[Mossberg590]

I had a former workplace set-up as a possible bug-out location. I was managing a drug store in Washington State. It was a large drug store with a camping department.

What first made me think of it was our compactor. We had a large trash compactor behind the store fed from a chute from our backroom. One day a truck driving behind the building hit it and we couldn't get it replaced. We had the outside wall sealed and our door to it locked, so we threw a padlock on it. This left a 3'X3'X6" area sealed on one end and locked on another, so I clipped the lock and put my own on it. The store was stocked with almost everything, so I loaded this space up with weapons and ammo. The store's office had a window that overlooked the front doors and would have worked incredibly well for defense, I would have just lined up some kitty litter bags to provide some cover.
The only downside is that I would have to get there quickly in the event of societal breakdown as pharmacies are usually hit early. I lived nearby and could have gotten my family there in about 20 minutes counting the time it would take to get our BOBs loaded in the car.

 

[13ella]

I can say with 100% certainty that I have never considered my workplace as a BOL. There is a methadone clinic in the building and their clients get confused about which business has their "medicine". Our door stays locked at all times. Handguns lay on desktops within easy reach. Mine is carried on me concealed. Pretty much no one comes into the office other than employees, Fed Ex and the mailman.

Reading over the above paragraph for typos, it occurs to me that it sounds like I work in the illegal drug trade... :rofl: I assure you that I don't. The office just happens to be in a bad neighborhood. :rofl:

 

[acr97red]

No, Retired!

 

[Porkchop Samich]

At my last job, I took a lesson from George Costanza. I built a desk big enough to sleep under with a camping mat. It came in handy when working a lot of overtime. I even had a bathroom with a shower in my office.

 

[JBryan314]

I'm withJBryan, I work in a hospital. It's the VERY last place I would want to be.

When the SHTF, many people will go straight to the ER. When hurricane Ivan hit my home area, people started showing up to the ER before the storm hit. They didn't have any real medical issues, but that's where they went. I was 18 but my uncle and aunt both worked in the hospital. Now my parents and my wife and I all do too. The instant any major event looks to be near, people come in. Idiots who have nowhere better to be, even their homes.

 

[TRyan]

Has anyone considered BO to their workplace if SHTF?

I'm thinking of a local or possibly regional event that renders the residence uninhabitable and unrepairable, overwhelmed hotels, and impaired transportation/communication. But... the employer is still functioning, even if at a lower level, and by staying you would not lose your job.

I actually have. I keep preps in my office along with things to protect myself if SHTF. I also consider my work a BO location because it is surrounded by two gates and had enough water and food to sustain 600 people for at least 2 weeks. Most people have no idea it is there and I am one of very few that have keys to everything.

This would all, of course, depend on when/what time of day SHTF occurred.

 

[oldiron_79]

If there was a significant enough shtf that getting in trouble with the law for stealing my work vehicle was no longer a concern I've got keys to a fueled up truck with enough range to make Canada or Mexico either one.

 

[Writer's Block]

I am of two minds on this idea.

On the one hand, I think it is an ideal location for caching supplies; in a locker, personal desk, office, etc.

On the other hand, unless you own the place there are limits. As well, many people (like myself) try to get jobs NEAR where they work. This means an incident that affects your home may well affect your work place too.

 

[DangerMoose]

I am of two minds on this idea.

On the one hand, I think it is an ideal location for caching supplies; in a locker, personal desk, office, etc.

On the other hand, unless you own the place there are limits. As well, many people (like myself) try to get jobs NEAR where they work. This means an incident that affects your home may well affect your work place too.

My view is that it should be potentially considered as one of several viable locations.
Afterall, if something sudden does kick-off, there is a good chance many of us would be at work.

So if you are prepared at work, then you are already there.
A good alternative is obviously have your daily driver stocked.

The recent France shootings are a good example, they targeted folk at work, when they ran, they holed-up on an industrial estate after that and people couldn't escape from work.
When bombs started going off on trains and buses in London on 11/7 the best place to wait it out would have been to stay at work rather than risk public transport.
Luckily terrorism is a rare thing, but I understand mass shootings are a semi-regular occurance in the US when people 'go postal'?

My nearby (as mentioned earlier) is actually no-longer my primary employer, but it is a family business, my family, so I'm regularly there, know everyone, have a set of keys and store a few things there (mainly extra motorbikes). It is also 3 minutes walk from my house.
My regular work is also a secure facility due to the nature of some of our work, big fences, security, but it is in the city; so I would rather not hang around after the event.
I'd stay put until I knew more of what's going on, then workout which direction to go.


I've rambled on enough, I suppose to sum up my view;
Although it may not be the ideal BOL, you may be forced to bug in until something blows over.

 

[Nutty Old Geezer]

Before I had to retire, I had the perfect BOL. 40,000ft up, 5,500 mile range. Two bathrooms (one for crew, one for the boss), Kitchen stocked with a few nibbles. Now I live in my BOL, in a area where most people won't even think about coming to. Perfect for me.

 

[tomclay98]

I work in a large metal building garage/ warehouse. It has 8 ft chain link and wire on top of that. We also have a backup generator and plenty of fuel. In my office I have a plush couch, cabinet with two drawers of food items. there is a fridge, microwave, and hotplate in the room next to it. in one of the back corners of one of the warehouses I have two mattresses, camping supplies, ammo, guns and food. my wife works wit me and gets to bring our daughter to work. its all good if it goes down and were here.

 

[InOmaha]

If I was at work, I'd rather be home with the family.

If we were at home and needed to leave, going to work would mean driving into the city. I'd rather go the same distance away from it.

 

[Al Diehl]

Actually, working on a military installation would/could/should have it's perks should I not be able to get home. Getting my wife to me or, myself to my wife would be the major concern.

I am sure that if we could not leave the installation for whatever reason, the Military would figure out some type of sustainment though. That's good for me if, I happen to be at work should that happen. I would hope that I could get to my wife and our preps because, I feel that would be best for both of us.

If, I were at home and the SHTF I would do everything I could to stay there. As planned and prepped for.

Al

 

[zorost]

Luckily terrorism is a rare thing, but I understand mass shootings are a semi-regular occurance in the US when people 'go postal'?

They are not regular. Making it seem so is to the political advantage of many in power, and they make sure every incident in the US gets maximum coverage. They also make sure that the talking heads talk about the evil gun culture of violence in the US. Europe has pretty extreme gun laws, so you'd think that mass shootings there would be rare right?

"Europe has a lot of multiple victim shootings. If you look at a per capita rate, the rate of multiple-victim public shootings in Europe and the United States over the last 10 years have been fairly similar to each other."

http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/dg...enfield/europe-has-same-rate-of-multiple-victim-shootings-as-the-united-states/

 

[DangerMoose]

They are not regular. Making it seem so is to the political advantage of many in power, and they make sure every incident in the US gets maximum coverage. They also make sure that the talking heads talk about the evil gun culture of violence in the US. Europe has pretty extreme gun laws, so you'd think that mass shootings there would be rare right?

"Europe has a lot of multiple victim shootings. If you look at a per capita rate, the rate of multiple-victim public shootings in Europe and the United States over the last 10 years have been fairly similar to each other."

http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/dg...enfield/europe-has-same-rate-of-multiple-victim-shootings-as-the-united-states/

I didn't say regular.

I'd also prefer not to get dragged into a debate on UK/EU/US gun control and the variety of available statistics which paint wildly different pictures of the truth / non-truth / truths dressed to fit an agenda etc.

My mentioning would be that where I am, I would not be readily concerned about someone coming into my place of work angry and with gun.
There are people on this forum (intend US) who have described exactly that fear or experience.
Hence semi-regular, it is irregular, but has an unfortunate frequency,
But it's been a few years since I was stateside.

 

[NyteOwl]

To varying degrees, the place I work did become a bugout/bug in/warming shelter for hundreds of folks during 3 good sized events in 6 months (hurricane/winter storms) Irine, Alfred and Sandy. Employees could bring in family members, neighbors and friends, people from the community could come in. It was one of the few large facilities with power and heat, folks could take showers in the shower rooms off of the gym, there is a medical clinic on site, they were able to get a hot meal at the cafeteria, the auditorium started screening various shows, of folks brought in movies, or people would read to others. Shortest period was 2 weeks, longest a month and a half.

 

[Rmart30]

After Katrina hit I went to the coast to work out of one of our locations down there and "lived" in the business for about 2 weeks till they found a house to rent.
We had kitchenette and shower, large generator which powered the building so other than phone land lines nothing really changed.

My current employer I would not go to in a similar event. Its in the middle of the hood and would not be a better place to go to for any reason in a short term event.

 

[Braveone]

I work in a grocery store on the poor side of town. So I'll just boogie out to the Mustang and hit the road hopefully. I could live at least a week out of that car with what I have set up in the trunk. I'd probably head down to the Bayfront where there are still a few nooks and crannys that I could lay low in till I found out what was what.

 

[HorseSoldier]

I work in law enforcement. In a real world emergency, I'm expected to bug out to work.

In a zombie apocalypse or after the Rapture or whatever, probably not a great plan, though. Very secure building, but I'm sure it would be a magnet for people thinking it was full of help or stuff to loot.

 

[Old fart]

I work in law enforcement. In a real world emergency, I'm expected to bug out to work.

In a zombie apocalypse or after the Rapture or whatever, probably not a great plan, though. Very secure building, but I'm sure it would be a magnet for people thinking it was full of help or stuff to loot.

Or an opportunity to "get even."

Most LEOs I know are Christians. In case of Rapture, the S will HTF fast and hard because there will be few to respond to calls for the huge number of calls for service, accidents, and traffic control, and everyone can forget about patrol or help with closing areas down to outsiders/looters/raiders/robbers, at least for awhile.