The wife is outta town for a week and a half at some regional pistol shooting competition. It’s being held in souther Utah. I asked her to check the local WalMart down there and see what they had in the way of food prep. She sent me three images of a long row of Augason Farms products. See, I’d heard that hard-to-find prep items…especially food items… were common as dirt in the Mormon country WalMarts. :::sigh::: Must be nice. Anyway, I had her pick me up some stuff to try out. To the best of my knowledge theres only one grocery in town that carries these products and their selection is very, very limited. Cool to see that much shelf space on one brand of storage food, though.
Notes From The Bunker
There are many positives to be said for living in close proximity to a dense LDS population.
To the extent you can stereotype them as a group, they are good honest, hard-working people. They take preparation as a serious requirement of God to the faithful family. They shun dependence on the government, and take care of their own. They are also generous towards their neighbors–even those who don’t share their system of beliefs.
Mmmmmm…yeah, but…..I’ve heard more than one person say that if you aren’t part of their herd youre more likely to have trouble finding a job or clients in that environment. That sort of thing isnt exclusive to the LDS, of course, it’s just something to think about. Anytime youre not part of the majority youre going to experience some…marginalization.
I don’t drink, so their Byzantine liquor laws don’t affect me, but I have heard that it’s pretty difficult to find a good ‘adult bookstore’ down there. Fortunately the interwebs has negated most of that issue. Most of the Mormons I’ve met have been very nice people. Plus, generally speaking, Mormon chicks are hot. Plus, of all the belief systems out there, the Mormons have been pretty good about not trying to force people into doing things according to their belief system…a refreshing change from most other belief systems.
Certainly, when the end of the world arrives the folks in Utah will probably be more prepared for it than anyone else, so it might be nice to be on their good side. (Sidebar: Dean Ing wrote a series of books where after a nuclear war, the LDS became the dominant political force in rebuilding the US because they were able to recover and come out of it faster than anyone else.)
I’m a non-Mormon who has lived in the Salt Lake area for most of my life (I’m sixty years old). I’ve found them to be good neighbors in general. They have very good community spirit; if someone in the neighborhood needs help, most will jump in and help, whether you are a LDS or not. Most are good about firearms, since hunting and fishing are some of their biggest pastimes.
As far as jobs and such, most of them aren’t too bad about hiring non-members, it’s just that during interviews they tend to click better with people raised in the same sub-culture, just like any other group of people raised under a certain sub-culture.