9 Companies Cashing In On Our Doomsday Fears (PHOTOS)

These days the apocalypse is a profitable business. There's no shortage of companies marketing to our worst fears -- whether they be a nuclear doomsday, a massive food shortage or even a return to the gold standard. In fact, as Zero Hedge noted today, Costco now sells a product called THRIVE, which includes full-year's supply of canned food, or 5,011 servings, if you're counting.

For the bargain shopper planing for the end of the world, we've compiled some of the more prominent products and companies that are catering to your apocalyptic needs. Check them out below:

(Ron Wilson contributed to this piece.)

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THRIVE - A 5,011-Serving Food Stockpile

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Emergency preparedness has also entered the mainstream. Costco is selling THRIVE, a 5,011-serving stockpile of food. For the temperate, it will last a full year. (Hat tip to Zero Hedge.) At $799.99, that's a real bargain. And, of course, it offers more than just food. From the website: "this package will give you variety, nutrition, and peace of mind."

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Emergency preparedness has also entered the mainstream. Costco is selling THRIVE, a 5,011-serving stockpile of food. For the temperate, it will last a full year. (Hat tip to Zero Hedge.)

At $799.99, that's a real bargain. And, of course, it offers more than just food. From the website: "this package will give you variety, nutrition, and peace of mind."

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Comments

[OdinsEye]

08:39 PM on 10/07/2010

Some of the ideas presented actually have merit beyond a fantasy doomsday. Every family should have a set of kits for disaster preparedness for local events like fires, floods, tornados, power outages, blizzards, hurricanes, earthquakes, etc depending on the threats facing their particular area. This kits might include a BOB (Bug Out Bag) AKA GOOD kit (Get Out Of Dodge kit), SIP (Shelter In Place) kit, VSK (Vehicle Safety/Survival Kit), and ISK (Individual Survival Kit).


Some more info can be found on previous discussions such as http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/OdinsEye/how-to-survive-the-apocal_n_540940_44975354.html and http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamie-lee-curtis/prepare-to-be-desperate_b_425907.html

[hrpmap]

08:11 PM on 10/07/2010

Why isn't the Federal Reserve headquarters among these photos? They should be.

[Jamesb333]

03:22 PM on 10/07/2010

Keeping fear alive.

[Harry Hamilton]

01:50 AM on 10/07/2010

if our government and our weatherman can't predict the weather from day to day , what makes anyone
think they can predict the end is near. anyone who buys into this is a fool.all they are after is money

[frenlyfyre]

10:11 PM on 10/06/2010

Well I seriously wonder if I want to crawl out of my well appointed shelter, well-fed and well-armed, only to find a burned Earth filled with "Beckians" & "Limbaughnians". Wait a minute..."well-armed"...At Least I Could BLOW MY BRAINS OUT! And I Guess I WOULD!! Don't BUY in to this
rampant "end of days" paranoia folks. The harbingers of doom JUST WANT YOUR MONEY!!
P.S-don't they already have enough??

[Rooster Coburn]

03:33 AM on 10/07/2010

I've read conflicting views of the "Front Sight" program. Anyone here attended? Let us know what you think please.

[LenR]

09:43 PM on 10/06/2010

All the commentary seem to say that laser cannons are unnecessary. Well, maybe not. This may seem out of left field but we live in a new century and a new millennium and what may have been true in the 20th Century is less so today. And, since 1995, things are different. How different things are has been underlined by the discovery of Gliese 581's solar system that has so far yielded two probably living planets. Does the Gliese solar system contain more than merely lesser organic life? Is it the solar system of a sentient civilization? Could it, in fact, be the home solar system of an interstellar civilization? Could there be a connection between Glise 581 and all the UFO reports? Far more questions than answers. Hmm: UFOs. Distant home worlds. Lasers. Could it be the Defense Department knows something we don't know?

[Westof405]

08:02 PM on 10/06/2010

I like the pet sitting one. Become the AIG of pet sitters. Pretty funny if you think about it. If the owners are "raptured" how will they know if you are actually feeding Fido?

Beck is into all this because Mormons believe you should have a year's supply of food stored away. However, the 5 gallon bucket with some meals in it Papa Swamp mentioned isn't a bad idea. I live in SoCal and we get enough fires and earthquakes to make that pretty useful.

If there really is some big catastrophe, just as in Mad Max, the two most valuable commodities will be guns and gasoline.

[BuildingAirplanes]

07:44 PM on 10/06/2010

Hmmmm, Glenn Beck being sponsored by these ads.....

Keep America Paranoid. Vote Republican.

[K M D]

05:59 PM on 10/06/2010

200 bucks for 2 weeks of food - if there WAS an apocalypse, this would be the equivalent of holding an umbrella over your head during a tornado.

If anyone is genuinely concerned about stockpiling food for any reason, there's wonderful, inexpensive books on the subject of self-sufficiency as a lifestyle that are easy to find and full of PRACTICAL advice that applies even to "normal everyday" life - surely a better investment than a 200 dollar backpack of food you could buy at REI tomorrow. :P Stupid sure is expensive.

[ETG]

04:19 AM on 10/07/2010

You are right. So what is wrong with making money from lazy Americans? If people don't want to take the time to figure out a more cost effective way, its their own fault. Not doing any prep is stupid, don't have to go nuts and plan for years, but having nothing is foolish.
I would say the odds of the US economy crashing and huge inflation are much higher than the earth burning up. So do you have any problem with Al Gore and the millions he has made of the green spoof?

[FreewheelinFranklin]

05:19 PM on 10/06/2010

Looks like this is the answer to the unemployment problem too. Plenty of jobs selling more insurance against all the disaster and catastrophe happening around us every day.
And by the way, send me twenty bucks and I'll water your house plants when, oops, IF the rapture takes you. Just leave the keys under the doormat.

[dholl69]

04:09 PM on 10/06/2010

I think people who buy into a lot of stuff like this, will spend thousands trying to save themselves from doomsday, but end up dying by slipping and falling on a piece of ice.

IF there is such a day, event, most won't remember where they put most of this stuff in the garage with the christmas lights

[Chicagowill]

10:16 PM on 10/06/2010

Do ya think most of these people wear seat belts, whether the government tells them to or not?

[dholl69]

11:36 AM on 10/07/2010

Not sure what you mean here....was just saying that sometimes we take extreme measures to be safe (of course wear seatbelt, lock your door, etc)...but when it get to the point you are are spending thousands, I just think you are then possibly buying into the fear and not the reality....meaning you could be preparing for a big catostrophic event, that may happen fifty years from now, but the step on a toothpick tomorrow and bleed to death.

[Fred303]

03:03 PM on 10/06/2010

sounds like fun!

[Craigy6]

03:03 PM on 10/06/2010

That last one is the smartest scam ever!! Pretty much free money with no repercussions.

[yomamasmama]

12:13 PM on 10/06/2010

LOL no one is going to care about your shiny rocks in the event of an apocalypse.

[Alaskangel]

01:04 PM on 10/06/2010

Money will be redundant also.

[yomamasmama]

09:09 AM on 10/07/2010

I know.

[angrymanspokane]

11:22 AM on 10/06/2010

The FUD factor is the best selling tool there is - Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt.