The Big Box of Preparedness
A billboard on I-95 in Connecticut asks, “Does your family have an emergency plan?” Er, no. Leslie Fastenberg, a self-described soccer mom from Old Westbury, N.Y., steps into the breach with a mammoth (and stylish) emergency kit called the ICE-Qube. The 85-pound box is stocked with enough necessities, she said, for a family of four to survive for four days: $850 plus shipping at (516) 650-7690 or ice-qube.com. Over 100 items are within, like toothbrushes, a crank radio, Jif peanut butter and condoms. I wondered about those last two items. “What, do you want the peanut butter from Whole Foods instead?” she said, adding that condoms were a “high-value, small-mass product.” PENELOPE GREEN
From the New York Times
Okay, so let me get this straight. This box has Jif peanut butter because Whole Foods would be extravagant, but it has 10 bottles of FIJI WATER?! If she actually cared about value, she might replace the Fiji water with several gallons of generic spring water from the local supermarket!
…jeez. On a second look, the focus is apparently more on “comfort” on survival. This kit would be more suited to the sort of “emergency” in which an upper-middle-class family has run out of brand-name products.
December 19, 2006 @ 3:18 am