More Shelf Reliance

One of the owners of Shelf Reliance saw my post from last night about the food storage planning tool. He wanted to clear up some key points and actually left a very substantive comment on the blog. I don't know that any of you actually read the comments, and since I feel Mr. Palmer's remarks are important, I am posting exerpts here along with further commentary.

First up, I am happy to inform you that all orders over $199 are shipped free of charge.

Second, 

It is very true that many of the items that we carry can be found for much better pricing. Anyone willing to do their own canning at the local Dry Pack, for example, will find pricing that doesn't compare to what you will find through an emergency company. It's always a good idea to look for items on sale and store them on your own when possible.

I find it heartening that Mr. Palmer is encouraging people to pursue a less expensive alternative, even though it may harm his sales a bit.

Third, and this is one of the points I tried to convey, 

Some customers find it convenient to just get everything at once. THRIVE Food Storage is definitely a premium name and you are paying for higher quality. Because we teach people to use their food storage, we need to make sure it tastes great:) We also offer some 60 foods more than is available through the Dry Pack.

And finally, 

Our packages are built around a 2000 calorie diet. Most companies try to sell you a "year supply", but if you were to dig into the details you will find that they calories per day won't keep you alive very long. The buckets sold at Costco are a prime example of this. For $100 you can buy a 'three month' supply of food, but when you do the math you have to live off of 460 calories a day.

First off, thank you Mr. Palmer for taking the time to provide some color on this topic. You obviously care a great deal about your products and the reputation of your company. As I told Mr. Palmer personally via email, I like Shelf Reliance a lot, and I hope that sentiment was conveyed in the original post.

I think it is safe to say that THRIVE may not be a solution for everybody, but it is definitely a solution for somebody. Everything has a cost associated with it. It took me several hours of my time to build my #10 can rotating system/workbench. What is my time worth? There is a price beyond the cost of the food to go to the dry-pack. Also, as Mr. Palmer elluded to, there are quite a number of THRIVE foods in my free food storage plan that are not available elsewhere (dry, in #10 cans - to my knowledge).

• Sweet corn
• Mushrooms
• Carrots
• Raspberries
• Strawberries
• Bananas
• Apples
• Cheese
• Tomatoes
• Chicken bouillon
• Butter

THRIVE's solution may seem expensive to me. But for somebody who wants to get the job done without worry, hassle, time, travel, shopping, effort, etc., Shelf Reliance offers a viable solution that definitely has value.