Shopping With Emergency Essentials

We live in a world with a wide range of products available for purchase, especially food storage products.  We are very blessed to be able to order almost anything we need online and have it delivered right to our doors. I live in a small town without many choices for shopping, so shopping online has been such a time saver for me.  But there are times that I really want to see a product in person before buying it, but this requires some planning on my part.  Taking a trip into the city, 25-45 minutes away, usually includes several stops and my lists are carefully planned ahead of time. This week I headed down to Orem, Utah where I visited the Emergency Essential store and I also stopped by a local grocery store to pick up a few case lot items. I can't ever pass up a case lot sale :)

 I receive the Emergency Essentials catalog every month (sign up for a catalog HERE) and I always want to order a few items, but I never get around to it.  This month I decided to head to the closest store to me, about 30  minutes away to check them out.  I have shopped with them before in Salt Lake City, but never at this location.  

 Emergency Essentials

216 East University Parkway
Orem, Utah 84058
United States
(801) 222-9667

Store Hours:
Mon. 10:00 am-6:00 pm
Tues.-Sat. 10:00 am-9:00 pm
Closed Sunday

 
Please note that I have been a very loyal Honeyville Grain shopper, but I do like to branch out and check out all my options. I do think that Emergency Essentials is a little higher in price point than Honeyville Grain, but the quality of the food is about the same. 

 Here's a fun fact:  when you type in a company name into Google Maps, make sure that the location you pick is the retail store and not the company headquarters.  Guess how I know this fact?  See the picture above, that is the company headquarters for Emergency Essentials.  I met the nicest receptionist while I was there and she gave me directions to the Orem, Utah store front location.  I am so glad that the store was only about 10 minutes away from the company headquarters.  Gotta laugh at yourself sometimes :)

I did eventually make it to the retail store and it was worth the hassle of finding it.  It was light, bright, very organized, and the staff was very helpful.  They were out of a few items that I wanted but that just saved me money :)  

 Emergency Essentials carries more than just freeze-dried food in #10 cans, which they do carry quite a variety of!  They have water purifiers of all kinds, buckets of emergency food for 72-hour type kits, cookbooks, all sorts of preparedness gadgets, sleeping bags, Volcano stoves, fire starting gadgets, and more!

Here you can see the sleeping bags in the rear of the photo and the wall of Mountain House freeze-dried meals and MRE's.  There is also a test kitchen along the back wall of the store.  I was impressed by the look of the store and the helpfulness of the employees.  

 Here's a picture of my loot and the register where I checked out.  The big bucket in my cart is actually breakfast cereal!  A 5-gallon bucket of frosted flakes!  I know it's not the healthiest, by far, but in an emergency it will come in handy for an easy breakfast. 

 Do you see the inside view of the broccoli on the side of the can?  Ok, it isn't really a window into the can, but what a great view of what each product really looks like.  The image on the front of the can doesn't always represent the food that is on the inside of the can. Notice the fresh looking head of broccoli on the front of the can verses the freeze-dried image on the side of the can.  I like knowing what the freeze-dried food looks before I open the whole can.  I give Emergency Essentials and A+ for this "inside the can" image idea!

Here is another view of the inside image of the freeze-dried mushrooms that I purchased.  This can is also the smaller sized can that Emergency Essentials sells.  This is great for single people, college students, couples, or small families.  This smaller sized can is also a great way to try out a food before committing to the larger #10 can size.  I had to buy the smaller cans because they were out of the #10 cans of freeze-dried mushrooms.  I have noticed that most food storage retailers are also out of freeze-dried mushrooms.  I hope there isn't a mushroom shortage!! 

 Important information:  Most of the freeze-dried food at Emergency Essentials has a shelf life of 25 years! So if you have sticker shock from the freeze-dried cans of fruit, just know it will last a looonnngg time on your shelf!  My kids are banned from my freeze-dried peaches and oranges!  There will literally have to be zombies in the back yard for those cans to get opened anytime soon! In all seriousness, the freeze-dried fruits are tasty and they go fast in my house!!

All in all I was very impressed with the Emergency Essentials store.  If you don't live near one of the retail store fronts (their 4 locations are all in Utah), don't worry because you can order online anytime!  (beprepared.com) They have a flat rate shipping charge of $6.00 for orders shipped in the continental United States. If you aren't familiar with Emergency Essentials, check them out.  I do recommend their products, but please do your own research and price comparisons before purchasing anything.  I am NOT compensated for this post, or for any post that I write.  These are my true opinions of the products that I buy.