Our Story

These ‘our story’ sections are always filled with positive messages, and it seems like professional image consultants write them. They’re usually passionate. I can’t guarantee you’ll find that here, but we’ll definitely explain ourselves. Buckle up, this’ll be long, oh, and, welcome!

A few years ago, Michigan experienced back-to-back power outages. Some of you might remember this, the fights with DTE and the thousands of dollars of food we all had to toss out. These major upsets to our lives were as costly as they were infuriating.

However, it did get our household to thinking... I mean, if a 24 hr power outage can leave us so devastated, what could something longer do? We didn’t have to wait long to answer that. An ice storm knocked out power for a solid week, (some neighborhoods and cities were even longer some were blessedly shorter).

In early February 2024, mostly everyone was stuck in their homes (at least in our neighborhood) and were freezing! So many of us were wholly unprepared for this. Many, including us, are taught to keep canned foods, some candles, and maybe a few flashlights in the home. That was considered “prep” for most urban neighborhoods in the late nineties and early 2000s.

Much like everyone else, we went out charged phones in the car like once a day. Surrounding gas stations were closed because they didn’t have power either, so everything, including turning our vehicles on, became about conservation.

Those first few days, we huddled in the living room under blankets and watched our little puffs of breath pitifully. We drove far out once a day to get food from somewhere, and ate cold sandwiches the rest of the time. We door dashed for a few times too.

By day 4, we were over it. We got into our warm truck, ready for our food run and phone charging session, determined. We decided that that day was the day that we’d drive all over the metropolitan area in search of a generator. Of course, they were sold out nearly everywhere; and the few still available cost more than our rent. It was daunting.

However, about 3 hours, and 4 towns into our search, while stopping for some nuggets and fries, we spotted a resell shop that had, what became our very first prep item, outside. It was sitting there, right by the curb, like it was calling to us.

Now these little “bargain bin” resell stores pop up frequently in our immediate area, and generally sell goods bought and returned from other stores or picked up from Amazon and resold with immense deals.

Anyway, we drove up to the curb, with our eyes locked on a Ryobi generator that the guy assured us worked but was returned to some store because it was too loud.

Loud or not, we needed power, so we gladly paid $500 for it, which was amazing because when I googled it months later, it was going for $800+ so we lucked up and out.

After a few unsuccessful gas station runs we finally filled our can up with generator juice and headed home. When we got there, we cranked it up, and that growl we heard was the best feeling ever. Within ten minutes we had power, lights, one small electric heater, and phones happily charging.

It was exciting and relieving as we watched our thermostat go from the low 40’s to 70+ in half an hour. We grabbed our tablet, pulled Hulu up, connected it to our tv and had our first normal night in days.

After this experience and that long week of hell, we started our research, we began our prep, and we decided we needed to help others too. I wish I knew then what I know now. Which I know, most people say, but it’s true! Amazon had a ton of survival bags, and we bought some.

Let me start by saying, buying a survival bag seems like a sound decision. There’s so many options, and once you buy it you can add some clothes to it, maybe some meds then put it up and forget about it. It’s all good.

Right...???

No... 

But... More on the bag thing later.

For our second charge into the prepper world, we decided to try camping. Now, most of our friends and some family were astounded here. So were we, to be honest; but the truth is, we absolutely enjoyed it, after some hiccups, of course.

For one thing, both my partner and I are allergic to the entire outside, and we don’t like bugs at all. Nevertheless, we booked our stay at Pontiac State Park, (which became our favorite park btw).

We were ordered a bunch of stuff from Amazon and Walmart. We got tents, sleeping bags, a blow up mat (because we’re old and back pain is real), some mess kits, a fancy toilet with its own tent, (literally the coolest purchase at the time which we’ve upgraded even more since then) a camp stove that also doubled as a heat source, and various other camping ready things.

On the day of, we headed to our local Dollar Tree and Kroger to grab all of our suggested camp meal fixings for burgers, hotdogs, and smores’. We arrived at the site a little after five that evening. There was a slight drizzle going on, and it was getting darker fast. Oh yeah, and we went in October (oops lol).

Opening our survival/camping bags, we quickly found out that we didn’t understand ferro rods. Ok, actually, I didn’t understand them. The wood we bought from the campsite was getting soggy and we were trying to cut some of it in half to store in the car hoping to salvage the rest. For the record, those wire-saws are possibly some of the worst parts of our bags ever. Also, it was clear we had no clue as to what we were doing.

That night, we went to bed without a warm fire, but our first official camping meal of burgers and dogs went well!

 The second day, we figured it all out, (ty Google!) bought some more wood, managed a splinter by cracking open the first-aid pack. The tweezers were trash, the one thousand and one bandaids are cheap, and there’s barely any antibiotic oil.

The rest of our trip went well, and we loved our smores’! But those bags? Listen to me, those bags were trash. Seriously! No one, absolutely no one, needs a wire saw. Those multi-tool cards, we could hardly pop open our canned goods with them. They can be useful if you have nothing, sure, but like the wire saw, are gimmicks and trash.

Even worse, for all survival bags we purchased, not a single one catered to a basic needs millions of us suffer from monthly. Yeah, periods. No one supplied good emergency prep kits with these things in mind. No pads. No tampons. Nothing to help ‘that time of month’, during a crisis, despite being called survival bags.

Do companies believe your period suddenly turns off during a crisis? I kinda think they do.

Let me say this, obviously most of us who deal with a menstrual cycle buy our products monthly. Some stock ahead, but generally, they cost a lot, and honestly like most things in life, we buy just enough to handle the current month.

Most people don’t think about emergencies until one is already happening; which, by then, it’s too late. It could come in the form of a power outage, a winter storm, a supply shortage, or a sudden evacuation. Life has a way of throwing surprises at us when they’re least convenient.

I think to most of us, emergencies are something that happens suddenly (true) but lasts only a short amount of time (not true).

That’s why we made Survive And Thrive USA™. We believe preparedness shouldn’t be complicated, intimidating, or reserved for hardcore elitists living in the mountains or on some expensive land off-grid.

Access to quality preparedness products should be granted to all, and shouldn't give you a headache when looking for the right stuff. Preparedness needs be practical, accessible, and designed for everyday people who simply want to protect themselves and their families when things go sideways.

That makes our mission simple, we want to help people prepare for the unexpected so they can face emergencies with confidence instead of panic. Knowledge is power, and power in most circumstances means continued survival.

We don’t want to just sell you some kits. Anyone can do that, I mean they do it every day on Amazon; so no. We want you to have proper gear, and we want to educate you on preparation. Selling is great, obviously, but it doesn’t help anyone if they don’t understand the products in their bags, or how to use them. Especially when they're worthless (hello stupid wire-saw).

Our products and guides are designed around real-world situations, not just hypothetical doomsday scenarios. Because quite honestly tornados and earthquakes can definitely become apocalyptic.

So what we work on, and pack your kits for are:

Power outages.
Severe weather.
Civil unrest.        
Supply chain disruptions.
Natural disasters.
Unexpected evacuations.

When these things happen, you don’t want to start figuring out what you need. You want to already have it ready to go. You don’t want to sit in your living room watching your family freezing, nearly to death.

That’s why we focus not only on practical, ready-to-use survival kits, but providing contingency plans, emergency evac guides that work alongside the preparedness gear, and even meal plans to help bridge those times when a stove isn't available. We send them to you in ways that can be easily stored and deployed immediately when needed.

There’s a lot of flashy survival gear out there. Some of it for sure looks cool but doesn’t actually help much when you need it (here's looking at the wire-saw...again).

Every item we carry is chosen with one question in mind, “Would this actually help in a crisis?” If the answer isn’t yes, it doesn’t make the cut. Simple as that.

Preparedness should also be simple and not weigh you down if you have to break out, or break the bank. Many people avoid emergency preparedness because they think it requires months of planning, expensive gear, or specialized training.

It doesn’t.

Preparedness starts with something simple, having the right tools ready before you need them. Even a small amount of preparation can make a massive difference during an emergency. Our job is to make sure that instead of scrambling to find supplies during a crisis, you can grab and go.

We update our blogs with funny stories, guides, resources, and practical preparedness information and we include tons of free resources on our site. We don’t want other families to question their survival prep like we did.

We’re here to give you the tools to survive, not just an apocalypse, but actual real life situations.

W. S. and R.M.