... And your a painter, the food service thinks you need buckets!

10 day event, thousands of people, they got to eat! After the last few days of clean up they offered me a SLUG of buckets





I think there were around 100 buckets in the back of my truck. Gonna use most for work, but I am going to keep a dozen stacked in the garage and get some new lids for them. They are a little greasy, but I figure I scored $300+ in buckets today.

You're gonna need a bunch of rice.

Good score! Gamma seals in your future?

 
Only if you wanna waste money.

Why would you consider them a waste of money?

What does Home Depot sell buckets for five bucks ? Nice Score !

You don't really NEED them and they are kinda spendy at $7 apiece, but they are convenient. Many buckets come with a standard lid or you can buy one for about $1, $2 at most.... Most long term storage food SITS for years, it's not like you're in and out of it all the time. Now, when you start using it, the Gammas are nice enough.....

Very nice score OP.

I don't have any Gama lids and I don't feel like I'm missing anything.

My foods that go into mylar with oxygen absorbers is in manageable sized increments and opening a bucket with a proper bucket opening tool isn't that hard to do. I'd rather five 5# bags in a bucket and save $7 on the lid than one 30# bag that I have to keep dipping out of.

YMMV

Great deal.  I always grab them when I'm offered but it's usually 1 at a time.  I'm in the same town.  What vendor?

Not sure who it was. A catering company that I believe was mostly supplying the food for staff, volunteers, ect...

The logistics for a 10 day event like this are crazy. The amount of trash people generate is eye opening!

My question was a baited question.

IMHO, anybody that says they are a waste of money has tunnel vision; the OP never said they were all for food storage, the buckets could be used for anything. While I agree that for food storage putting gamma seals on all the buckets would absolutely be a waste, I would argue that their utility cannot be ignore. For example, I keep dog food in buckets with gamma seals. The benefits far outweigh the cost of the dog food. I can buy dogfood when it's on sale, and it will stay fresh much longer tightly sealed in the buckets. Ants, rodents etc cannot get to it, yet it's quite easy to just spin the lid off, scoop some out, spin the lid back on again...

Buckets aren't just used for food storage, they are used for storage of numerous things; gamma seals can have great utility outside of food storage.

My dog food buckets are sealed exactly the same way! They are handy for things you're going to be in and out of....

I have a buddy that owns a printing press though and he goes through ink by the 55 gallon drum. The drums have a bladder in them that actually holds the ink. When he's done with one he pulls the bladder (drum is nice and clean) and from time to time I get a couple of them from him. They are open top, gasketed, band sealed drums. I keep lots of bulk items in them- dog food, toilet paper etc....

a few of these and a gamma seal makes for a decent tool kit. We used buckets like this for nuts and bolts and such on the farm.

I am jealous!

While we do not use gamma seals on stored food, we do use them on our everyday supplies.  We buy Brown and white sugar, flour, rolled oats, salt, and rice in bulk.  Gamma Seal buckets work well in our pantry, allow easy stacking, and  are convenient to access all while keeping critters out.  Best of all, the lids can be removed by children without the likelihood of spills.  For example, if an 8 year old is sent for 10 cups of flour, and the bucket has an older style lid on it, in my experience, you have a good chance of the bucket getting spilled over sometime during the flour bucket opening process.

They have also lasted far longer than we initially expected them to.

In short, for our uses, they work very well, and while the initial cost compared to new standard gasketed lids substantially higher, in my opinion they are well worth the expense if you are using them on a daily basis.

They work well enough that we have a few extra, just incase, they would ever be needed.

Now is the time to learn about brewing beer.