The sign belongs to Keller’s Survival and Pawn, a business
that opened two months ago. The store’s
owner and operator Bob Keller said the world’s not coming to an end, but he
does want people to be prepared in case there’s a natural disaster.
“How foolish would I be to open a business in April that
would end in December?” Keller asked. “I don’t have the Mayans coming in. Every now and then someone will come in and
ask about that. I’ll laugh, but generally speaking, I don’t deal with
people that have beliefs tied into the Mayan Apocalypse.”
Instead, Keller said he’s prepared to handle a potential
disaster based on the current geopolitical climate. And that’s the key word, prepare. Keller says he serves a niche customer base
of people known as preppers, or those who ready themselves for the first 72
hours after a disaster occurs.
“Don’t confuse survivalists with preppers because they’re two
very different animals.” Keller said. “Survivalists tend to be far more weapons
oriented and far more conflict oriented.
Where preppers are looking to survive, but are far more community
oriented and share. This is because
different people have different skills; they want to approach it that way.”
That’s what Keller’s selling, whether it’s a kit with eight
dehydrated meals where you need to just add boiling water to eat, or a hand-cranked
drill that can operated without the use of electricity. Those items line the shelves in Keller’s
store.
Keller’s old school in how he does business. He keeps track of paper receipts and makes
change from his pocket. It’s a style he
said suits his client base.
“Preppers are very secretive; they don’t want you to know
what they have,” Keller said. “I have customers that come in and only pay
cash. They don’t want any trail of what
they buy. They don’t want to buy online
because now there’s a trail to them of what they’ve got. I have others that
have spent a lot of time and effort learning different skills and methods. They
want to share those skills (through workshops).”
It took a leap of faith for Keller to open the store in late
April. After leaving the state’s education system because of a chronic illness,
the WVU Tech mechanical engineering grad took stock in what he had around him.
“I took a bit of a gamble to throw that out there and see
what would happen,” Keller said. “Shockingly there are a lot of people
concerned that are working to get plans together for themselves and their
families.”
Keller said business is good because of the small niche his
business fills; it’s an audience that is willing to support its worries.
“I mean to tell you they are three ways of concerned,” Keller
said. “You think about the recent
tornado in West Liberty, Kentucky. It took a week for the Red Cross to get there. It took two weeks for
FEMA to get there. What were those people supposed to do? Everything they had
was destroyed. We take that thing for
granted that it’ll all just work out. No! It won’t all just work out.”
Keller said he advocates keeping what’s known as a Bug Out
Bag, which is a checklist for all the supplies one would need in the event of
an emergency.