I've been reading the reports of what parts of the grocery stores have been picked clean, so I decided go reconnoiter. I figured I'd add to my stash what I could. If I didn't find anything useful, it was no big deal.
The parking lot at HEB was pretty well full, but I grabbed a spot that was just being vacated. The cart park was empty, and people were collecting them out of the parking lot.

Went inside, looked around a bit. There were no loaves of bread or hot dog/hamburger buns to be seen. There was a full rack of pita pockets and the shelves of tortillas were full. I later found a very full rack of various size rolls.

The water bottle aisle was mostly picked clean, except for the gatorade powder and some nasty energy drinks. The bullion cube shelf was full.

The store did have a half supply of milk. The store had plenty of yogurt. The soup/beef stew aisle was about 2/3rds clean, but there was plenty of chili.

The toilet paper aisle was mostly clean, except for about 40 packages of the camp size rolls. There was still several boxes of paper towels. The plasticware section was only about half empty.  The various sizes of plastic bags were about 4/5s full, and the garbage bags looked like nobody had touched them.

There were plenty of cottonballs in various shapes and sizes, and plenty of vaseline. The medical products aisle was also fresh looking, as was the nutrition/fitness food aisle.

There was only one item which I wanted and didn't have, and didn't find either: a magnifying glass. I was amazed and I wondered if some other firestarters had beaten me, or if it was just some blind people.

There were lots of people wandering around looking completely lost. People buying coke, beer, candy, etc. I ran into a coworker and I pointed him in a helpful direction (water filter and purification kits at another store, which I proceeded to tell him I could pretty well guarantee that those shelves were full.). Also told him to grab the gatorade powder and bullion cubes, as well as garbage bags.

I kept overhearing people talk about what they thought they needed, how unsure they were on what it was they really needed, and that everything they were looking for was simply not there.  One woman had a cart full of Heineken. I wonder if she's seen the pictures, and figured they were survival rations?

I then went to Academy. The ammo aisle was full.  The flashlight and battery aisle was nearly picked clean. The raingear aisle was full, and I found an endcap full of disposable ponchos.

Is it bad that I find these sheeple amusing?

Quoted: Enlighten me on the need for bullion cubes when the SHTF.

They cover up the iodine taste and color when purifying water. Gatorade powder does too.

Quoted: Ammo aisles are full?!  I figured they'd be gutted clean along with everything else.  To the Academy!

Academy's customer base is the hardcores.  They had all the ammo they needed.

Quoted: Why did you scope out mundane stuff?  You should have been casing Best Buy and picking out your new plasma tv.

I cased Best Buy last week.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Enlighten me on the need for bullion cubes when the SHTF. They cover up the iodine taste and color when purifying water. Gatorade powder does too. Blink! I didn't think of that. I'm updating my Earthquake kit. I'll add those to the Water purification bag.

Dunno if you've thought of it, but add a bandanna and a water filter as well.

Quoted: I always try to stock up on a little bit every time I shop ( water, canned foods etc) but I missed the opportunity to buy that handcrank radio form Radio Shack when Rita passed me by....

That shelf was full when I dropped by REI as well.  I grabbed one.

Quoted: Quoted: There were lots of people wandering around looking completely lost. People buying coke, beer, candy, etc.   Did you bring your notebook and a camcorder to record this?  I wonder if you looked like a bemused survival veteran surveying our populations general preparedness during this recon, or if people were kind of wondering why you were wandering around. No disrespect intended, but I detect a hint of misanthropic elitism in this post.

Not meant to be elitist at all, although I'll admit to a degree of misanthropy. Mostly it was amusing, but I felt some degree of sympathy. Every one of us was unprepared at some point in the past.
Since I enjoy imparting information to other people, I had a desire to start pulling people aside and telling them where to go and what to buy when they got there. It is safe to safe that not many people get prepared in a vacuum; we had somebody actively guiding us or simply being a good example.
I'm sure people were just wondering why I was wondering around.