Emergency Food: Gimmick that Preys on Fears?

http://www.costco.com/service/Featurepag...rketingItemName

That's food for 4 people for 9 months for $3,200 after discount.

Same sales pitch as every other preparedness site on the net - http://beprepared.com/product.asp_Q_pn_E_FS%20Y310_A_name_E_Year%20Supply%20of%20Basics. I'm not sure that this constitutes either a gimmick or preying on fears - some folks will buy what is intended as a one year last ditch emergency food supply. The benefit of the Costco package is that it seems to reflect more of the type of foods that your average Costco shopper is more likely to purchase and eat. I'm more of a whole grain guy myself... Most folks wouldn't put on weight on either regimen, their teenagers will rebel and eat them at some point in the year, this is last ditch stuff.

While the idea that you can live on just what's in those buckets for 9-months is gimmicky, I wouldn't write the entire thing off.

The stuff has a shelf life of 20+ years if stored properly. One could essentially buy it, store it, forget about it, and yet always have some food on hand. If you live in an area that is prone to disasters/emergencies (or simply very remote), it might not be such a bad idea.

Even if you end up tossing most of it out after 20 years, you've only spent ~$160 a year....which I don't really consider a huge loss.

I just can't imagine anybody buying it. Yeah, there's the arguments about how it's not such a loss, but who has actually wrote that check for $3,200?

I think it's a good business for making money if people are buying this stuff. The need for customer service is rather low. Few people, if any, are going to hold you up to your promise that the food will last for 20 years. After 10 years or so, the buyer probably won't have receipts or will have some life changing event that makes the buyer all but forget he bought this stuff. Further, the company could be long gone after 5 years or so, after making a fortune.

I'm missing something here on the complaint.... you are getting oats, rice, pasta, potatoes sealed in a foil pouch, with oxygen absorbers for less than $.26 per foil pouch... the oxygen absorbers alone are $.12 ea. from LDS...

I'm confused, not complaining. I'm wondering who has actually bought it. Some people here are pontificating it's not a bad deal, but did $3,200 of your money actually go out of your bank to buy this kind of thing? That's not a rhetorical question.

Apparently a lot of people have been buying, as Mountain House had a shortage of freeze dried meals a while back due to people placing bulk orders like this. For a little while they weren't accepting any more orders.

There has been a surge in large scale prepping lately, mostly thanks to events like Katrina, the Japanese Earthquake/Tsunami, and the whole 2012 Mayan Apocalypse thing. You've got more people building bunkers and bomb shelters now than any time since the Cold War. If you're taking the time and money to build your own bunker, stocking it with $3,200 worth of food is a relatively minor expense.

Me, I probably wouldn't buy it. That's not to say it's bad, only that I have a lot more food options and energy resources than city dwellers.

The just-add-water meals might have a secondary use as backpacking or camping cuisine. Just add protein.

A lot of people spend more on an annual vacation. In unsettled times, a package like this might bring some people a lot more relaxation and peace of mind than broiling on an overpriced beach.

Having a major, mainstream retailer carry this sort of thing makes it ... mainstream, as opposed to fringe. Perhaps it gets a useful message out, getting people thinking and talking about some basic preparations for the unexpected.

And of course, given the bulk discount, you could buy one and split the cost with a few relatives or neighbours for a 30-day supply.

20-30 year shelf life is reasonable if the food is left in a cool place and undisturbed. Things like grains can last quite a while. I have stocked some rice, wheat, barley and legumes and am still eating my way through the first 5 lbs of each, except rice which I tend to eat more of. I love grinding my own flour for bread.

Eating out of buckets I'm more skeptical of - a family of 4 may eat 9 months of freeze dried food but they won't like it; although if the choice is between starving and eating freeze dried foods, they'll eat it. That's where I think the synergy comes between Costco and this type of long term, last ditch nutrition: the place is full to the rafters with prepared foods of all sorts. Folks who graze the aisles at Costco probably won't have too much trouble digesting these freeze dried foods over the long term.

FWIW my strategy is to stock foods my family regularly eats, and rotate them into our regular meals as much as possible; and as they approach expiration, donate the overage to the local food bank. It takes a little more space and management than a pallet of buckets, but is more edible.

If given the hindsight, I think $85 for a month's supply would have been a justified expense, just to see if you liked the selection....I started out without a plan, just putting away staples that were cheap (typically less than $1 per pound for beans/rice/cocoa/pasta), and quickly figured out that the storage container was going to be more expensive than the actual product being stored...I could store a bunch of rice in a 5gal pail, but was not very practical for a single old guy..

that is the reason I suggested the Wendy DeWitt video mentioned in the Urban Preparedness forum... since then, I've switched to vacuum sealed glass jars... little more money, but for my situation more practical... and they store under the bed

at $.26 a packet, that's cheaper than a brass cased 5.56 round or two 9mm reloads

I am guessing that the target market did not include ETS members for the obvious reasons.

Costco are not renowned for their lack of marketing expertise. I am sure they have calculated exactly how many of these they will sell and how much profit they will make.

The only problem I see with this is typical of many of their offerings - the quantity offered is too large to be practical for me. I have the same issue with Costco's fifty pound bags of flour and rice. I have no space to store and use that quantity in a realistic time frame, so I don't purchase, despite the attractive unit price. iT would e different if I were purchasing for a restaurant.

Comment was made about Costco being full of processed food; they do have lots,but no more than their competition. I get good deals on items like walnuts and raisins; there is good stuff available if you shop selectively.

Like any other disaster preps, repackage it into more suitable-size containers. A 50# bag becomes 25x2# vacuum-sealed bags with an O2 absorber for long-term stability and stored in your disaster pantry. 2# bags get opened and transferred to tupperware containers in your kitchen as needed, either for normal rotation or during an emergency.

I don't think the $3,200 emergency food supply is preying on fears anymore than AMK selling survival blankets. The manufacturer's research indicates there's a market demand and they are trying to address the demand in a way that earns them a profit. The benefit to the consumer is by purchasing this versus around 900 separate #10 cans of Mountain House dehydrated food you can save a ton of money.

If you add up the cost of your disaster food supplies, I'd bet its impossible to put together a 9-month supply of food anywhere as cheaply as $3,200. Around me, a pound of pasta and a can of sauce costs around $3.00, or $0.75/serving. So this is a pretty good value, particularly given the 20-year shelf life. I'm a bit concerned about the long-term effects of living on commercially-manufactured, freeze-dried foods, but many people do rely on these products for their emergency preps.

Mormons are encouraged to keep at least a one year supply of food on hand so perhaps this is, in part, Costco serving a constituency that is concentrated out west - where Costco is based. If one's theology prioritized such preparedness then the Costco offering would be very attractive for allowing one to check-the-box, so to speak, with a single purchase.

$3200 to feed a family of four for nine months seems to me to be pretty economical. And the Costco deal covers the storage containers, necessary dessicants, etc.

The Costco offering would also appeal to those who would like the assurance of a large food stockpile but have more money than time or simply do not want to research and do the laborious work of assembling one themselves.

Reuters recently ran a survey showing that 22% of Americans believe that TEOTWAWKI is going to occur during their lifetimes. That is a lot of people for whom the Costco stockpile could be alluring.

Costco has always been a favored shopping destination for those buying bulk, for whatever reason. They probably are more attuned than most retailers to the preparedness phenomenon.

I think that you're absolutely right, Dagny.

((I'm a new guy to all of this, so correct me where y'all see fit.))

Now, if I had the money, and could convince the wife, I'd really consider buying that Costco bulk pack. I'd have to look around for better deals and comparison-shop against others, but that's just my way of doing things.

Now, trying to live on a year's worth of prepackaged dehydrated/freeze-dried stuff would be rather unpleasant, but if all we had was that, then that's what we would have to do. I'd of course be trying to supplement it (and stretch it out) by adding foods from the garden and whatever critters I could hunt and fish for, which would be a great improvement to the menu.

I for one am glad to see more manufacturers and retailers getting into this game. More competition should mean that they price each other down, saving us money.

As far as I can figure, more people getting into this means two things:
1) Fewer people panicked and in need should a need arises. Everyone with a stockpile of food is one less person storming the empty grocery stores in the event of a disaster, and one less family in need. Should make for a calmer community.
2) The more "normal" this is, the better.

Welcome to ETS, BBQ. (by the way, I lived in Hood River for several years)

You make excellent points about applauding the increased availability of such supplies - prepared people free up resources for others when/if there is a crisis.

I hope preparedness is catching on in the Pacific Northwest, where the a massive earthquake along Cascadia Subduction Zone could cause unimaginable destruction and disruption.

I'm a big fan of Costco and don't see this emergency food supply any more gimmicky than that humongous "All-American" chocolate cake they sell at a great price.

When checking the details, about 80% of the info was for the cheapy solar set-up. I'd prefer to see more detail in the food portion, where the bulk of the money is based.

*edit - please do read the 1 review that they have.

Looks to me to be good value and worthwhile for those who wish to prepare,and have the money, but do not want to expend too much time and effort on buying and storing numerous individual packs of long life foods.

For those prefering a smaller or different selection, the website lists many long life foods and other doomer stocks sold individually rather than as part of a kit.

I wish that we had Costco here in the UK !