Pretty obvious symptoms of insecurity. Seems entirely reasonable, considering what's been happening to the film and chemistry industry since the late 1990s. Sort of like food hoarding by someone with a history of near starvation, or who has reason to expect a famine.
More or less the same reason I'm looking at starting wet plate collodion: DIY photography that uses chemicals that are independent of an established photo industry. Bromide and iodide salts aren't difficult to come by, silver nitrate can be made if necessary from fine silver bullion and nitric acid, which can be made from stump remover, ferrous sulfate for developer can come from the garden store (a supplement for decorative plants in low-iron soils) -- collodion itself is the only thing that might become difficult to source over time because of the workplace hazards of nitration, but it's used in industry, still, for applications where it isn't readily replaced, and it's a co-product of making cellulose nitrate for doping fabric cover airplanes and some kinds of fingernail polish (not to mention the huge ammunition industry, which produces enough nitrocellulose every year to blow up a major city). Denatured ethanol comes from the paint department (it's the thinner for shellac, which is still used in fine woodworking), and non-denatured 180 proof is available in liquor stores some places -- ethyl ether might become hard to source over time (hazardous to store, as well), and the ether in car starting fluid spray isn't the right sort. It's used to make fuel for model airplane diesel engines, but those are getting less common, too, replaced by electric power. I think it might be possible to make ethyl ether in a home lab, I'd have to look up that process. There may also be alternative solvents for collodion, though alcohol/ether has been preferred for more than 150 years.
The beauty of my approach is I don't need to spend all that money up front and store stuff that requires special conditions to last well...
