How 4Patriots and My Patriot Supply benefited from preparing for the apocalypse

Pat is particularly concerned about the dynamics of “ownership” or “non-ownership” that pervade any major disaster. “I’m not sure I’d be strong enough to push someone away if they needed food.” “I’m just starting to learn how to shoot,” she continues. “And I’m thinking, ‘Am I going to be able to pull out a gun and shoot someone because they’re trying…'”

“Steal from us,” Bill finishes.

“…Steal from us,” Pat repeats. “Or hurting Bill. These are the kinds of things we discuss in chat rooms.”

The threat of atomic annihilation was the motivating fear of the boomer generation, while many young people point to the events of September 11. Other major events in recent preparedness lore include Hurricane Katrina, the Ebola outbreak, and then, in quick succession, the 2020 Covid pandemic, the 2021 Texas power grid outage, and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Sources at my company Patriot told me that presidential elections also routinely drive sales. One of them explained that after Donald Trump was re-elected in 2024, “we knew sales would decline, and they did.” He later said: “I’m confused why the left hasn’t started to prepare.”

When she entered the Stapleton home on the morning of September 10, everything was normal. Thirty minutes later, news emerged that right-wing activist Charlie Kirk had been shot to death at Utah Valley University, just nine miles south of American Fork. By the time she descended into the Stapleton family’s underground bunker, Kirk’s killer was still on the loose.

A few hours later, in front of the hospital where Kirk’s body was being held, I witnessed a vigil for grieving Americans. One of them was Kelsey Grunwald, a Latter-day Saint member wearing a red, white and blue T-shirt and carrying an American flag. As it turns out, she owns several ready-to-use food products from 4Patriots. In a later interview, Grunewald told me that her preparedness instincts hardened in response to various forces, including on March 18, 2020, when a 5.7-magnitude earthquake rocked Salt Lake City, while the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was shutting down the entire country. She was shocked again when her generally safe and moderate state was hit by political violence. “Evil can creep anywhere,” she said.