Costco starts to sell 'apocalypse bucket' with food that lasts 25 years | Hacker News Reader

Costco starts to sell 'apocalypse bucket' with food that lasts 25 years

nbcnews.com

38 pointsthunderbong68 comments

Before investing in doomsday buckets, people should make sure they're already rotating shorter-shelf-life food that they normally eat, and have a comfortable buffer of that.

For distinct prepper food stores that are different from your daily, you also need to make sure you know how to prepare it, that it was preserved OK (wrt bacteria, mold, bug eggs, etc.), that you're storing it OK (rats/mice/bugs can't get into it, wasn't stored near gas cans, not going to be flooded nor have gotten too hot, etc.), that you have everything you need to prepare it under different likely scenarios (e.g., outages of water, electricity, natgas), can prepare it safely (e.g., no flames indoors that could start a fire when emergency services might already be overextended, no generator exhaust getting indoors), that everyone in the household can eat it without immediate health problems, etc.

If I had kids, I'd try a fun camping-at-home weekend, when we pretend we can't use the faucets or power grid, and we have to figure out how to do things in practice. And then do a bit of subtle retrospective, so that the next time goes smoother, but as fun/interesting, without stressing the kids or overemphasizing it. Then, when there's a hurricane or whatever, it's just camping-at-home, going smoother due to prior experience and preparedness, and we can learn related practices by example, like checking on neighbors to make sure they're OK and have the essentials.

> Before investing in doomsday buckets, people should make sure they're already rotating shorter-shelf-life food

I did not get why? Why isn’t the 25-years shelf life food sufficient? Sorry, probably a dumb question.

Economics. You have a week’s worth of food in the pantry. Over the next month buy a little extra each time you go to the grocery store. Now you have two week’s worth of food. Continue shopping weekly or whatever your routine was. Eat the oldest items. Costs a little during the month you bought extra. Or use coupons and buy specials and sale items. But it costs a lot less than freeze dried food in a bucket and is fresher and tastes better.

Also get a ten gallon container for water and rinse, clean, and refill it a couple times a year.

Put the extra long term stuff in your bunker. Use regular food for the annual power outages and extreme weather.

Ok, it’s cheaper, but I’ll be honest, it sounds like a hassle, something I won’t sustain for very long. I already struggle with fresh fruits and vegetables, they barely last a week in the fridge, unless I switch to only apples…

I like to be prepared, but I really don’t like the idea of giving up stuff just in case. I’d like to keep enjoying the moment at least, this sounds too much like extinguishing all fun in life to me. (Yeah, food is important to me)

I think having a large pile of 25 years food in a corner is probably more my style, I can build it slowly.

Doesn't the second paragraph seem more involved, and like a lot more things could go wrong with it (at the worst possible time), compared to the first paragraph?

I feel like this whole topic (having food on hand in case of a disaster) gets overcomplicated. By people who feel helplessly addicted to modern conveniences or something.

I mean I'm not a prepper. But hello, I cook. So at any given time I have several kilos of shelf stable dry goods like rice, beans, flour, pasta. Plus cooking oils and a bit of canned fish, vegetables etc. This stuff pretty much all lasts for years.

I'm sure I have at least two weeks of food on hand, the calories are easy to calculate. If I felt I needed more I would just be buying more of what I already have, except leaning more heavily into canned fruit/veg/meats.

In a pinch a camping stove is all that's needed to make all this stuff edible.

Now water on the other hand, due to the storage space needed, that's a tougher issue.

They've had these forever. They're just not always on the shelves (but nothing is).

These meals also don't seem all that nutritious. A lot of the entrees are high in carbs but low in proteins and fats (affecting satiety and probably long term muscle mass that you'd need to fight off the zombies). Also not sure about their micronutrient profiles. Doesn't matter for 10 days but hard to survive long term with.

Something like Huel or Soylent offers way more consistent meal to meal nutrition for a little more money (double the price per serving, around $4 instead of $2). Not sure about the shelf life though.

Your local food co-op probably also sells bulk dehydrated hearty soups and meal mixes in powder form. Or get MREs from military surplus stores.

I would assume that, for apocalypse purposes, these kinds of supplies aren't meant as a long-term meal solution so much as a supplemental or "bridge" food source to use while you work on establishing a new food supply? In which case convenience and shelf stability probably is more important than hitting an optimal nutrient profile for long-term health.

Soylent and Huel both only claim around a year of shelf life, hardly in the same category. Whether that means actual degradation in their nutrient content or just taste/texture is a different story.

I let some Huels sit around for about 9 months and they got very nasty.

>These meals also don't seem all that nutritious. A lot of the entrees are high in carbs but low in proteins and fats

Uh, of course? That's the stuff that keeps on the shelf. The point of disaster preparation is to avoid burning cash on throwing your food out every six months or hitting the expiry while you possibly don't even have running water if you forget when rotation day is. It's not a luxury athletics product; it's meant to keep you and your family supplied with calories for a week after an earthquake takes out the interstate your supermarket gets its deliveries on and there is no food to be had at any price. Do you have any actual experience with disaster planning? This comment is wildly off the mark.

Nope, not at all! We do cycle through bags of the fake food though, so shelf life isn't really an issue. We eat then normally and if the power goes out for a few days/weeks we can still keep eating them. If it's longer than that the preppers are gonna kill and eat us anyway, so shrug.

Personal fantasies are an exveptionally poor excuse for handing out known bad advice.

It's not advice? Just discussing something I thought was interesting.

> The bucket features 80 entrees and sides, 30 breakfast servings and 40 drink servings that just need water to prepare, for a total of 25,280 calories.

That’s only 10 days at 2,500/day for an adult male.

I suppose you could buy a bucket every year and retire them once they run out, then you’ve always got 250 days on hand.

I am decidedly not a prepper, but what is considered a good amount of food to have on hand in that community? 10 days of food gets you through almost any natural catastrophes. But what does 250 vs 100 days do for you? Perhaps the former gives you enough to get through a winter so you can farm your own food after the thaw?

For anyone interested, obviously a lot of prepper oriented material out there but for budget preparing I found the Mormons, of all groups, had easy and affordable and scalable lists.

Yes, absolutely. Some of the best resources out there are Mormons. Those groups also tend to have great advice on finding good pricing as well.

As to why Mormons tend to be so into it, I have a theory. The Mormons started out very poor (generally speaking), and repeately ended up leaving their homes and starting anew, including at one point in the barren and remote mountain west (where their headquarters are today). Having stores of food and other supplies were literally a matter of life and death and survival. I think that same spirit is still active among them.

It's actually an explicit religious expectation to prep for emergencies. I believe the generally understood requirement is a 3 months supply, but I'm not LDS, so I don't know the details of Mormon practice and variations therein.

What's interesting to me is that Judaism doesn't have any kind of similar requirement. There you also have a history (or at least a stereotype) of having to pick and up and move in response to religious persecution. I wonder if it's because in reality the gaps in time between periods of stability and persecution were often quite large? I don't think Jews have historically seen themselves as a wandering people as much as outsiders have seen them that way.

Mormons, meanwhile, had to move from place to place in quick succession over less than half a decade. It's another reason why LDS Church feels like the ultimate American religion: prepping is baked directly into the religious practice.

The amount of movement spread over several thousand years versus 200 is hardly a fair comparison.

The vast majority of Jews made significant geographic moves in the 20th century, either from Europe/Russia or the arab world. Most of them went to North America or Israel.

In 2014 I stopped at a Subway in Utah, in the 'burbs.

Some guy was oh-so-excited to show me the back of his truck, and how he had set it up to live there if he needed to. He had a whole solar setup.

(And, even though I'm not a prepper, I bought one of these buckets, and iodine pills, when war broke out in Ukraine.)

I think the Utah War comes into play as well. Mormons should score pretty high on a spectrum of how much people consider themselves to be independent of the federal government.

> As to why Mormons tend to be so into it, I have a theory.

No need to theorize, the rapture plays a big role in their canon, and is proselytized heavily.

I kind of think Mormons are the target audience for these products.

You can go do the rabbit hole of risk scenarios, but you still end up with a list that will look something like (made-up) 100 days of supplies will get me through 80% of the list, and 250 days will get me through 95% of it.

If you want to go down that rabbit hole, start with studying Katrina. Has almost every variation played out within one extensively documented event. Hunker vs leave, severe acute damage (MS) vs persistent 'lessor' flooding (NOLA), figuring out how long you need to evac, and when evac turns into short/medium term relocation or even permanent move.

Yea it's local and not Armageddon, but it provides the framework for how to think about these things, and how relying on faulty assumptions gets you in trouble.

But the real answer to your Q is that you'll start by prepping for 10-day events, then 100-day events, then maybe 250-day events, and you'll start to be able to fill in the gaps of your knowledge yourself. No matter what the risks.

Along the lines of: What good is 250 days of food without X? Where x might be water, fuel, meds, or 'lessor' needs like internet, work/job, social events, etc.

Or what good is 250 days of food if I have to abandon 210 days of that supply to evac?

Those are the types of questions that people answer differently, and you won't start filling in the gaps for yourself until you start small and build from there.

I’m not a prepper either, but 10 days doesn’t seem like a lot, especially when you start dividing it between multiple people. 100 man days of food is 25 days for a family of four (maybe more since kids need less). For a localised disaster like Katrina maybe that would be enough. For a war time scenario, maybe you’d want more.

Just to clarify, I don’t think I’d have enough in the house even for a week at the moment.

This is just speculation, but I could see there being a spectrum. E.g. bags of rice are an easy way to store a ton of calories but aren't very palatable and require you to boil water. On the other hand, survival meals are easy to prepare but expensive.

So perhaps the optimal strategy would be a combination of the two (likely with other options as well such as a supply of dried fruit to provide vitamin C).

> E.g. bags of rice are an easy way to store a ton of calories but aren't very palatable and require you to boil water. On the other hand, survival meals are easy to prepare but expensive.

This is the basis of how my family does things these days.

Post-COVID, we keep about 200# of rice and another 200# of dried beans on hand. We also have corresponding dry seasonings and such on hand. It's cheap, and stores well.

We eat quite a bit of both, but the above stay untouched. Once a year we donate it all to our local food pantry (i.e., "soup kitchen") and replace it. We know that it's useful for them because we work a shift at least once a month; we're not just pawning it off blindly. The donation is a tax write-off, and replacing the whole thing is less than $500.

Before COVID, we did the same but with small quantities. Our experience there showed us that it was in fact valuable to have food and essentials on hand just in case, and it felt justified to spend a bit more money on it in order to have more.

How much water per meal? In addition to regular daily H20 needs, it seems like lack of water might kill you before lack of food does.

I live in Scotland. It pishes down most days and I’m surrounded by lochs and rivers.

I hope Steve1989 reviews one of these.

For those who don't know, Steve reviews (mostly military) rations, all the way from before the first world war to modern day. One of my favorite channels on Youtube.

Seconded, Steve1989 is a very great watch with many insights into the art of long term rations.

Nice!

The "prepper" industry is making millions on the backs of idiots who think this stuff is necessary.

Plenty of people living in regions hit by tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, earthquakes and the like would disagree with you.

My house never has less than a few days of everything on hand because a bad storm of freezing rain means I am literally trapped for days, living at the bottom of a hill with no way to get to town.

I dunno this seems stupid to me. So 10 days worth of emergency food at $8 per meal?

Like olive oil is safe to eat for years, costs $5 / meal if it's all you eat and you get the fancy kind, and if the world doesn't end you can just use it and buy another backup bottle.

Eating just olive oil? Now not only am I starving, I'm also soiling all of my remaining clean pants?

Well, olive oil and MREs then, would make a nice pairing:

MRE =

"Meal, Refusing to Exit",

"Meal, Refused by Ethiopians"(actually happened),

"Meal, Rejected by Enemy", etc.

If olive oil was all I had left to eat, I think I'd rather smash my head with the bottle and then slit my wrists with the shards...

You say that, but if you're in a 10-day survival situation you'd happily have olive oil by day 3.

Maybe if you're planning for 3+ months off the grid it becomes a bad idea, but I don't think there are many scenarios where we're off the grid for 3+ months and then society comes back in any meaningful way (e.g. more than 1% of population alive, electricity again).

I wouldn't mind living in a vastly depopulated world with no electricity for a while. Sounds kinda exciting, actually, at least more so than the corporate AI dystopia? Until the cannabalism and such set in, at least.

On the other hand, I had to chug oil (on a dare) before and it was easily one of the worst experiences of my life. The aftertaste and slime lingered for hours and I felt ill for days. If I had to drink any more, I doubt I would've been able to keep it down at all, and would probably end up vomiting and getting dehydrated...

But you know what, mix that oil with some grains and sugar and whatever nuts or seeds you have and you'd probably end up with some very tasty cookies or bars. I once did a multi-day backpacking trip eating nothing but Clif bars every meal... wasn't great, and I never ate Clif bars again after that, but at least I didn't feel suicidal after every meal.

Oh I feel the cliff bar revulsion. After my last backpacking experience, the smell of store bought pita bread and Justin’s almond butter makes nauseas to even think about. Some old hats suggested preparing bean burritos (just beans and tortillas) because they store well and it’s harder to get sick of the taste. I had to find some other packers to trade with on the last two days the revulsion to pita bread smell was getting so strong.

I have one of these for earthquake preparedness, along with large containers with water. I think i got it 10 years ago from Costco, and I sure hope not having to try the food out.

Since Covid times we’ve been keeping a healthy stock of shelf-stable food that we’re continuously restocking. Our food supply chain seems too concentrated on fewer and fewer suppliers that in turn rely on long haul transportation, which makes it somewhat easy to disrupt and end up with stuff missing from stores for long periods. It feels safe to have a buffer of decent food. The end-of-times-bucket from Costco is therefore only for Zombie apocalypse or major earthquake :D

Costco has been selling these for at least a few years. I think they carry them once a year for a little while.

At the equivalent of $8 for a days of food, this actually wouldn't be too bad of a deal just for day to day use.

However, I imagine eating highly preserved foods everyday wouldn't be good for you?

There's nothing inherently unhealthy about freeze-dried food. You can freeze dry pretty much anything.

However, you get what you pay for, and freeze drying itself adds cost. Ingredient quality/price must be very low.

Beats starvation though, dunnit?

If you're looking to do this day to day instead, there are products like Huel and Soylent that can better meet that need. And also a DIY community for self mixed powdered meal replacements (with a good nutritional profile, and presumably fewer additives and preservatives?).

When I was a starving college kid $8/day for food that had some nutritional value would have been a godsend hah.

Oddly enough, this is the same packaging as bulk kitty litter: https://www.petsmart.com/cat/litter-and-waste-disposal/litte...

The CostCo photos show the same tear-off plastic seal and have the hole for the handle, though that's not installed: https://www.costco.com/readywise-150-serving-emergency-food-...

That’s a pretty good deal and probably not a bad idea to have on hand especially for a lot of people that live in areas more prone to severe weather or natural disasters.

Or anyone who likes backpacking. The equivalent at REI is several times the price.

I have two of these buckets in my garage, and I bought them from Costco at least 10 years ago, so this isn't news. Which just makes it an advertisement.

Honestly learning to cook, and buying bulk goods is the way to go. During the pandemic I started buying 25-50 lb bags of flour, rice, beans, field corn (with a 1lb of calcium hydroxide to make masa harina), peanuts, raisins, rolled oats and seeds for sprouting, etc. I rotate through it cooking up meals from scratch. Learning how to make tempeh, miso and tofu from soy beans means that I can make tons of dishes that I would have normally would have spent 10x more for in a restaurant or prepackaged meals. I still go to the store, but mostly for fresh vegetables that I haven't figure out how to grow (I live in the city).

Azure Standards is a good source of organic bulk goods.

They didn't just start, they've been selling these off-and-on for years. I have a 25 year food bucket I bought right around the financial crisis 15 years ago.

Have you tried any of it yet?

I'm wondering if in the apocalypse you're going to crack it open and wish you were dead.

No, I have it stashed in the basement. I made it through a natural disaster in my area in the middle of a global pandemic and wasn't even tempted to crack it open once. Hope I never will.

The container and packaging may have failed by now. Few plastics can remain viable for so long. Best to test it.

Last year was eating slightly expired cans of freeze dried star berries that a family member bought for y2k.

Kinda fun.

Their maglite D/C battery collection however, another story.

you could, maybe, instead, if you're worried about this, homestead with permaculture design principles?

That would require effort and a change in your lifestyle. Now you can indulge your paranoid fantasies just by throwing money at it.

Mind you, I've got the same paranoid fantasies -- just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that they're not out to get you. I just don't think that I can fix them by throwing money at it. Or even by homesteading with permaculture.

It would be a change in lifestyle but I am advocating for the change for reasons other the "prepping" as much as a health change in lifestyle. In some situations it might even be a substantial source of food and save or even make a little money. That it might help in troubled times is nice.

It, if nothing else, would teach a lot of people just how important our food infrastructure is.

Growing your own food should be more common. It is good to have some fresh food and know where it is coming from. Permaculture should be encouraged more, especially in suburban and rural areas. It might even be a way for some to make a little money (supplement, fun hobby, high school students). It would be an only solution if food was really long term short.

It will not solve all the worlds problems but maybe make use slightly more resilient in time of trouble.

A lot (most?) of people just do not have the space and resources. It is somewhat of a challenge to grow enough food for even one person. Planning and automaton can help but in the end it is work. Permaculture takes aa while to ramp up (so get started early.

Hah! I bought one of those online and some iodine tablets when war broke out in Ukraine.

I should probably get some more.

I suspect it will be a hit in Utah.

At $80, the price is low enough that I bet a lot of people would buy it just out of curiosity.

Ok? Walmart has a 48 hour big bucket of camp/dried food.

we all know mcdonald's burgers don't decompose, so i keep a 60-day ration on the shelf in my pantry! xD

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