Evidence Of End Times at Costco?

    It is accidental that I have covered Costco in three posts over recent months. In one, I called to your attention the fact that Costco was going to stop selling books and, in the others, that the company was now purveying both gold and silver (the links to those subjects are provided in that sentence.) Costco is again a topic because the company we all associate with abundance is now selling something that will be useful when we are dealing with scarcity. 

   The new product can be loosely described as "food" and more closely as "meals ready to eat" (MREs.) This chow is constituted in such a way that it will last during the long lean years that may soon arrive. The good news is, I suppose, that Costco shoppers can also become preppers without much effort. The bad is that apparently the food does not taste very good. 

   I know about this and am again writing about Costco because of this article: "Costco's Emergency Food Kit Makes Us Dread the Apocalypse Even More: The Buckets Sold at Costco Include Just-add-water Packets That Are Supposed to be Edible For 25 Years - They're Not Good," Emily Hall, Washington Post, August 9. 2024. Although the article is helpful and you learn, from just the title that the meals are not delicious, she does not let us know where we can get the water when the time comes.

Be Prepared
   If you are not a prepper type, or eschatologically inclined, you may pooh-pooh the notion that a backup larder of food is something for which you should start shopping. On the other hand, without an actual Armageddon or apocalypse there are reasons to believe that food could suddenly become scarce and, chances are, you don't know how to grow a turnip.
  There was, for example, the "Northeast Blackout of 2003", and although it only lasted for hours, it seemed like Armageddon since the food in the freezer was starting to melt and we couldn't access our electronic devices to find out how to start growing turnips.
   That the power could suddenly go off and stay off for quite a while was the subject of another recent article which made more resonant the Costco one and it doesn't mention climate changes or earthquakes either of which could leave us hungry and in the dark. The power could go off on purpose and because of people. In short, "Why White Supremacists Are Trying to Attack Energy Grids," Sara Ruberg, The New York Times, Aug. 8, 2024. (By the way, they are not the only ones.)

CANCON

   It is only mildly reassuring that, like most of the food we eat, we will be able to buy MREs from somewhere else. I didn't go to Costco to check the shelves, but it appears that the container pictured above is available to order online. If you think the neighbours or other family members might come foraging, larger quantities are available from other suppliers. For example: 

  Or, if you are among the growing numbers of Canadians who no longer want to work and think the government should feed them, then let your local government representative know that bulk quantities of MREs are available for purchase.

Sources: 

   The bulk order above is available from Total Prepare Inc. Canada. 

   See also: Survival Food: "Canada's Survival Food Experts."
   Or shop locally at: "Forest City Surplus Canada."

"Making Light of Heavy Things Since 2016"