NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- A devastating earthquake strikes Japan. A massive tsunami kills thousands. Fears of a nuclear meltdown run rampant. Bloodshed and violence escalate in Libya.
And U.S. companies selling doomsday bunkers are seeing sales skyrocket anywhere from 20% to 1,000%.
Northwest Shelter Systems, which offers shelters ranging in price from $200,000 to $20 million, has seen sales surge 70% since the uprisings in the Middle East, with the Japanese earthquake only spurring further interest. In hard numbers, that's 12 shelters already booked when the company normally sells four shelters per year.
"Sales have gone through the roof, to the point where we are having trouble keeping up," said Northwest Shelter Systems owner Kevin Thompson.
UndergroundBombShelter.com, which sells portable shelters, bomb shelters and underground bunkers, has seen inquiries soar 400% since the Japanese earthquake. So far sales of its $9,500 nuclear biological chemical shelter tents are at an all-time high -- with four sold in California last week, compared to about one a month normally.
I find this article to be very interesting because this is good news for the U.S. consumer confidence and particularly attractive as well for that sector. The question is though, is the consumer confidence going to decrease in the U.S. economy as a whole due to series of crises around the globe? And the world as well?
2 comments:
I would disagree with the increase in consumer confidence. I think the fact that people are buying shelters in such large numbers is an indicator of great worrying among the populace of both Japan and the United States. In addition, this (rather irrational) consumption won't last very long. Lybia has no nuclear capabilities, and an explosion like Chernobyl in Japan likely would have happened already if it was going to.
If you have the money to spare then why not? The store owner that used his $20,000 down payment for a house for a spot in a shelter really surprises me. The chances of one of these shelters being necessary are very small. One thing that I didn't understand was why a wine cellar was needed when survival is the main point of these shelters.
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