At Utah prepper expo, businesses look to growing survivalist community

Bike shop owner Tice Child demonstrates an e-bike's features for a potential customer at the Be Prepared Expo on Friday at the Legacy Events Center in Farmington. Photo: Erin Alberty/Axios

A bathtub installer, an e-bike vendor and a Goldback trader all walk into an event hall.

Driving the news: The prepper movement, once the domain of religious fundamentalists and anti-government extremists, leaped into the mainstream during pandemic-era shutdowns and shortages, exhibitors told Axios during the weekend expo in Farmington.

Why it matters: The growth of prepperism is drawing together an improbable cluster of ideological and commercial interests, with a hippie farmer lecturing on permaculture next to a gold currency booth and Flash My Brass Discount Ammo.

What they're saying: "We've noticed a huge uptick" in prepper business, said Byron Griffith, a sales rep for Bridgford — a California company that developed non-perishable sandwich wraps for the military, expanded to outdoor rec and now is focusing on the "preparedness" market.

Details: Encase, a Houston company that makes heavy-duty emergency storage bags, sprung from a business that sold packaging material to wrap heavy machinery in the aerospace and oil industries, said president Chris DellaValle.

Meanwhile, NutriMill, a St. George company that sells in-home grain mills, is considering a manually powered model to meet prepper requests, sales reps Emma and Ethan Park told Axios.

Zoom in: At the Antelope eBikes booth, a man in a "Tracker Survival" T-shirt asked the range of a fully charged backcountry bike. It's 30 to 40 miles, owner Tice Child said.

Context: Utah is a major driver of the prepper movement due to Mormonism's longtime focus on emergency preparedness, as well as the faith's end-times teachings.

Yes, but: Church leaders have signaled concern that some members may take prepperism too far.

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