[Boomstick Mike]

What do you think would be the first 5 business types or business chains to get ransacked during the initial looting phase of the zombie apocalypse? Then give me your choice of where you would first loot. Different distances aren't a factor in choosing because they are all 1 mile away. If you don't have 5 I still would like your thoughts and however many you do have and your choice. I will wait to post mine at first so I don't mess with anyone's ideas.

[CAVU45]

Department stores (Wal Mart, K Mart, etc.)
Grocery stores
Pharmacies
Malls (I know, technically not a store)
Electronics stores (Best Buy, etc.)

[Underdude]

Gas station (with minimart hopefully).
Grocery store (with pharmacy hopefully).
Clinic or hospital
Outdoor/ sporting goods store (that doesn't sell guns).
Hardware store.

Gun shop is last, there's probably somebody there, well armed to boot.

[Zombreach]

I think a lot would depend on the extent of the zombie populace. With this in mind...there will always be idiots who will loot stores for electronics, so I will go with:

Best Buy or related stores
Wal-Mart or similar
Grocery stores
Pawn shops
Pharmacies

Personally, my first stop would be a CVS or similar...then on to a location where I can stock up on food/water--preferably not Wal-Mart....

[Sluggo]

Hopefully, I have enough supplies to stay away from mobs of looters, but the shelves of Wally World would go pretty fast, as well as attempts on gun stores, unless the owner is protecting it. At least until the food runs out.
How about car lots? How many people would be trying to commandeer a new truck or van? A full sized Ford could haul a lot more stuff than a car. Never mind the roads becoming clogged with panicked people attempting to flee the city.

[Zombreach]

Sluggo, on 29 June 2011 - 10:13 PM, said:

Hopefully, I have enough supplies to stay away from mobs of looters, but the shelves of Wally World would go pretty fast, as well as attempts on gun stores, unless the owner is protecting it. At least until the food runs out.
How about car lots? How many people would be trying to commandeer a new truck or van? A full sized Ford could haul a lot more stuff than a car. Never mind the roads becoming clogged with panicked people attempting to flee the city.

Main problem with a car lot is getting the keys to the van/truck. I am not sure exactly how they are set up, but I don't think the keys are easily accessible.

[Sluggo]

People would try...I doubt car lots would be guarded and breaking into the office to look for keys would not even raise an eyebrow. They could also be hot-wired. Hopefully I won't have to deal with traffic or looters, as I'm living out in the boonies for now.

[zbuddy]

I remember reading a few articles on this sort of thing, although it was exclusive to the United States, and If memory serves right the typical first priority on looters lists would most likely be:

Hospitals
Liquor Stores
Electronic Stores
Super-Market type stores

In general the hospitals seemed to be targeted because of their extremely low security, large amount of resources (e.g., drugs, fuel, tools), and people undergoing duress at the place. I don't have more data for this, but I do remember being startled by it.

Liquor Store I remember being on the list because, unfortunately, a lot of the looting that takes place here tends to be done by those not doing too well (read - welfare). Therefore, the things you cannot buy with foodstamps are often looted first - diapers, cigarettes, booze

Electronic Stores - there are a lot of dumb ass people around who fancy themselves 'opportunists' and are trying to make a quick buck, not survive.

Super-Markets were often looted because of all the reasons above. However, a lot of food was left behind in lieu of the more pricey ****.


Note: I was reading quite a bit during and after the catastrophe in Japan and noticed that places like 7-11 often always had food, batteries, et cetera because it was often over-looked. Although no one was looting in Japan, their culture deserves MAJOR kudos for this, I like to think people would behavior in a similar fashion around the world - what do you guys think?

-Z

[Cornflakes]

Well I live 10 minutes away from the city centre in the pub/club zone beside the stundent zone so I'm quite fortunate this are at my front step

Pharmacy
Garage (just what we call a 7-11 but you can also get petrol and oil at it)
Off-license
Stundent union (has bookshops, record stores etc)
Supermarket

I'm trying to think more about location and what is ctually near me, mostly take aways, garages pubs and clubs.
I would stock my home with enough goodies to try and ride it out as long as I could. Getting petrol and alcohol would be used in making petrol bombs (really not helping my national stereotype) and to keep spirits up. I know pointless against a zombie but a handy way to scare of any looters when most places are ransacked and their suplies get low. Also a makeshift weapon as there are no guns shops in Belfast

[Bob]

Liquor stores
Drug Stores
Dept Stores
Electronics
Grocery Stores

[FFG]

Not Walmart. There are a couple million people whose zombie survival plan begins with, 'Go to Walmart.'

Smaller pharmacies.
Smaller food stores
Food warehouses
Sporting good stores w/o guns
Farm supply

zbuddy, on 29 June 2011 - 10:49 PM, said:

I remember reading a few articles on this sort of thing, although it was exclusive to the United States, and If memory serves right the typical first priority on looters lists would most likely be:

Hospitals
Liquor Stores
Electronic Stores
Super-Market type stores

In general the hospitals seemed to be targeted because of their extremely low security, large amount of resources (e.g., drugs, fuel, tools), and people undergoing duress at the place. I don't have more data for this, but I do remember being startled by it.

Liquor Store I remember being on the list because, unfortunately, a lot of the looting that takes place here tends to be done by those not doing too well (read - welfare). Therefore, the things you cannot buy with foodstamps are often looted first - diapers, cigarettes, booze

Electronic Stores - there are a lot of dumb ass people around who fancy themselves 'opportunists' and are trying to make a quick buck, not survive.

Super-Markets were often looted because of all the reasons above. However, a lot of food was left behind in lieu of the more pricey ****.


Note: I was reading quite a bit during and after the catastrophe in Japan and noticed that places like 7-11 often always had food, batteries, et cetera because it was often over-looked. Although no one was looting in Japan, their culture deserves MAJOR kudos for this, I like to think people would behavior in a similar fashion around the world - what do you guys think?

-Z

IMO hospitals are a place to avoid. They will be one of the first places over run by the zed.

[nleksan]

Supermarkets
Firearm/Sporting Stores
Gas Stations
Pharmacies
Police Stations


If I were in charge of my own little team of survivors, say 12-15 people, I would first have everyone fortify the current location to act as a temporary (or potentially permanent) base of operations. Being that I live in a small town outside of a big city, and in a pretty nice middle-class neighborhood, I'm going to assume that the people I'm with are between 16-45 years old: physically fit enough to have survived the initial wave of zombies. Knowing that four of my neighbors are hunters, and that a few more keep at least one firearm in the house, we would first gather all of the weapons and ammunition we could from them. To my knowledge, this would mostly consist of 12 and 20g shotguns (a mix of double barrel, pump-action, and semi-auto; the shells primarily being birdshot, 00Buck, and Deer Slugs), a mix of bolt-action hunting rifles (primarily .30cal, but at least one is .308Win-Mag), a few semi-auto hunting/plinking rifles (.22lr, .223, and .30; one guy I know has 2 M1 carbines), and a mix of handguns both semi-auto and revolvers (.22, .38, .40, .45, 9mm, and at least one .357Mag and one .44Mag). This should be enough to outfit the group until better weapons can be acquired. Then, I'd split into three scavenging teams of 4ppl each, leaving at least 2ppl behind to guard the house and continue with fortifications. All three groups would head to the local Ford dealer 2miles away to grab some trucks, hopefully some nice F-250's or even F-350's, and maybe a cargo van. Depending on what's available, each person would either get their own vehicle, or we'd have two vehicles per team with two people per vehicle, doubling or quadrupling storage space as well as keeping us from putting "all our eggs in one basket".
From there, one team would go to my former workplace (1/8mile from the Ford dealer, less than 2miles from my house) and load up two trucks with some nice weapons and ammunition (M4/M16 variants, AK's, a plethora of handguns, combat shotguns, submachineguns inc MP5's, MP7's, UMP's, Mac-11's, as well as some long-arms both bolt action and semi auto; not to mention all of the spare magazines and tens of thousands of rounds of rifle/pistol/shotgun ammo) as well as tactical gear ranging including RADIOS, vests, holsters, tactical goggles, NVG's, balaclavas, gloves, magazine pouches and other pouches, boots, and whatever else. From there, the same group would head to the local police station, 1/2mile away, and grab as many weapons/gear/ammo as possible while also raiding the evidence locker. From there, we would meet up with the supermarket group, distribute better weapons and ammunition as well as radios and whatever gear they can get. Any empty room in the back of our three trucks would be filled with the pharmaceuticals, and then off to meet group three.
Group two would head to the two big supermarkets 1/2mile from the Ford dealer and grab whatever canned food and non-perishable items they could. One of the two stocks ammunition for hunters, so they'd be able to also get a couple hundred each of 12/20g shells, .38/.40/9mm/.357 rounds, and .223/.308 rounds. Hopefully they'd be able to get their hands on some of the portable generators they sell there, but if not, there is a Home Depot, a Lowe's, and a Sear's in the same big shopping area. They would also be instructed to raid the supermarket's pharmacies, grabbing every bottle on the shelves and in the safes. They'd also be instructed to grab as many 3/5/9gallon plastic gas cans as possible, which would be picked up by group 3.
Group 3 would grab all of the plastic gas containers they can find in the neighborhood, and start by hitting all of the local gas stations and filling everything they can. From there, they would meet with Group 1 to get better weapons and Radios, and would continue on to home improvement and automotive stores, gathering stronger materials for fortification as well as a bunch of vehicle maintenance items (spark plugs/etc). Also they would grab as many car batteries as possible, as well as any generators, regular batteries, flashlight/lanterns, and similar survival-type gear.
At this point, the trucks/vans would hopefully be 80% full, and we would find a hopefully relatively safe place to meet. While a few people stand guard, we'd shuffle things around to fill some vehicles to 100% capacity, leaving hopefully 2-3 at less than 30%. Those without full vehicles (approx 4 people) would be equipping themselves with their weapons of choice, wearing whatever gear they feel comfortable with, and loading as many magazines as they can comfortably carry. While the loaded trucks head back to base, we last four would head around the four main roads that make a sort of square around the town, hitting every pharmacy we see and loading up the truck with everything from behind the counter, primarily antibiotics, antivirals, insulin, and everything from the safes which is primarily opiates (morphine, oxycodone, fentanyl, hydromorphone, etc) and stimulants (amphetamine and the like), which would be extremely useful (fortunately, most pharmacies keep the strongest stuff in safes, which the average junkie surviving in a ZPAW isn't going to know how to open... having worked in a pharmacy, I feel I'd be at a bit of an advantage, especially with the Detcord we'd hopefully gotten from the police station).

From there, we'd head back and just try and survive, scavenging whenever we can, and hopefully keeping our base zombie-free.

[mattifikation]

Your plan sounds too complicated. A plan is like a machine. The more moving parts it has, the more potential points of failure it has as well.

First place I would loot is an abandoned apartment building.

[Boomstick Mike]

Dept Stores - one being Walmart
Grocery Stores
Pharmacies
Sporting Goods Stores
Hardware Stores

I guess I should have specified that power was down for this senario, but I didn't so don't worry about it. With no power would you still hit the gas stations?

Walmart is my choice hands down although I see some hate my idea for different reasons. I don't have time at the moment to go into my choice any deeper at the moment. All I will say is if you look at my 5 picks, though not as specialized, are a dept at a Super Walmart. Plus you can add in a limted amount of guns.

[fg42lol]

You and everyone else, Mike. Walmart = No Go.

[Underdude]

Nleksan, way too much. You split up and spread yourselves too thin (my opinion). You're bound to come across other groups who didn't split up and are just as heavily armed, maybe more so. MP7? How long could you feed that? Setup each group with radios? In a rush? If somebody doesn't know what they're doing that falls apart. I feel you'll end up losing what little you've gained.

[mattifikation]

Boomstick Mike, on 30 June 2011 - 01:15 PM, said:

Dept Stores - one being Walmart
Grocery Stores
Pharmacies
Sporting Goods Stores
Hardware Stores

I guess I should have specified that power was down for this senario, but I didn't so don't worry about it. With no power would you still hit the gas stations?

Walmart is my choice hands down although I see some hate my idea for different reasons. I don't have time at the moment to go into my choice any deeper at the moment. All I will say is if you look at my 5 picks, though not as specialized, are a dept at a Super Walmart. Plus you can add in a limted amount of guns.

The thing is, it doesn't really matter if Wal-Mart sells everything you want. The place will be a riot scene when you get there, with everyone trying to get to the same supplies in the same place. Many of those people will show up armed, and many will show up infected. That means there will be armed bad guys as well as zombies to contend with. You won't be leaving that place with any valuable supplies. You'll be lucky to leave with your life.

If you want to know what it would be like, imagine a Black Friday sale. Now add in panic, gunfire, and zombies.

[Rok]

Grocery Stores
Gas Stations
Electronic Stores
Bass Pro
Hardware Stores

[Underdude]

Ever go shopping on Black Friday? It would be 10 times worse, and with weapons.

Matt, why an apartment building?
Would there be a deserted one?

[mattifikation]

At first, probably not. I guess I was thinking of that as more of a "later on" idea.

But why not an apartment building? What could you possibly need to live that wouldn't be in an apartment building? For that matter, if you found a retirement complex that was recently abandoned, you'd probably even be able to find every pharmaceutical supply on the face of the planet.

As with any scavenging mission, success hinges on lucky timing. You want to get there after the place has been abandoned, but before other people pick the place clean.

Here's another possibility... check the abandoned cars stuck on the roadside heading away from Wal-Mart. ;-)