Too vague man. I understand it's in bulk, but tell me why I'd want to buy it from you. If I have a family of 4-5. How many of each of those could I possibly need? What's reasonable? What would my wife let me get away with in spending?

My $.02 is that the issue isn't usually the cost of an item that is a killer, rather the problem is shipping or driving to go get it. So if I save $0.15 / mylar bag going through you or even $0.05 / meter of paracord, would I save enough in the long run to work out shipping fees or getting to your place for pick-up - assuming you offer that service. Unless you become a wholesale distributor and are willing to make no or very little profit, I would suspect that the average person would hardly see a benefit. It just seem like all good designed for preppers are heavily marked up or, alternatively, everyone wants to have their own little store and, by being small, maintain small inventory. Small inventory means they order from a slightly bigger distributor since the manufactory wouldn't necessarily sell direct to someone selling 10 of their items/year so now there are many "middle men" in the purchasing chain, each making money. That's why I think the Thrive products, though good, could be sold at about 1/2 the price if they didn't use the Mary Kay / Tupperware / Avon marketing scheme.

So what was the original question again? 😉 Oh yes, how are you planning distribution and how would you anticipate purchases through your website to be more efficient than say from either online / brick-and-mortar places like Costco, Cabelas, Bass Pro...?

The only way you'll be able to ever provide that bulk discount in any capacity - and continue operations - is to be able to own the niche.

You have to be able to source the product cheaper than your competition, turn it around faster, and sell more of it.... or else your distributors essentially cut you off and send the product to better (for them) sellers. Determining your stock by consumer votes will never get you to a good place with distributors.

So, put the horse before the cart.

1st - Figure out all that preppers, survivalists and extreme outdoor enthusiasts need (the items on this list, if well thought out, will be in the thousands)
2nd - Source the products that you can get your hands on in an affordable, DEPENDABLE manner (there is nothing worse than a business accepting my order for an item they know they cannot deliver on)
3rd - Filter products by realistic potential profit margin
4th - Further filter by cost to ship (a 60% profit doesn't mean squat on a military grade camp stove if it costs $200 to ship and nobody buys it as a result)
5th - Further filter by constant sales vs seasonal sales (you want a mix of both, but all businesses need constant sale goods they can depend on)

At this point you can either go live with a store that folks can peruse and purchase from at their leisure, or you can give shoppers the chance to "vote" with their wallets by listing a few items you can source in bulk and they can pre-order. Once a suitable number of pre-orders have been made, you set the wheels in motion for order & delivery.

It almost sounds like you have more of a co-op in mind, than a shop.

All great comments and feedback

Keep them coming, I will reply once I have though through your questions.

Shipping is going to be a killer.

I think we need to know what Province in Canada you are shipping from , so we can get an idea .
I mean it seems to cost more to ship from BC all the way to NS , than BC to BC

Perhaps you could start out with smaller light weight items because of shipping.
There are ways to make postal shipping cheaper by the way you package it and the price
goes up if you exceed package size.

You would probably have to find something you could buy 100 of .. such as a pocket utility knife , or oxygen absorbers.

And the deal would need to be great to get everyone to jump in , and
only quality items .

I think the idea would be to buy one item in bulk and blow it out that month.
Over time you might be able to get to 2 items per month so people could
multi pack for reduced shipping.

You could start by setting up a .cgi or php form where people can vote on certain
items that you find at a good deal.

Then you can still offer regular items for people to buy , but just also have
this blow out .. prepper-special item . You could also do pre-orders
but many people might not want to actually pay for the pre-order until it is
really a done deal.

Myself , I need solar things. I only have a combo solar radio/light.