Web Article - Amazon and Costco are selling emergency kits that can feed a family for a year ...

[NHCraigT]

Amazon and Costco are selling emergency kits that can feed a family for a year — and it reveals a disturbing new normal in America

LINK: Amazon and Costco are selling emergency kits that can feed a family for a year — and it reveals a disturbing new normal in America

.... Amazon customers who reviewed some of the kits said they purchased them for anything from "an emergency of Biblical proportions" to "the inevitable zombie apocalypse" and natural disasters like hurricanes or earthquakes....

 

[CatSnoutSoup]

Waited for the pay off on the "reveal" in the headline and it never came. This reveals nothing other than more people may be wisely preparing for emergencies, and major retailers are trying to appeal to that market. And even that cannot be proven without sales data.

They talk about recent storms and imply a conclusion that -- because more people are buying emergency preparedness supplies then climate change must be real.

 

[Waher]

"Disturbing new normal", when families have been buying disaster kits since the nuclear scares of the 1950s. I'd even argue US preparedness kits have been around since the 1890s when economic panics and anarchist unrest caused a lot of middle to upper class people to adopt the concept of bug out cabins and hobby farms outside of cities. It's an old idea which keeps reinventing itself with the new concerns of each era.

 

[NHCraigT]

"Disturbing new normal", when families have been buying disaster kits since the nuclear scares of the 1950s. I'd even argue US preparedness kits have been around since the 1890s when economic panics and anarchist unrest caused a lot of middle to upper class people to adopt the concept of bug out cabins and hobby farms outside of cities. It's an old idea which keeps reinventing itself with the new concerns of each era.

To the liberal media and its sheeple followers = realistic dangers that actually do exist in society (whether natural events or man-made), must not be mentioned, prepared for, or brought to light (cause that is "disturbing" to the sheeple).

Rather, what is socially acceptable (to the sheeple) is to = live in a self-absorbed, fake-utopia, self-i picture-taking, latest-trend-participating, accept-everyone with kumbaya singing embraces, auto-drone about guns-making-people less-safe, social-media-addicted idiocy, and foolishly assuming that the government will always immediately take care of you when there is a natural disaster.

 

[Picton]

I love how preparedness is “disturbing.”

 

[Varmint]

The meat-flavored vegetable matter is disturbing.

 

[Kevin_NH]

Costco was pretty much designed for preppers --- the dilettantes who stock up their, and the dreamers seeking the perfect TEOTWAWKI mall: a Costco (complete with gas station) sharing an easily fortified parking lot with Lowes, Cabela's, and a Land Rover dealership.

 

[Fixxah]

I saw the kits in my membership magazine. I need more Mountain House supplies for sure.

 

[falcon123]

The meat-flavored vegetable matter is disturbing.

I didn't see any bacon in that kit.

 

[MisterHappy]

Self-preparedness is discouraged.

 

[clampett]

It looks like 3/4's of that kit could be purchased at the Bishop's storehouse in Worcester for a fraction of the $6K that Costco is charging.

 

[robjax]

you know what else you need as a prepper.....guns and ammo...othewise some thugs are gonna come by and steal your food and rape your women. shhhhhh...don't tell the antis that though...

 

[Kevin_NH]

Self-preparedness is discouraged.

Since at least 2002 FEMA has encouraged limited self-preparedness: Plan Ahead for Disasters | Ready.gov

 

[Uzi2]

It's empty calorie, processed dead food. Buy seeds, raise rabbits or chickens and grow and can your own REAL food.

 

[MisterHappy]

Yes, but it's also marginalized and mocked.

How many people that lost power this past week, were in a SOL situation? I'm not saying that when the lights went out, they should have gone into Zombiepocalypse mode, but did they have a way to light the night? How about people that are all electric, and have no sterno, or a camp stove?

30 years ago, this past storm would be barely of note...now....it's a full-blown emergency. Complete with rescues, by boat, from shin-deep water.

 

[MisterHappy]

It's empty calorie, processed dead food. Buy seeds, raise rabbits or chickens and grow and can your own REAL food.

https://www.northeastshooters.com/x...n-feed-a-family-for-a-year.349397/#navigation
People have no batteries, and you think they can handle growing food?

 

[Varmint]

you know what else you need as a prepper.....guns and ammo...othewise some thugs are gonna come by and steal your food and rape your women. shhhhhh...don't tell the antis that though...

Just gear up and visit Costco when SHTF.

 

[Uzi2]

People have no batteries, and you think they can handle growing food?

They'll learn or perish, been that way from day one.

 

[MisterHappy]

They'll learn or perish, been that way from day one.

But, while on the learning curve in between, they'll be crying for everyone to save them. Build a $$$$$$$ house on sand next to the ocean, and be shocked when the land vanishes? Gov't should pay. Live in a river valley, where the 20 feet of silty soil underneath the streets is the product of regular floods since the glaciers pulled back, and you're shocked when the basement fills up? How is that YOUR problem? Live in an area where trees can knock down power lines? Somebody should DO something! Your house burns down when the predictable wildfire shows up, and you're 1/2 a mile from a hydrant? You deserve to be made whole via kickstarter.

 

[FrugalFannie]

here's a better idea. buy your own freeze dryer. The large is now $3k. Then spend 3K on food and make your own freeze dried meals, foods. I guarantee it will taste better and be better for you than the crap costco and amazon sells.

 

[Varmint]

here's a better idea. buy your own freeze dryer. The large is now $3k. Then spend 3K on food and make your own freeze dried meals, foods. I guarantee it will taste better and be better for you than the crap costco and amazon sells.

This resembles work.

 

[Prepper]

here's a better idea. buy your own freeze dryer. The large is now $3k. Then spend 3K on food and make your own freeze dried meals, foods. I guarantee it will taste better and be better for you than the crap costco and amazon sells.

A while back, Jack Spirko on his show had a question about actually buying a freeze dryer. His recommendation was that it wasn't really cost effective to do so. At best it may be comparable to buying the cans yourself already processed.

 

[Kevin_NH]

If you live where winter features cold dry wind, nature is your freeze dryer.

A while back, Jack Spirko on his show had a question about actually buying a freeze dryer. His recommendation was that it wasn't really cost effective to do so. At best it may be comparable to buying the cans yourself already processed.

Yeah, optimally you want friends to buy a one, let you use it once in a while.

 

[Prepper]

It's empty calorie, processed dead food. Buy seeds, raise rabbits or chickens and grow and can your own REAL food.

It's good to be able to do that, but almost no one is going to (especially if they currently live in a cookie cutter house on a 1/8 acre lot in suburbia and have less than 3 days of food stored), and it'll take over your whole life and that's what you're going to be spending most of your time doing.

Buying pre-processed emergency food has value. Although, I would recommend people refrain from just going out there and buying a pallet of a giant pile of buckets and cans that last a year. It'll cost a lot, and they will likely discover much of the kit that they order is something they can't eat, don't want to eat, or is otherwise just plain weird to include as part of the kit. I suggest people buy individual cans and actually open them up and try to cook/eat with them, and see how it goes. For example, TVP... it actually tastes half way decent, but I'm pretty badly allergic to soy in that form so I can't have any of it. Maybe 1/3 of the population can't eat large piles of soy. (And even if you can eat it, your wiener will fall off if you keep eating it.) These kits of lots of dairy too... can't eat it? Too bad! Then there's buckets of wheat berries... most people think they have no trouble with wheat because they eat bread or pasta and seem fine. Oh... good luck stomaching a bucket of wheat berries and then eating lots of it. So, experiment, find out what you like, then buy more cans of what works out.

 

[Prepper]

If you live where winter features cold dry wind, nature is your freeze dryer.

Yeah, optimally you want friends to buy a one, let you use it once in a while.

Yup, that might help to spread its use out to several friends. Alone, I couldn't make much use of it. Most people don't grow that much food that it would be worth trying to freeze dry. And, buying fresh food at the supermarket and then freeze drying it yourself if most likely going to turn out much more costly.

 

[Waher]

Knowing how to smoke meats for preservation and can vegetables & fruits is a good prepping skill. Doing both things and rotating through regular kitchen stock for a year is something the average person could do to stretch a basic food supply out a long time on a small lot if not indefinitely with careful management.

 

[Varmint]

It's good to be able to do that, but almost no one is going to (especially if they currently live in a cookie cutter house on a 1/8 acre lot in suburbia and have less than 3 days of food stored), and it'll take over your whole life and that's what you're going to be spending most of your time doing.

I look at my street and everyone out there cutting the grass or paying landscapers and think, why not just plant food in your front and back yards instead? The obsession with green lawns is retarded.

 

[FrugalFannie]

A while back, Jack Spirko on his show had a question about actually buying a freeze dryer. His recommendation was that it wasn't really cost effective to do so. At best it may be comparable to buying the cans yourself already processed.

Depends on what you want to freeze dry. For us we looked at what was available in freeze dried foods and how that aligned with the way we eat and the way we would need to continue to eat, added in our love of backpacking and desire to take a hiatus in about 4 years and hike the entire AT, and it made sense. I freeze dry complete meals using grass fed beef, pasture raised chicken and eggs, and organic veggies. You can't buy that or even come close. For us it's a matter of health and quality food is a large part of that. So no, you can't buy that in a mass produced canned product.

 

[Jason m]

Last week I made more Ghee ( pure butter no refrigeration needed ), dehydrated another 5lbs of potatoes and tossed some old apples in when I did the spuds as a snack afterwards. I guess the point is either prep and understand where your food is coming from or buy stuff you like, so experiment.

Being on a tight budget and prepping I cant just dump money on a large order, so I take it in steps and you will be amazed at how fast it adds up. The dehydrator was the best thing on my budget, this weekend will be Pemmican and maybe Hard-tac.

Jason.

 

[enbloc]

This resembles work.

Work = life...