The other day I was online looking for a sturdy metal lunch box and came across a really awesome looking one on Google shopping. For once it actually said there was one in stock nearby!? There is never anything I want nearby. I click on the link and look at the map, it’s located not too far away in a trendy/ yuppy mall. I figure I have some time to kill so I’ll go check it out.
As I walk into the door passing a group of popped collar teens I already feel out of place. The store I see is much bigger on the inside. It has a downstairs as well as the much smaller initial room you walk into. At first I’m not impressed at all. It all looks like overpriced junk that soccer moms fill their IKEA houses with. I’m tempted to leave before even looking around, however after years of practice I’ve learned that survival items can be either found or made out of almost anything. And sure enough I see some things of interest. There is a peg board wall section with various little item, mostly junk, but there were some real finds as well. On that wall I found a solid looking emergency window breaker/ seat belt cutter.
The wall also had pens’ markers, WD40 pens, and batter holders. I really liked the battery holders and picked up a AAA one. Next time I go there I’m going to bring a CR123 battery to see if it will fit one of the cases.
Next is a trip downstairs. First thing I see are Nalgene bottles and other water bottles and filters. At this point I’m really starting to dig the place. After wandering around a bit more and seeing all kinda of containers I would love to re-purpose for Survival gear. I do finally find the metal lunch box I came to look at in the first place. Although really neat, it was a little too expensive for it’s impracticality. No microwaving lunch in it, I would have to store lunches in another container and transfer them into the metal one before going into work or buy four of them ( at $30 a pop) since I pre-make my lunches for the week.
The trip however was not a total loss. I found eye dropper type bottles, good for chlorine dioxide water treatment. Little plastic tubes with screw on lids. If you’ve see NutnFancys level one first aid video they look a lot like the transport tubes he holds neosporin and betadyne. Lastly I found a little salt and pepper shaker. I like salt a lot. I whole lot. If in an emergency I have to eat rat burgers I at least want salt. Mustard would be nice too.
I also came across a can coke rotation system that I was tempted to grab and see if it would work for can food cans. If not then it modifing it would be easy enough for a cost benifit or making them from scratch would be better. At six bucks I will probably pick one up soon and give it a try. 
So what are my final thoughts on The Container store? I like it. It has a lot of items that are useful when packing and storing your gear. The pricing scheme seems a bit off though. Things are either a great value or they are way overpriced. Like a $40 mini kitchen compost bin… it was made if plastic and cheaply too I might add.
If you need a compact containers to fill out your First Aid kit, a collapsible bowl, or battery holders give the container store a go.
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