Just browsing the Costco website. It seems they've really added to the preparedness section. Lots of long term food storage options, as well as some gadgets.

I particularly like the jacket that unfolds, transformer style, into a bivy bag. Click Here

They are also stocking some of the forward osmosis water filters that folks have talked about.

Anyhow, no affiliation, but a satisfied customer. I've never tried any of the products I'm pointing out.

The jacket weighs three pounds! You can better for less money than the 250$ listed as the price. You can probably wind up lighter as well. Calling that half length bivvy sack as "sleeping bag" is quite a stretch.

I would go with a Patagonia Houdini jacket($100, 4 ounces) and an MSR E-bivy ($80 and 9 ounces). I am quoting all this from memory so specs may not be exact, but they are in the ball park. There are lots of other options available that may be more suitable for severe climates, like Minnesota.

The local Costco always the packs available after every notable earthquake, as do some other outlets (Lowes). They are dorkdom personified. My nine year old had a better pack, assembled from odds and ends around the house and discards without even half trying.

Still it is nice that Costco has something - the units are not completely useless.

Thank you for the heads up about Costco!

Regarding the "transformer" jacket, I end up not wanting to use those All-In-One kits in order to keep everything intact. Also, I don't like the idea of not using a kit until I must. I prefer to buy individual gear, experiment often and replace immediately.

Not wear items but Costco and now Walmart is selling base food preparations in 5 gallon buckets. Meaning, wheat, sugar, flour, powdered milk (?)

I am pretty negative to the jakpack. Seems like a clumsy jacket and a poorly designed bivy bag. Get dedicated gear, not well-meant half-baked and overpriced compromises.

A decent jacket and a bivy bag (such as AMK bivy bag) will cost you MUCH less than that. Slip the bivy bag into the pocket and you have duplicated the function, but with much higher performance at lower price.

I wasn't planning on purchasing the JakPack. Obviously, dedicated gear will work better in most instances.

But I did think it was cool, in an Inspector Gadget kind of way. . .

Go go gadget bivy sack!

I seem to recall a surplus coat (German?) that is like the transformer, only not waterproof. It unsnapped or unzipped into a makeshift sleeping bag. IIRC you didn't have to "jump" into it either. Of course, this was at least 10 years ago. And I believe that coat was under $25.