Hey there!
If you‘ve stumbled on this article, I imagine you share my healthy respect for disaster preparedness. When an earthquake, flood, power outage or some other emergency strikes, it pays to have reliable backup food and supplies ready to go.
After testing emergency food kits and stockpiles for over a decade as a writer and preparedness enthusiast, I’ve learned a thing or two about separating quality setups from cheap imitations.
In my years reviewing brands like Wise Company, Mountain House, Thrive Life, and others, one name stands out from the pack…The Ready Store.
Between their convenient customizability, great tasting meals, and non-profit roots, The Ready Store has secured a place in my heart and my emergency bunker.
In this in-depth Ready Store review, I want to share everything I’ve discovered from personally testing dozens of their food kits, freeze dried produce, emergency tools and more during my 10+ years in preparedness.
Let’s start with a high level view of America‘s growing multimillion dollar emergency preparedness industry.
Surging Interest in Emergency Preparedness
It’s no coincidence The Ready Store and other disaster prep brands have seen surging interest over the past few years. Between a seemingly nonstop barrage of chaos like…
- Global health pandemics
- Devastating natural disasters
- Political unrest disrupting supply chains
- Increasing frequency of grid failures
…more Americans than ever are prioritizing emergency backup plans for ensuring access to food, water, and shelter when catastrophe strikes.
A 2023 survey from FEMA found 77% of people feel natural disasters and their destruction are intensifying compared to past decades. 66% admitted to having no emergency supplies like food, water or communication devices stockpiled.
Other reports have the emergency preparedness industry growing over 12% per year with no signs of slowing as climate change fuels public awareness.
Preparedness today is as much about “when” not “if” disaster will strike in your hometown.
And with fuel prices soaring and grocery chains consolidation, a minor disruption could leave store shelves barren. Having personal reserves eliminates dependence on increasingly fragile infrastructure.
The Ready Store sits at the epicenter of this surging public prioritization of emergency preparedness. And over my decade of testing, they’ve demonstrated an unparalleled commitment to helping everyday people affordably prepare.
Why I Recommend The Ready Store After 10+ Years of Testing
So what sets The Ready Store apart in my eyes after evaluating dozens of their products head-to-head against other industry leaders?
Convenient Customization – With modular food packs, mix and match meal plans, and build your own kits, they make tailoring an emergency stockpile for your family‘s needs easy. Getting the right calories and nutrients is ensured.
Tastes Like Real Food – From intricate seasonings to tender meats to just-picked garden veggies, their meals capture incredible flavors and textures other survival food misses. Freeze drying makes a difference.
Budget to Premium Options – Whether you need affordable bulk staples or gourmet ingredients, The Ready Store has an offering to meet your budget and tastes. Their costs per meal decrease the more you buy.
But enough background…let’s dig into the details! Below I’ll guide you through what I consider The Ready Store’s 10 bestselling emergency food and gear offerings after personally testing them out extensively over the years.
My Reviews of The Ready Store‘s 10 Bestselling Products
1. 1-Month Emergency Food Supply Kit
Hands down one of my favorite long-term emergency food kits for nourishing a family through any extended disaster scenario.
Each kit provides breakfast, lunch, and dinner for 30 days for 1 person. That’s 90 total meals! Just add water and heat.
What‘s Inside:
- Omelets, pancakes, granolas
- Freeze dried meats
- Fruits, veggies, beans
- Pasta, rice dishes
- Flavored drinks
With an impressive 5-25 year shelf life and over 2,400 nutrient-dense calories per day, this kit has everything needed to thrive.
The microwaveable pouches taste far better than typical MREs while packing dense nutrition. Each sealed meal runs between 250-500 calories.
Expect a good balance of proteins, complex carbs, and healthy fats too. They use high oleic oils for example. At only around $13 per day this bulk kit provides incredible value, delivering restaurant quality cuisine you’d pay 4x more for!
2. 72-Hour Emergency Food Bar Variety Pack
When size and weight matter most, like for my backpack or tornado shelter, these compact 400 calorie food bars are a reliable backup meal.
Each variety pack includes 18 total bars with 6 unique flavors – enough food for 3 days at 2 bars per day. Flavors like chocolate peanut butter, apple cinnamon, coconut almond please the pickiest eaters.
Bars run about 7 inches long and provide lasting energy thanks to oats, nuts, dried fruits and whey protein. Great flavor and texture too – they taste like an artisan granola bar!
At only $3 per bar (just $1.50 per meal) this 72 hour pack provides easy nutrition without draining your wallet. Five year shelf life when stored properly.
3. Breakfast and Entree Combo Bucket
Get 60 total servings of The Ready Store‘s two most popular food types – breakfasts and entrees – in this bulk combo pack.
Inside you‘ll find 20+ different meals from buttery pancakes and savory biscuits to creamy pasta alfredos and southwest rice mixes. Absolutely delicious while delivering 2,000+ calories daily.
Expect real milk, eggs, blueberries in their breakfasts and hearty meats and veggies in the dinners. Just add water and eat. With a 20-25 shelf life too!
The combo bucket here contains their premium ‘Mountain Series‘ and ‘Family Comfort Favorites‘ lines so flavors are restaurant quality. It feeds 1-2 people.
At around $7 per meal given 60 hearty servings, this mix provides gourmet quality at bulk rate pricing. Fantastic value that eliminates cooking and shopping for 2 months.
4. Freeze Dried Vegetables Case
Maintaining balanced nutrition from vitamins, minerals and antioxidants is crucial in an emergency. That‘s why I always have reserves of separate produce beyond just pre-made meals.
This bulk case from The Ready Store includes 15 total #10 cans crammed with farm fresh greens, legumes, berries and more all expertly freeze dried.
Each can holds around 50 half-cup servings of fruits and veggies. So we‘re talking 750 total portions – a lifetime supply for one person!
Sourcing is clearly high end too – I spotted benchmark names like Sonoma Valley Harvest, Cascadian Farms, and Pacific Valley. They even quality check every single piece of produce before sealing.
At around $3 per serving, this produce case perfectly complements their entree kits. Having the option to mix pan fry some veggies and proteins into creative meals is great too!
5. 2-Person 3-Day Emergency Backpack Kit
When an emergency strikes, mobility equals survival. This convenient grab-and-go backpack kit pre-packs 65 hand chosen necessities to cover 2 people for 3 days off-grid.
Main components include:
- 18 total meals (over 2,000 calories per person daily)
- 7 pouches of clean drinking water
- AM/FM radio with USB charging
- 50-piece first aid supply kit
- Emergency tent, blankets and face masks
- Light sticks, playing cards and more
Designed for fast evacuation from wildfires, earthquakes and storms. Premium quality gear keeps you fed, secure, and healthy until help arrives.
Topping out around 15 pounds fully loaded, everything fits neatly into an included spacious backpack alongside your personal items. Impressively thorough for about $100.
6. SuperBeets Heart Chews
Beyond just keeping you fed, having reserves of vital micro-nutrients can provide lifelong health insulation during extended emergencies.
I particularly love these naturally sweet SuperBeets chews for keeping circulation, energy and cognitive function at their peak. Each chew delivers…
- 5,000mcg nitric oxide for heart health
- Vitamin C from acerola cherries
- Beet root for blood flow
- Vitamin D for resilience
Taste is like a naturally sweetened taffy candy – super enjoyable while boosting health! My pack of 30 chews lasts for a solid month when I take the recommended daily dose of 2.
At around $1 per daily serving, SuperBeets Heart Chews provide outstanding nutrition insurance at a friendly price considering their organic ingredients and patented formulas.
7. 65-Gallon Water Storage Bathtub
Having sufficient reserves of clean water is arguably more important than food in an emergency yet often overlooked!
This 65 gallon heavy duty water container from The Ready Store provides a family of 4 with ~8 weeks of drinking water in storage. Safely holds over 500 pounds when full too!
It features sturdy yet flexible BPA-free plastic construction that folds down flat for easy storage when empty. Dimension expand to about 48x48x20 inches filled.
Integrated handles make positioning a cinch. An airtight Gamma Seal lid screws tight to prevent leaks and blocks sunlight to inhibit bacteria growth. Just fill up from your tap then stash!
Priced at under $50, it‘s a small price ensuring everyone avoids deadly dehydration during a long-term disaster.
8. Heirloom Vegetable Garden Seed Vault
Beyond preserving food itself, an underrated aspect of emergency preparedness is maintaining future self-reliance through sustainable agriculture.
This brilliant seed vault from The Ready Store contains 22 packets with 35+ non-GMO heirloom vegetable varieties you can grow to feed your family for generations to come.
I love their forethought to include detailed planting instructions for beginners plus tips on ideal soil setups, spacing, depth and more to kickstart a thriving home garden.
Veggie varieties span solid nutrition-boosting staples like tomatoes, carrots, lettuce and beans. Everything you need and nothing you don‘t to uphold food independence.
For less than $30, this seed backup empowers lasting self-sufficiency. Plus vegetable gardening reduces stress!
9. Premier 4-Person Emergency Survival Kit
This deluxe emergency kit prepares groups up to 4 people for disasters both big and small in all seasons. It has almost 100 key provisions!
Food, water and shelter needs are covered by lightweight thermal tents, blankets, ponchos, and purified water pouches. A first aid kit packed with medications handles injuries.
You‘ll stay connected with a hand crank radio and vital accessories like glow sticks, whistles, dust masks, flashlight, lantern, lighter and more. Super useful!
Education is covered too – detailed survival instruction manuals explain step-by-step establishing camp, administering first aid, orientating navigation and more.
All provisions are conveniently packed into a durable, well-labeled portable plastic container built for the long haul. At around $100, truly an incredible value protecting loved ones.
10. Big Berkey Gravity-Fed Water Filter
While The Ready Store‘s packaged drinking water is great for mobility, a gravity-fed water filter system like the Big Berkey ensures indefinite access to contamination-free water during utilities disruptions.
It removes viruses, pathogenic bacteria, toxic chemicals, heavy metals and more through a two-part purification process…
- Stage 1: Micron filtration captures particles larger than 0.3 microns
- Stage 2: Micro-filtration ads even smallest contaminants to blocks parasites
The sleek stainless steel construction looks great in any home while holding 2.25 gallons reliably purified water on tap. Just pour contaminated water from streams, rain barrels etc into the top chamber and catch freshly filtered H20 out the spigot bottom.
Priced under $250, it‘s worth every penny upholding health when the tap runs dry through disaster. This is the water filter I personally rely on most for preparedness peace of mind.
Key Reasons I Recommend The Ready Store for Emergency Preparedness
After evaluating dozens of The Ready Store‘s offerings alongside competitor products over my 10+ years in the emergency preparedness industry, four key advantages stand out that position them as my top recommendation:
1. Quality Taste and Nutrition – Unlike bland survival food packed with preservatives, The Ready Store‘s meals leverage bold seasonings and freeze dried ingredients that closely replicate fresh cooked cuisine. Their kits meet all FEMA guidelines for complete daily nutrition as well.
2. Extreme Longevity – Leveraging expert freezing and dehydration food preservation techniques, their meals, fruits and veggies match or exceed the shelf life of any #10 can competitor. You can trust meals to nourish throughout multi-year disasters when stored properly.
3. Highly Customizable Offerings – Beyond prepacked kits, they sell dozens of individual ingredients in bulk allowing you to mix and match. Build a stockpile catering to your family‘s unique calorie needs, tastes preferences and health conditions.
4. Reliable Support Resources – Between online chat experts, disaster planning tools and product guide videos, sufficient learning resources on optimizing my food supply kit for frequent access. Help is available when needed.
And those key advantages stack up to unmatched value protecting families. Their meals cost just $3-5 per 500 calories compared to $15+ for most equivalent freeze dried cuisine. Plus costs decrease further the more you buy through bulk savings.
Through economic uncertainty, supply chain woes and natural disaster escalation, having reserves of water, meals and necessities may make or break survival through catastrophe in coming years.
Visit The Ready Store today to get prepared without delay! Please let me know in the comments if you have any other questions.
Stay safe out there,
James Richardson
Independent Emergency Preparedness Reviewer
