I'd spend all my time early on trying to make jerky by laying out, salting, and then using the bicycle/fan to get air movement to help the drying process.

If the Wal Mart has a McDonalds up front, you could probably utilize their exhaust fan for smoke removal.

no electricity.

could you use the same bicycle idea with a generator instead of running it on gas?

Has it been established whether you are completely sealed in (think nuclear crisis) or is air flow too/from outside allowed

Blindside05 said:

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Has it been established whether you are completely sealed in (think nuclear crisis) or is air flow too/from outside allowed

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didn't really establish, but for the thread's sake we'll say not completely sealed in. air flow to/from outside is permitted, but you cant actually go outside or open the doors/windows.

Presley OBannons Sword said:

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Blindside05 said:

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Has it been established whether you are completely sealed in (think nuclear crisis) or is air flow too/from outside allowed

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didn't really establish, but for the thread's sake we'll say not completely sealed in. air flow to/from outside is permitted, but you cant actually go outside or open the doors/windows.

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IE assume zombie apocalypse scenario. You lock/baracade yourself in a walmart and there is no longer electricity or running water. How long can you survive??

Curious question, great thread.

Looking online the biggest Supercenter is about 250,000 sf. For convenience lets call the roof deck to be at 20'. This would make 5,000,000 cuft of "good" air (discounting the air volume taken up by furnishings and product). If there is no way of air getting in and out of the store, how long would the air inside the store be able to provide enough oxygen for one person to survive?

to another question, if you were able to sustain plants with the water and light getting in, could there be enough plants grown to supply the oxygen used by one person in that kind of space?

So you can't go outside but can you go out into the fenced/gated in garden center area and thus have an outside area to use for growing food, gathering solar energy, and creating area flow?

If so, you just solved most of your issues.

guyace said:

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So you can't go outside but can you go out into the fenced/gated in garden center area and thus have an outside area to use for growing food, gathering solar energy, and creating area flow?

If so, you just solved most of your issues.

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no access to the outdoors garden area or the roof for the very reason you stated, it takes all the fun out of the scenario. the building is not air tight though, so you could vent through the existing ductwork.

Can we drill a glory hole in the wall?

lazuras_dc said:

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Can we drill a glory hole in the wall?

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What? So you can suck your own deek?

You're the only one there bro.

I was just thinking, there are still a fair number of Walmarts that have an aquarium section with live fish. It wouldn't be terribly difficult to set up a fish farm raising plecostomus. Might be a little easier for me with a wildlife and fisheries degree, but I bet most anyone here could figure it out. That could end up being a very sustainable low maintenance protein source, especially once you get sick of eating rat.

CanyonAg77 said:

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Wasn't there a crappy Oprah book based on this premise?

(Okay, okay, all the Oprah book club books are crappy. Only know about this one because the wife joined a book club and this was the book they were on at the time. Wife despised the book)

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Yes, and they made a movie out of it, filmed in the Lockhart Wal-mart. In fact, I'm sitting in that building now.

This is a great thread. I'm probably going to use this as a case interview question next time I'm hiring someone.

RealTalk said:

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lazuras_dc said:

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Can we drill a glory hole in the wall?

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What? So you can suck your own deek?

You're the only one there bro.

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He meant exterior wall bro! In the off chance that someone walks by.....

Yeah, but the zombies will use too much teeth....

mneisch said:

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I was just thinking, there are still a fair number of Walmarts that have an aquarium section with live fish. It wouldn't be terribly difficult to set up a fish farm raising plecostomus. Might be a little easier for me with a wildlife and fisheries degree, but I bet most anyone here could figure it out. That could end up being a very sustainable low maintenance protein source, especially once you get sick of eating rat.

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almost seems like a waste of time. The fish they sell at walmart arent generally fast growing-large fish. You are looking at a real time investment to have dinner quality gold fish or aquarium catfish/sucker fish...But if you do put the time in it would likely be better to construct some type of hydrponic garden, circulating the fish water through the garden with some type of rigged up pump. At least you are looking at 2 food sources this way. grow you some martian potatoes and before too long you might have a fish and chip dinner!

I think you guys are over-estimating the construction quality of a walmart. It isn't going to be air tight at all. In addition, air is still going to most likely get blown in/sucked out by the supply/return air ductwork whenever air blows across the outside air opening of the rooftop units. I don't think a small fire would be a problem at all.

And I still maintain that tapping into the roof drain pipes is "legal". Those are inside of the store.

I think a person who had some skills and ingenuity could likely live inside of a Walmart for decades.

After you get those poop-eating perhistoric basterds started, I'm killing you and taking your walmart bro.

A better twist on the OP:

It's you and 4 other people locked in. Last one standing gets out.

What do you do to fight?

Go for guns and ammo.

NoahAg said:

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A better twist on the OP:

It's you and 4 other people locked in. Last one standing gets out.

What do you do to fight?

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I mean they have guns and ammo at Wal-Mart. It would just be a firefight. Your twist sucks.

Presley OBannons Sword said:

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NoahAg said:

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A better twist on the OP:

It's you and 4 other people locked in. Last one standing gets out.

What do you do to fight?

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I mean they have guns and ammo at Wal-Mart. It would just be a firefight. Your twist sucks.

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Haha, shouldn't have said "better." Let's it's assume it's a "modern" PC snowflake Wal-Mart w/ no firearms. So you have to get creative with ropes, chains, and stuff.

(sensing deja vu. I'm sure we've had this thread before.)

Even "modern" walmarts have guns and ammo, they don't have sporting SA rifles.

I can kill you with a shotgun just as easy.

If that is actually the case, I'm poisoning people.

OnlyForNow said:

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If that is actually the case, I'm poisoning people.

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just feed them spoiled food. It gets rid of the old food and the competition, sound like a win win to me

OnlyForNow said:

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Even "modern" walmarts have guns and ammo, they don't have sporting SA rifles.

I can kill you with a shotgun just as easy.

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Some don't sell any guns at all (my local WM).

However, they do sell some knives, both hunting and kitchen, as well as baseball bats and plenty of items to rig up IEDs.

hurricanejake02 said:

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OnlyForNow said:

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Even "modern" walmarts have guns and ammo, they don't have sporting SA rifles.

I can kill you with a shotgun just as easy.

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Some don't sell any guns at all (my local WM).

However, they do sell some knives, both hunting and kitchen, as well as baseball bats and plenty of items to rig up IEDs.

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Rig up IEDs?? That sounds like we fixed our digging a latrine problem. Just blow a dam hole in the ground.

This thread led me to take note that my Walmart had approximately 12 pallets of bottled water and roughly 500 single gallons.

No solar panels or generators though. There were also accordion doors between sections of the supermarket area that combined with the walk ins could potentially create a moderately sealed area for the rotting food.

More inspection needed to formulate plan.

As this point I'd say 3-5 years is doable with little planning.

We still need clarification from OP if the area that is chainlink fenced around the garden area is accessible. That makes a huge difference.

Post pictures so we can better formulate plans. That's a solid amount of water.

clintaggie04 said:

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We still need clarification from OP if the area that is chainlink fenced around the garden area is accessible. That makes a huge difference.

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Items are accessible but not the outdoors. The point is that you can't collect rainwater or grow an outdoor garden. But for the scenario's sake we'll say that everything that is available in the outdoor section was sitting in the warehouse and is available for use

mneisch said:

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Post pictures so we can better formulate plans. That's a solid amount of water.

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I'm seriously considering a dedicated leaders recon to Walmart to scope some of this out

My next trip to Walmart is going to take at least an hour longer than it should while I walk around coming up with my survival plan.