Costco is selling 90-day emergency food supplies

[bananas]

$109, a little more than a dollar a day.
It's a bucket full of foil-wrapped food powders labelled "Pancake Mix", "Whey Milk", etc.
Requires water and something to cook with.

[Horse with no Name]

1. Ingenious.

And reasonably priced.

[bananas]

29. ***IMPORTANT*** ONLY 30 DAYS WORTH OF CALORIES AND PROTEIN ***

I haven't verified this, but apparently Costco is being sued, these only have enough calories and protein for about one month if you're using 1500 calories/day. At 3000 calories/day, it would only last about two weeks.

See SeattleVet's post #15 below:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2060991&mesg_id=2061714

[warrens]

2. What else is in it?

I'm really curious. If I lived in, oh, New Orleans or Florida, I would own one of these suckers.

[bananas]

8. I was in a hurry so I didn't look at it too closely.

They had one open for display, I pulled out those two bags.
It said "vegetarian" and "lasts up to 20 years" on the bucket.
Made in Utah.

[MissB]

9. I think it is 425 servings of food

Iirc. I stopped and looked at it a few weeks ago as I was walking thru Costco. $109? The bucket ain't that big.

[MountainLaurel]

3. I came across our work supply kits yesterday

In our server room downstairs. They are about the size of five-gallon buckets and are marked as 20-day emergency supply kits or something similarly ominous.

[skids]

4. They've also got a good selection of generators/UPSs online.

...but IMO what they really should do is cut a deal with Xantrex to sell the new Powerhub 1800 they just announced availability of in Canada. Grid tie, DC input, batteries and inverter all in one box, with the ability to add more batteries. Screw gas generators, just buy a solar panel or three and tie it to that. If you need more power than the solar provides, hook it up to your car.

[RedStateShame]

5. I didn't think you could use the end of the world as a sales pitch...

...without Ken Mehlman's approval.

[TahitiNut]

6. What's the shelf-life?

I personally try to keep a 30-day 'supply' that I rotate through as a normal part of my diet. I don't think buying something that I won't eat in the normal course of living is a good investment.

From a community/societal standpoint, I don't regard individual "warehousing" is an effective approach, either ... nor more than having everyone keep gasoline containers in their garages or hoarding toilet paper. It is, however, a side-effect of a business climate that avoids inventory like the plague. "Just in time" supply chain management increasingly makes 'private enterprise' totally useless for any kind of disaster preparedness. When government itself adopts the philosophy of avoiding "excess capacity" we're fucking doomed. (There's no fucking way any disaster or catastrophe can be met without "excess capacity.")

[sendero]

26. Exactly..

.. the correct way to have food for emergencies is to stock up on the things you normally eat and rotate the stock. Perhaps augment it with low-cost foods that will keep a very long time, such as dried beans and rice.

I like to have more than 30 days on hand, but then I'm paranoid. :)

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. Brilliant. My husband will love them. I pay far too much.

[readmoreoften]

10. It requires water!!! Ha ha ha. And how is that going to help anyone?

No electricity, no water. You're not going to want to use your bottled water supplies to cook food.

[Webster Green]

11. Holy crap!....Are you going to give up that easily...

Find a damn river!

[Akoto]

12. Well ...

If you ever find it within your means, I strongly suggest purchasing a grill or one of those little propane-powered burners.

I've been hit with a hurricane (or more) every year since Frances, which was a direct hit to me. Our grill has kept us fed through weeks without power. The grocery stores get back on their feet relatively quickly, so we were able to grill meats and heat up canned soup on the burners. It also allowed us to boil water for safety issues.

Extremely good investment if you're in the danger zone. It'd allow you to boil water so that you can use it with this kit, which is an ingenious sales idea, by the way.

[warrens]

13. There are cheap water purification pills

I wouldn't use them in New Orleans type situations, but the average hurricane should leave nearly drinkable water available.

[sandnsea]

24. And water filters

Under most situations, filters and purification tables would be much better than having cases of bottled water stored.

http://shopping.msn.com/results/shp/?bCatId=5673

[sendero]

25. You can purify..

... most water with 10 drops of bleach per gallon.

I can take water out of my Sendero Compound pond, run it through a cloth to remove dirt/particles, add 10 drops of bleach to a gallon, shake it up and let it sit for an hour.

The bleach will kill (oxidize) any organic matter - germs, viruses, parasites.

Or, I can use the Katadyn canister filter with 39,000 gallon ceramic element :)

[ChickMagic]

39. My father did this during the Bataan Death March

he found a bottle of iodine on a dead soldier and when he
got an opportunity (risking his life) to grab some water
from a horse footprint, he put iodine in it. He didn't get
sick from it.

[Gold Metal Flake]

16. Of course you will want to use your water supplies to cook food.

You may feel free to try starvation as a survival technique. Get back to us with the results. Others may want to factor in cooking water into their emergency supply strategy. This is especially important for those living in drier climates like in the SoCal suburban areas where ground water is far below the surface and service disruptions may not be immediately relieved by truck-hauled tankers.

[readmoreoften]

30. No, I was thinking more like dry food. Not all food needs to be cooked.

Cooking with my water would be a bit of a luxury. You think starvation is a bad survival technique? Try dehydration. Three days and your dead. You can live over a month without food. If you don't have clean water, the sewage situation becomes hazardous as well. Sorry, you go ahead with your pancake batter. I'll keep my water and my trail mix, thanks.

[Wiley50]

43. Guess I need a beer truck in my garage

and a few bags of coffee beans, hundred pounds or so

Wonder what coffee brewed with beer tastes like

That way I would only need enough water to cook with

[bperci108]

17. Do you have a hot water heater in your house?

There is 30-50 gallons there at all times.

Just use the little spigot on the side... ;)

It'll be flat and a little warm for a day or two after the power goes out, but so what?

[readmoreoften]

31. I live in Manhattan. If we have a disaster-- which we will eventually...

Then I will take as much water as I can carry and try to get off the island. I don't believe we have hot water heaters here. But I'm not worried about a hurricane. I'm worried about a terrorist attack, and martial law.

[bperci108]

36. In your case, that would be a problem....

...apartment dwellers are screwed. Without electrically-pumped water, your buildings are uninhabitable above the fourth or fifth floor and your hot water doesn't come from a storage type heater in the closet.

In that case, you're right; keep a supply of jugs of water in the closet and get off the island ASAP, I guess.

My comment was directed at the house-dweller. :)

(And I would suggest a bicycle for your exodus - I bet there will be a traffic jam of biblical proportions. A bike with a rack, panniers and a backpack could navigate that and get you the hell out of Dodge.)

[kerry-is-my-prez]

23. Any Floridian knows you have to keep 72 hrs worth of water - jeez

I have about 5 days worth here - plus I fill up a dozen containers and both tubs up.

[susanna]

33. Actually, in the worst scenario...

...if you have the means to boil water, food made with water looks good.

Just a sidenote: preparedness isn't stocking up on bottled water; it's also stocking up on cooking water in larger quantities and the fuel needed to boil it. That's just my opinion, anyway.

[Momgonepostal]

41. Not necessarily

I do know people who are on well water who need electricity to run their taps, but I've never lived in a house like that. If the power goes out, we still have running water.

Also, people who are really into having emergency provisions on had will also keep extra bottled water.

[uppityperson]

14. Interesting, will check it out, see what they are.

[SeattleVet]

15. It's the product from the NutriStorage company.

Here's their web site, which has a list of the items included:

http://www.nutristorage.com/

As a side note, a local Seattle attorney (Richard Pope, perennial candidate for various offices, which he never wins) has filed a class-action suit, alledging that the product does not contain enough daily caloric intake to sustain life for 90 days. He has posted the whole mess over on the Sound Politics web site (Stefan Sharkansky's pubbie-leaning blog).

http://www.soundpolitics.com/archives/006391.html

For the price (a little more than 1/2 of what the manufacturer sells it for) I think it's a good idea to have around, especially in areas like this that are subject to the periodic earthquake or volcanic eruption. We might have to supplement it with canned goods and stuff, and you'll need about 20 gallons of water, but if basic services are cut off it can be handy.

[bananas]

18. Thanks - apparently only enough calories and protein for about 30 days

12. If the contents of a bucket of Costco "Emergency Food Supply -- Three month food supply for one person" are consumed at 3 servings per day over a 91-2/3 day period as directed, a person would receive average daily nutrition of 455 calories, with 18 grams of protein.

13. The recommendations of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for minimum nourishment to sustain adult human life are for 2,000 daily calories, with 50 grams of protein.

14. To put things in perspective, the Nazis provided concentration camp inmates at Auschwitz with a diet of 1,300 calories per day for light work prisoners and 1,700 calories for hard labor. The average prisoner at Auschwitz died of starvation within three months on this diet.

[AZBlue]

22. That's very scary!

eom

[bperci108]

38. Another thing to try might be...

...the commercial versions of military MRE's.

www.cheaperthandirt.com still sells them and there are other outlets on the web if they are a little too "militant" for your taste.

MRE's are rather high in calories and are not supposed to induce thirst, plus they come with the little heater-pouches to warm them with no flame required, just a little water.

I keep a few of these in the car, along with a heavy blanket and bottled water when travelling in the winter in case of a blizzard stranding me in a ditch. ;)

http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/MRE125-1299-543.html

[readmoreoften]

40. Shows how hard they were worked.

My trainer put me on a 1400-1600 calorie a day diet, and working out 5 days a week I was still gaining weight. Also, I suppose, the quality of the food.

[Finder]

42. 3 meals a day or 2000 calories a day is consumer PR crap...

and would love to have a link to the Auschwitz statistics.

[renate]

19. darn you! you made me go to costco!

I didn't find the emergency food supplies but I found a bunch of other stuff it turns out I couldn't live without (and don't have room for).

Luckily we will have enough bananas and salsa to meet the entire neighborhood's banana and salsa needs in case of emergency and enough toilet paper to barter for food.

I have NEVER managed to get out of Costco with only what I went there for.

[MissB]

20. Did you happen to see the two-pack of flashlights?

Very cool. LED lights, hand crank (never needs batteries!), am/fm radio and "personal siren". What emergency supply stash is complete without one of those?

[AZBlue]

21. Yeah, I saw that. Problem is you need a heating device - not a good plan.

In a lot of emergencies (hurricanes, earthquakes, etc) gas lines are broken and therefore lighting a match or turning on a stove is, for obvious reasons, a very very bad idea. It also assumes you will have fresh water to boil if you can indeed use a flame - another stupid assumption.

[KansDem]

27. Is it organic?

Are the emergency food supplies organic? I'd like to know...

[renate]

28. another possibility is to get food that doesn't require cooking

A few months ago I probably spent a lot more than $109 putting together our emergency food supplies (at Costco, of course!) but we have peanut butter, crackers, tuna fish, evaporated milk, bottled water, cookies, M&Ms, nuts, fruit leather, etc. We also have some stuff like canned soup and chili and so on that would be better warm, if electricity is available. It's mostly things we eat anyway, so rotating the stock isn't a problem.

It's not gourmet food, but it's high in protein and calories, and in an emergency it doesn't really matter what stuff tastes like, nor does it matter whether it's warm or cold.

A nice compact 90-day bucket o' food would still have been nice, though, if I'd been able to find it.

[susanna]

32. After Katrina,

good on Costco. I don't trust the government anymore at all - I'll buy rations as available. Just saying...

[Truthiness Inspector]

34. I think that this is good

Disasters can happen at any time, it's good to be prepared. After the '89 quake in San Francisco I bought all of my friends preparedness kits from an outlet in Emeryville...those were their Christmas presents and they all loved it. And they weren't cheap either!

You just never know, best to be prepared. If you have dietary, medical issues, etc, prepare for that and if you don't like the price of prepared kits, put one together yourself.

(Looking around and realizing I need to take my own advice, how easy it is to become complacent!)

[susanna]

35. My feeling is this...

...if the vast majority of people buy this bucket once, they might have something to help out if they do run into trouble.

After the Northeast blackout of 2003, I would have welcomed this. It took us five days to get power restored. We lost over $500 worth of food from our freezers. This bucket would have gotten us through the roughest of it, had we had it.

Luckily me and the DH are forward-thinking folks and had enough canned food in the pantry, water in big drums, and butane cooktops to get by with. We basically camped out and enjoyed the stars in urban Detroit - trust me, that's not something you see every day. :-)

I will always continue to at least TRY to be prepared after that. No ifs, ands, or buts.

[hunter]

37. Storing food is part of Mormon Theology.

Out in the country you can your own food, etc., and you make a big deal of that, but I suppose the urban equivalent is to buy a few buckets of this stuff at Costco.

No big deal.