It's general pre-depression spending.
Notice how some stores have added "disaster food kits" and similar to their stock? "1000 meals in a bucket!!!" (You know what I mean.) In the last 1.5 years Costco and Sam's Club have both added various sorts of freeze-dried, powdered, or "other" food (including MREs and the like at times) to their regular rotation. Stores I've been going to since the 1990s that have never had so much as a weather radio before now regularly stock disaster goods.
Gold is also at historic highs (well not really... around 1980 gold was at $850ish per ounce and when you adjust for inflation that would be like $2200/ounce today...but then again there was the start of a recession around 1980 too...)
Anyone who has been in a grocery store or gas station within the last year knows that we've been in a period of double-digit inflation at the retail level. Anyone who has looked at the plumeting dollar knows that keeping their savings in USD (or the stock market) is a losing proposition. Not a comforting situation.
Food, gold, guns... all are comfort items. They are things you can store away and feel a little better about your ability to survive uncertain times.
That's my guess.