Fri­day, as I was in the Strauss Auto Parts Store while they were chang­ing my oil, rotat­ing my tires, and replac­ing my air fil­ter.  It occurred to me that the auto parts / sup­ply store is a ver­i­ta­ble can­dy store of preps for your home, Bug Out Loca­tion, car.  While every one is run­ning to Wal-Mart if the SHTF, I might just make a last minute trip to the auto parts store to pick up those items I might not have thought of or to stock up on a few items where I could have some redun­dan­cy.

While my car was being ser­viced, I walked around the store and made a list of items that are poten­tial emer­gency items and preps on my iPhone.  Here it is in no par­tic­u­lar order:

• Road­side Flares — for sig­nal­ing
• Cans of spray tire sealant
• Tire repair kit (cork and plug type)
• Tire pres­sure gauge
• Air com­pres­sor to fill tires — 12 volt cig­a­rette lighter plug type
• Extra lubri­cant (oil) in all weights
• Extra wind­shield wiper flu­id (ammo­nia based) in reg­u­lar, bug removal, and cold weath­er quick melt
• DC to AC invert­ers that plug into your cig­a­rette lighter so you may run AC devices from your vehi­cle
• Exten­sion cords
• Solar shield for your wind­shield that also can dou­ble for a solar oven
• Gloves
• Chilton man­u­al for your vehi­cle for self repair
• Extra gas cans
• WD-40
• Tools and Tool Box­es
• Shop tow­els
• Zip ties
• Bat­tery charger/booster units
• Key chain and reg­u­lar flash­lights
• Anten­nas (radio, CB, and asso­ci­at­ed wiring)
• The club
• Replace­ment side mir­rors for your car or truck (ad hoc sig­nal mir­rors)
• 12 volt car bat­ter­ies, 12 volt gar­den trac­tor bat­ter­ies, and asso­ci­at­ed wiring
• Jumper cables
• Rub­ber floor mats (can be cut into makeshift san­dals
• Seat cov­ers (can be cut and sewn into cloth­ing)
• Rub­ber hoses and hose clamps
• Steel pipe (exhaust pipe)
• Fuel treat­ment (com­bustible)
• Plas­tic and steel oil pans that are used to col­lect used oil that can be used as water basins or medi­um sized bas­kets
• Fun­nels
• All size bat­ter­ies D — AAA
• Indus­tri­al strength hand clean­er (Orange and GoJoe)
• Bungee cords

There my be more to this list that I may not have added as I was typ­ing as I was walk­ing through the store, and am sure I missed some­thing.  I thought this was an inter­est­ing place for preps and emer­gen­cies if the SHTF.  I think one of the first things I would grab are invert­ers, car bat­ter­ies,  and a few oth­er items to have a lit­tle more back­up pow­er.  After leav­ing the store, I took an inven­to­ry of auto parts stores in my neigh­bor­hood (with­in a one mile radius), and I found three of them and a pletho­ra of auto ser­vice sta­tions…

Take a trip to your local auto parts store and see what else you can find, and make a men­tal inven­to­ry.  I real­ly do believe this could be a good resource if need be.