Costco's Emergency Food: What You Should Know

3/9

Twenty-seven pounds is a LOT of mac and cheese

Okay, the total weight is only 26 pounds and 10 ounces, to be exact, but who’s counting when so much cheesy goodness is contained in one place? According to PEOPLE, that’s approximately the same weight as 100 baseballs. Luckily, you’ve got plenty of time to eat such a massive amount of food. If you store it in a “dry, cool environment,” as Costco’s website directs, the food should keep for up to 20 years. It will set you back $89.99, which amounts to about 50 cents per serving. According to the nutrition facts on Costco’s site, each serving contains only about 220 calories. Here are 12 more secrets Costco employees won’t tell you.

4/9

Costco isn’t the only place you can get it

Technically, you can’t get it at Costco at all; it’s only available on Costco’s website, not in stores. And, as of January 14, 2019, it’s not available on the website, either, at least for the time being. PEOPLE first reported on this product’s magnificent debut on Thursday, January 10, 2019; less than 24 hours later, the bucket was sold out. Three days after that, it still bore an “out of stock” label on Costco’s website. Eager shoppers have remained on “mac & cheese watch” since then, waiting for the bucket to become purchasable again. On January 11, CNBC reported that the bucket is also available through Amazon, though you’ll spend $149.99 for it there rather than a cool $90. Unfortunately, at the moment, Amazon lists the product as “currently unavailable,” too. Clearly, the demand for this mac & cheese is sky-high! In the meantime, check out these secrets behind Costco’s famous $4.99 rotisserie chicken.

5/9

You can buy 600 cans of food at once

If you’re willing to shell out six thousand dollars, the mother of all emergency food kits can be yours. That’s right—for $5999.99, Costco sells an emergency food stash that can feed a family of four for an entire year. Just what do you get for six grand? Well, you get, to name just a few items: 72 cans of instant rotini pasta; 36 cans of dehydrated potatoes; 36 cans of instant black beans; and 26 cans of various freeze-dried fruits. The list goes on. The 600 cans, which amount to a whopping 36,000 servings of food, come in 100 separate boxes, each containing six cans.

And though Costco’s site markets the kit as a year’s supply, the food items have shelf-lives ranging from three years (shortening powder) to thirty years (instant pinto bean flakes, white rice, and several of the other components). This item, which comes from the Nutristore brand, only has two reviews on Costco’s site, but they’re both five-star. One customer raves that the kit is “perfect for [those] who want to prepare for the apocalypse, or lazy guys like me who only want to shop once a year.” And, hey, maybe he’s onto something; when you do the math, it amounts to a cost of only about 17 cents per portion.