reinforcement/aid in, within a couple of days.
It's big enough to be a useful stopgap, but small enough not to accidentally cause a run on the supermarkets. It also makes people think about it more. If they update it to 2 weeks later, people are more likely to have a feel for what they need, and what will keep.
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Given how quickly supermarket shelves emptied at the start of COVID, this is good advice generally for a crisis.
True. We had a pretty big storm here a couple of years ago and the next day the supermarket shelves were almost empty. We really don't usually think about how fragile the supply chain is when it comes to a crisis.
72 hours of food is crazy to me. I would be making a trip to the store when down to maybe a week or two.
Guess Europe really does shop different.
I have half a dozen supermarkets in 10min radius by foot. multiple more if I use a bike/scooter.
There's really not much use in stocking huge amounts of food at home, especially when you want to cook fresh stuff.
Non-perishable things like canned and frozen meals is mainly used as a fallback in case of lazyness (ignoring canned stuff for ingredients)
I go to the supermarket at least once a week. normally 2-3 times
Completely depends on how you live.
Someone who lives in a house with plenty of storage and a 30 minute drive to the nearest store will have a lot of food at home. Whereas someone who lives in a tiny apartment with a five minute walk to the store will not.
In general, places like American suburbs, with huge single-family homes, no stores and complete reliance on cars, are rare in Europe.
I don't live in the states, but the reliance on driving here is real. Small towns are lucky to have one grocery store and are usually very expensive.
I prefer eating fresh food, which means that I usually have to go to the store roughly every other day. If I buy more than a couple days of food, it just means more crap in the fridge and more spoilage.
And if my food did last longer than a few days without spoiling, then I'd really start to question what it was made of....
Editing to add that this is easily possible because I have several stores within a short walk or ride on the transit, as it was also pointed out in a sibling comment.
I guess where I am there is limited fresh food available anyway. Other then breadstuffs and the odd tomato/lettuce the stuff I get at the store has to last at least 2 weeks. Also might be why I appreciate my garden so much.
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Just a question for people here who do not have 72 hours of food stored in their homes? Do you go to the supermarket every day? Or do you cook at all? What are you doing on the weekend? What happens when you're sick and can't go shopping?
Do you go to the supermarket every day?
There's 5 food stores <7 minutes away from my apartment,. Why stockpile when you can just walk and pick up fresh food every other day.
What happens when you're sick and can't go shopping?
Is that a common occurrence? Just get a friend or family member to shop for you if you're that ill, or order food delivery.
But don't you still have some staple stuff like noodles, rice, frozen or canned foods and so on in your house? Combined with the fact that you might buy food in larger quantities (e.g. not just 1 apple, but 6 or maybe 1kg), i'd also imagine that most people have enough food for 3 days in their house.
The imo more interesting thing would be fresh water.
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Do you have 72 hours of food supplies that you can use in case of an emergency? When there is no water and no electricity, and you can't cook mac&cheese in the oven.
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Might happen at the end of month for me. We go grocery shopping with a car at the beginning of the month, but 31 days are longer than my freezer is big and a backpack can only hold so much. So I respectfully ask Putin not to attack on the 29th.
Supermarket daily, mostly microwave stuff.
I eat what I buy. If I buy a days food I'll eat it in a day, if I buy 2 days food I'll probably also eat that in 1 day. If I'm sick I wear a mask, if I'm super sick I ask someone to deliver me some shopping but then it is more than a days worth because I don't want to ask someone to do my shopping every day.
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Meanwhile, here in the Uk our government is making sure we won't have enough money to buy more than two days of food at a time.
I mean, 14 consecutive years of Conservative leadership will do that to the best of nations.
No doubt the UK has a MASSIVE uphill struggle ahead to bring back a sense of prosperity for its people, but it’s a bit disingenuous to make it sound as though it’s the fault of a Government that’s been in power for less than a year so far.
It can take mere seconds to destroy something, and multiple times longer than that to fix it.
In Australia, we are a couple years ahead of the UK (in terms of our first Labor Gov’t following a decade+ of Conservative leadership); things don’t magically get better overnight, but we are at least on the correct path now — here’s hoping we don’t fuck things up by voting the Cons back in later this year 😫
Oh I'm well aware that the Con govmnt has been an appalling dismantling of our country, but Labour are so far appearing to largely be following suit. Remember the Tory repetition about the need for austerity? It just feels like a repeat of that, to put it very breifly. I know 14 years can't be fixed overnight, but shitting on the poor and needy, who have been suffering the most already is just grotesque. There's plenty of condemnation by journalists and MPs alike for this as well as some calls to tax the rich instead.
I've never voted for either so I'm looking at what they do through neutral(ish!) eyes and I don't see politics so much an ever increasing pandering to the corporate economy (over decades).
I can't say I'm too knowledgable about Aus politics, but got glimpses of how bad your last govmnt was through the Guardian. Hope you have a better time than us with a new set of faces!
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72 hours means you go to the store on Monday and then again on Friday. I thought this was kind of the norm for everyone? I mean, not for me, I go once every 10 days but surely 3 days is not that big of a deal?
I read that as 72 days at first and thought something serious was expected soon. Oh, 72 HOURS. Who doesn't have that?
Also unless you are on the border, how useful is that likely to be? What would the expectation be, only short term supply chain disruption so shops may run out of something in the first few days but after that food supply will adjust to it?
I don't think the preparation is meant for full blown war. It's for disruptions.
Russia won't be able drive tanks all over Europe any time soon, but they are capable of cutting cables to attack energy distribution, hacking payment methods and other infrastructure dependent on networks.
Remember the start of Covid? There was plenty of toiletpapir, hand sanitizer and test kits for everyone, but nobody could get it in stores for a long time because everyone wanted it at the same time. It's better if everyone stock up over a longer period of time, so it doesn't crash the supply chain when it is needed.
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Germany's advice for normal times is to be stocked up for 11 days. 3 Days compared to that is laughable even so it is better than 0.
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I don't have 72hrs of food at home, because I have almost no self control. 2 days of food can very easily also be one day of food haha
72 hours? No problem. Always have a big bag of rice on hand and you're done.
Only if you have lots of water too. And preferably some way to heat it (though you can totally swell rice in cold water)
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what about fasting? I bet we have enough fat to fast couple weeks at least
I'm happy I'm growing my own food.
Though I don't think much will happen to Ireland.
Canada here. Same for us in the food department. though I am less enthused about what may happen to us with yam tits raging downstairs.
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