Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/07/17/costco-now-selling-prepper-food-buckets-for-the-imminent-apocalypse.html
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Now? They’ve carried buckets for years.
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You don’t need to be a crazed prepper waiting for the downfall of society to buy this kind of thing. Everyone should have an emergency plan for events like natural disasters that could leave them without water, gas and power for days or weeks at a time. Doubly so in these days of climate-change-fueled hurricanes and whatnot.
My family certainly doesn’t identify as “preppers” but we’ve got enough nonperishible food and bottled water to get by for several days next time our area is hit with a major earthquake.
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For a news story talking about earthquake preparedness my seismologist wife was once asked by a reporter what people should be putting in their home kits. She gave a decent answer and then told the reporter off-record that he really should just ask some local mormon organization what they do, because they’ve seriously got that stuff all figured out.
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Gotta say there’s been ample evidence that a natural disaster could strike and that nobody will come for a few days. Seems reasonable to have some food and water around.
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Likewise. Have a couple from various vendors, as well as spare emergency stuff in the “earthquake barrel” outside of the house. Really, having a plan for a 3 to 7 day outage isn’t wild eyed prepper stuff, so couching stuff solely in those terms is a disservice.
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Yes. Costco is catering to reality-based people here. Depending on the size of the container, I might pick one up myself to put alongside the first aid kit and other emergency supplies (including the can opener).
In contrast, preppers seem to believe that these buckets are magical cornucopias that will produce meals forever while the starving hordes pound on their bunker doors during the End Times. That market is already served by lunatics and grifters like Jim Bakker
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That’s why I didn’t get a tankless water heater when my old one went bad. If it doesn’t get destroyed in the earthquake, that’s 30 gallons of water.
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When I got a tankless heater I stripped down and cleaned up the 40-gallon tank from my old heater, installed a new anode to help control corrosion, and plumbed it in-line with my house’s water supply. So it’s constantly got fresh water passing through it and will make a good reservoir if we need it after a quake.
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I live in an apartment in the Northeast. So the major worry is strong storms/hurricanes knocking out power. The water supply is likely not going to be affected, but electricity and transportation will. I have to worry about means of cooking and spoilage. So I have a small butane canister stove and coolers for that. The stove was originally bought for making nabe dishes at the table.
I have a plethora of boil in bag Indian, Korean and Japanese meals because they make great quick lunch material anyway. Plus they are far more portable for “brown-bagging” in the office than leftovers in tupperware or sandwiches.
I figure with my densely populated environment, the best course of action in a major emergency is organizing with the neighbors.
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Then there are the aspiring post-apocalyptic warlords who think that they can use their guns to seize infinite supplies of food from the chumps who don’t have guns.
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I remember a Nu-Twilight Zone episode from the 80’s where 2 preppers go into their bunker when there is news of a nuclear explosion nearby. They go crazy inside waiting for the radiation warning light to turn off.
Turns out it was not WWIII but an accident. Their destroyed town got bulldozed over burying the preppers inside their bunker. The end shows kids in a bright sunny playground built right over the bunker.
(Edit, it was from 1987 the episode was called “Shelter Skelter”)
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Is the addition of the bucket for the packaging to serve as a receptacle to place your meal after your ‘finished’ with it?
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Yeah, I’ve been a regular Costco customer for a long time. These are nothing new. And, as others have pointed out, they have legitimate uses other than surviving an apocalypse.
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Please stock some water or at least filtration equipment. As we learned in the great freeze of Texas, lack of electricity for more than a few days absolutely will affect water supply. It was the power outage for so long that shut down our city water plants and made the water unpotable for a day after we got it back. Most wells operate with electricity to pump as well.
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(Just because)
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Yeah, all fun and games until the Texas power grid shits the bed and everything is shut down for a week, you’re in household of 4 bachelors, two of them who DoorDash everything except the occasional hot dog, and have taken in two additional friends who have been frozen out of their powerless homes by burst pipes because miraculously you still have power.
Fortunately I had plenty of dried spaghetti and frozen chicken, but six people for better part of a week certainly put a strain on things. I’d happily buy the bucket and keep it around.
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As others said, it’s a good idea to have some emergency food and water, especially depending on where you live.
Tornadoes or power line destroying winds are my immediate likely disaster, but others around me are also prone to flooding.
Other places have earthquakes or hurricanes to worry about. Having a week or so worth of food for something severe where supplies can’t get to you is not an unreasonable precaution.
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