S10.E13: Life Lift Systems, Fresh Bellies, SubSafe, Zorpads

[GoldenGirl90]

January 27, 2019

An innovative storm shelter/safe house; fresh baby food that gives babies a more sophisticated palette; a multipurpose container protects sandwiches; a solution to stinky feet; updates on Snarky Teas and No Mo-Stache; Charles Barkley guest judges.

[CrazyInAlabama]

I love the storm shelter and think the bed will be great, the pool table, and the work bench are all good.    My question about security was just answered, and they do bolt to the concrete slab, so it's not going to fly away.     This contraption will sell way better than the underground shelters, because they're right, during a tornado you want to be close to the shelter, and indoors.   The best sales boost will be in areas that had a tornado, and that does happen already.   When the tornado comes through, very soon the tornado shelter people come through too.   I lived in a town that had a major tornado, and within days, the in ground tornado shelter sellers were sitting up sales tents.       I'm surprised that one of the sharks didn't talk licensing it out.     Mark will make a great partner for them.    

[rhys]

Charles, just wear clown shoes instead. Size 17?? Wow.

[raiderred1]

I think the storm shelter is another option, but I would not choose it because it looks too small for a family of four or more and it seems crypt-like(shivers). I live in Texas, have been through tornadoes, missed by an F4 in April 2017 only 4 miles from us! I have a Family Safe walk-in storm shelter in my master closet, very roomie and it doubles as a safe when we are out of town or a "safe room" away from the bad guys.

[BusyOctober]

Shelter thing was cool.  I bet it could be a good business, especially if Mark hooks them up with home builders/construction companies.  I wonder if closet companies would be a potential avenue too...upsell a built in "safe room" in addition to your swanky walk-in closet.

I like the baby food concept - makes perfect sense to "train the palate" to like/crave un-sugared foods.  However, Mark & Charles hit on the main issue re. her obesity concern; the cost is too high for the majority of families who would benefit most.  Her product will sell like crazy with all the hipsters and UES, Whole Foods shoppers, but average income to low incomes households won't go for it.  Maybe develop a cookbook with her herb/seasonings based baby food recipes would be helpful?  I still think even that will be a challenge for low income moms  since cost to make the food and possible limited access & time to actually prepare.

SubSafe??? Really? I guess it works to keep a sandwich dry, but it looks like it would take up a lot of space in my cooler for the beach.  If I put 4 of those tubes in my largest cooler, I'd have to drag another cooler with me for drinks, fruit, snacks... Personally, it's another plastic tchotchke that would end up holding crayons on my kid's desk or in one of my bi-annual garage sales, and ultimately in a landfill. 

Smelly shoe fix may be something I check out...not for me, of course, but for the other 4 feet in my house. 

[Gregg247]

I really liked the tornado shelter company; what a great idea!  Sure, its small, but tornadoes race through a area pretty quick.  You wouldn't have to stay in there for very long.  My sister lives in northern Texas and has an underground storm shelter.  When they firs had it installed, there was abig storm and the thing flooded!  The company had placed it in the lowesrt point in their back yard! LOL  They had to get it dug up and moved.  This Shark Tank company could avoid that whole problem.

SubSafe was a solution in search of a problem.  Why do you need a special product like that for sub sandwiches in a boat?  have they never heard of Tupperware?  Also, Publix/Kroger/Target/Walmart all sell dozens of plastic containers of all shapes and sizes for really cheap prices that do this exact same thing.

I didn't like the vegetable tasting product because I hate vegetables and never eat them, and would never encourage anyone else to eat them either,  I think there are plenty of basic, common sense ways for parents who (for some reason) want their kids to eat their vegetables to actually get them used to eating them that don't rely on spending money and buying specialized products like the one demonstrated on the show.  Kids have learned to "like" eating vegetables for thousands of years without this new product.  (I also don't think covering vegetables in garlic and spices will work any better than my old method of dunking them in catsup or BBQ sauce when I was a kid!)

The stinky shoe product sounded like a good idea.  I'd check it out if I saw it in the store.

[basiltherat]

I have the greatest idea for a trendy new baby food company -- you take some of that broccoli on your plate, modern mama, and you SMASH IT WITH YOUR FORK and feed it to your little angel.  And it only costs five million dollars!  Who will invest with me????

Harvard got a big ass reality check tonight.

[Madding crowd]

I wonder if the baby food lady checked whether garlic, onions and other spices would be hard on a young babies stomach. Veggies are good but there is a reason we don’t heavily spice food for infants. I agree the sub safe isn’t unique enough to invest in. 

I’m claustrophobic so I would not feel comfortable in the under bed shelter. 

[slowpoked]

I wonder if the shelter bed would work for an earthquake. I live in CA so earthquakes are our main concern. That would be great if it can work.

I get the point of the vegetable food for babies. I see the merits of her argument that most baby foods out there, even those purported to be vegetables, are just mixed with a lot of sugar to make it more palatable. This is most probably the reason why kids' first cravings are most likely of the chocolate/candy variety. But yet, it is expensive. And if true that the flavors are strong, then it's back to the drawing board.

[raiderred1]

Quote

I wonder if closet companies would be a potential avenue too...upsell a built in "safe room" in addition to your swanky walk-in closet.

In most areas of Texas and Oklahoma it is already an option when building a new home and it doesn't even have to be a "swanky" build.  We had ours put in when our house was built in 2013. 

[raiderred1]

Quote

I really liked the tornado shelter company; what a great idea!  Sure, its small, but tornadoes race through a area pretty quick.  You wouldn't have to stay in there for very long.  My sister lives in northern Texas and has an underground storm shelter.  When they firs had it installed, there was abig storm and the thing flooded!  The company had placed it in the lowesrt point in their back yard! LOL  They had to get it dug up and moved.  This Shark Tank company could avoid that whole problem.

If the tornado crumbles the house on top of it, you might be in there quite a while ;)  The underground storm shelters were popular until what happened to your sister's happened to many families in Oklahoma and I believe one family even died because of the flooding.  I have some friends that put in an underground but her husband became disabled and could no longer make it out to their side pasture to get into it. Yikes! Say, "hey!" to your sister, she might be one of my N. Tx neighbors. 

[eel2178]

4 hours ago, Madding crowd said:

I wonder if the baby food lady checked whether garlic, onions and other spices would be hard on a young babies stomach. Veggies are good but there is a reason we don’t heavily spice food for infants. 

I kept waiting for someone to ask for her research data that proved kids were more likely to eat their vegetables when they were older if they got their start with her product. I also thought they should have suggested she come up with something shelf-stable. Finally, I don't understand why it would be more expensive to add spices to vegetables than it would be to add sugar. She didn't explain why her price point had to be higher than standard baby food. She probably could have negated their claim that poor people wouldn't go for it by pointing out that this should be WIC-eligible.

Edited January 28, 2019 by eel2178

[CrazyInAlabama]

I live in lower Alabama, and people here either have a safe room, either a reinforced concrete room on concrete slab, built into the house as a bathroom or closet, or a buried shelter in the yard (often shaped like a round diving bell), or the rest of us use a walk in closet, or other windowless room for shelter.      There's actually a county register that you can get on and say what kind of shelter you have, so if there's a storm and you are trapped, then they will check on you, and free you.

The biggest issue with the bed shelter is it has to be a ground floor, and on a concrete slab.    That will eliminate a lot of potential buyers, because they either have a raised foundation, or don't have a first floor master.   

[bilgistic]

All of the baby food I've ever seen* is just the pureed vegetable or fruit (or meat), so...I don't get what the deal is about "fruit sugar". Are children not going to eat fruit once they start eating solid food?

*Which hasn't been much, I grant you, but I've perused it when I bought plain turkey baby food for my late ailing cat. I'm clearly not the target audience.

[Mountainair]

I have three kids and have purchased maybe 30 jars of baby food in my life? It does all have added sugars and preservatives so I get it. It was literally nothing for me to puree up a stalk of broccoli or steam some sweet potatoes and mash them up. I'm done with the baby food stage but 'm sure her product would have been too costly for my grocery budget. I suppose if you are on WIC or food stamps it makes sense  to buy the jarred food because I imagine they are free but I only bought them if I wasn't going to have access to a kitchen (hotel stay, camping, etc). 

I liked the safe room people. We aren't in tornado alley or really anywhere where weather is a huge crippling concern (we get the rare couple feet of snow that's about it). But the survivalist in me really dug the product. 

My husband has stinky feet/shoes and is always sprinkling powder in his shoes. When he takes them off he leaves a trail of white dust all over the house with his socked feet. I liked that idea. 

[rhys]

Damn, somehow due to cookies(?) I now have ads for bags of tea as inserts for stinky shoes!

[Sarahsmile416]

10 hours ago, Mountainair said:

I have three kids and have purchased maybe 30 jars of baby food in my life? It does all have added sugars and preservatives so I get it. It was literally nothing for me to puree up a stalk of broccoli or steam some sweet potatoes and mash them up. I'm done with the baby food stage but 'm sure her product would have been too costly for my grocery budget. I suppose if you are on WIC or food stamps it makes sense  to buy the jarred food because I imagine they are free but I only bought them if I wasn't going to have access to a kitchen (hotel stay, camping, etc). 

I liked the safe room people. We aren't in tornado alley or really anywhere where weather is a huge crippling concern (we get the rare couple feet of snow that's about it). But the survivalist in me really dug the product. 

My husband has stinky feet/shoes and is always sprinkling powder in his shoes. When he takes them off he leaves a trail of white dust all over the house with his socked feet. I liked that idea. 

Yes exactly.  If her point is that we need to train babies’ palates, then just buy the vegetables your damned self and add garlic.  Easy.  I did that with my youngest when I got tired of paying 1.50+ for baby food.  Plus, she starts talking about 4-6 months - some babies still haven’t outgrown the tongue thrust reaction by that age.  4-6 months is a very soft recommendation anyway- just as many pediatricians will tell you to wait.  

 

On a completely separate note, I would think a shelf stable baby food would be the way to go because most parents are not looking in a refrigerated section for baby food, so I would think that would impact sales alone. 

[librarianbeck]

I've never seen added sugar in pureed baby foods, even the regular,  non-organic, ordinary supermarket variety.  My kids are 6 and 1.5. Fresh Bellies  (ugh, that name!) mentioned fruit sugars specifically,  but I'm not seeing a problem with kids eating fruit. 

[eel2178]

2 hours ago, librarianbeck said:

I've never seen added sugar in pureed baby foods, even the regular,  non-organic, ordinary supermarket variety.  My kids are 6 and 1.5. Fresh Bellies  (ugh, that name!) mentioned fruit sugars specifically,  but I'm not seeing a problem with kids eating fruit. 

Her point was if you add fruit to the vegetables to make them sweeter, then children only develop a taste for sugar. Her product was supposed to develop a taste for savory instead. She gave us absolutely no evidence to prove that it would actually work.

[librarianbeck]

7 minutes ago, eel2178 said:

Her point was if you add fruit to the vegetables to make them sweeter, then children only develop a taste for sugar. Her product was supposed to develop a taste for savory instead. She gave us absolutely no evidence to prove that it would actually work.

 Yes,  I understood that,  I just don't buy it.  Also,  there are plenty of single ingredient purees on the market,  which is how I've always been advised to introduce new foods to babies - some are fruit,  some veg. 

[KaveDweller]

3 hours ago, eel2178 said:

Her point was if you add fruit to the vegetables to make them sweeter, then children only develop a taste for sugar. Her product was supposed to develop a taste for savory instead. She gave us absolutely no evidence to prove that it would actually work.

It's a bit ridiculous to say if a baby never has sugar they won't like it when you are older. Eventually, a kid is going to taste sweet stuff and probably like it. I know there are people who aren't big on sweets, but most people have at least some sweet/unhealthy food that they enjoy. You just need to train your kid to choose to eat healthy.

[ljenkins782]

5 hours ago, librarianbeck said:

I've never seen added sugar in pureed baby foods, even the regular,  non-organic, ordinary supermarket variety.  My kids are 6 and 1.5. Fresh Bellies  (ugh, that name!) mentioned fruit sugars specifically,  but I'm not seeing a problem with kids eating fruit. 

I instantly hated the product thanks to that overly precious name.

As already stated here and on the show, her mission was in conflict with the product. The only places I could see that stuff selling would be the Whole Foods type, which doesn't cater to the population most likely to suffer from obesity. 

I was a little surprised that the shelter people got a deal, the Sharks don't usually go for the high price point, installation-needing products. 

I liked the shoe odor people, they made a nice pitch and kept their composure after Mark insulted them. 

Quote

SubSafe was a solution in search of a problem.  Why do you need a special product like that for sub sandwiches in a boat?  have they never heard of Tupperware?  Also, Publix/Kroger/Target/Walmart all sell dozens of plastic containers of all shapes and sizes for really cheap prices that do this exact same thing.

It was a bit specific. The material itself (waterproof/floats) seems like it would lend itself to the function of holding keys/wallet/cell phone on a boat, like a kayak, but I'm sure they already have those products out there.

[kimberwatch]

On 1/27/2019 at 10:38 PM, raiderred1 said:

I think the storm shelter is another option, but I would not choose it because it looks too small for a family of four or more and it seems crypt-like(shivers). I live in Texas, have been through tornadoes, missed by an F4 in April 2017 only 4 miles from us! I have a Family Safe walk-in storm shelter in my master closet, very roomie and it doubles as a safe when we are out of town or a "safe room" away from the bad guys.

I also have a FamilySafe shelter in my garage, and I would trust it a million times more than the one they showed on this ep.  Plus, who wants to put bolts in your bedroom floor? - you can't move it, you wreck the floor, you are either going to have to hope future buyers want to keep it or fix the floor, etc.  I can get to my garage in less than 60 seconds and up to 6 people can fit in it comfortably.  All this while keeping my comfy adjustable base bed in the bedroom and having paid less for my shelter, fully installed.

[hoosiermommy]

Re: Freah Bellies: I made my son’s baby food from scratch. He never ate commercial baby food and he loved his veggies when he was a baby.  He actually hated fruits. Fast forward 6 years and he refuses all things veggie and will eat fruits none stop. Training the pallet didn’t work for us.

[marny]

Are people eating exclusively sub sandwiches these days? My husband and I were cracking up at the notion of a product designed for literally one type of sandwich. The bread aisle at the grocery store is 95% square slices of sandwich bread, which won’t fit in that dumb tube. But they got a deal, so what do we know?

[Ottis]

On 1/28/2019 at 11:18 AM, slowpoked said:

I wonder if the shelter bed would work for an earthquake. I live in CA so earthquakes are our main concern. That would be great if it can work.

How would you have time to raise it? To me, that's one of the negatives. It took a good 10 seconds to rise and be usable. Earthquakes don't give you that time. Some tornadoes don't give you that time. The other issue is bolting it to the floor. Most houses don't have beds in the basement, where the slab is. Maybe a ranch. BTW, how heavy is that thing?

On 1/28/2019 at 11:18 AM, slowpoked said:

I see the merits of her argument that most baby foods out there, even those purported to be vegetables, are just mixed with a lot of sugar to make it more palatable.

Exactly. So there is the other issue ... you would have to be sure that your baby was fed nothing else except this food during that time. Nothing else if in daycare, nothing else by well-meaning grandparents, nothing from a sibling. That's possible, but for most busy people, still difficult. You could spend thousands on this food and someone accidentally gives your kid regular baby food and poof!

On 1/28/2019 at 8:15 AM, Gregg247 said:

SubSafe was a solution in search of a problem.

Agree! I started laughing as soon as I realized what it was (the Shark was right, the name was not clear). In my 50+ years, I have never taken a sub sandwich on a canoe. 

[hoosiermommy]

7 hours ago, Ottis said:

How would you have time to raise it? To me, that's one of the negatives. It took a good 10 seconds to rise and be usable. Earthquakes don't give you that time. Some tornadoes don't give you that time. The other issue is bolting it to the floor. Most houses don't have beds in the basement, where the slab is. Maybe a ranch. BTW, how heavy is that thing?

I think that in their market (the Great Plains), the ground is too wet with a pretty high water table (or so it goes in OK) so few homes have basements.  That means that most of the homes built in that area are on slabs, not basements (because if they had a basement, that would fill the need of a storm shelter pretty handily in most cases).  And many homes have at least one bed on the ground floor, and if not, they are branching out to other types of furniture like pool tables, and kitchen islands.

To me, the thing that I didn't like (beside it inducing my claustrophobia) is that it didn't seem to have terribly sturdy locks on the doors, making that a weak point.  It is possible that it does, but the way they filmed it, it just didn't seem very secure.

[cooksdelight]

The best sandwich, or food storage system on the market is Mr. Lid. I NEVER have to find a lid to fit Tupperware anymore. Comes in lots of sizes and seals tight. They stack and don’t take up much room. I love them.

[Amarsir]

We need Alton Brown as a shark. He doesn't even need to invest. I just want to hear him berate people with stupid single-purpose kitchen items like that SubSafe.

[Jax7917]

I am the least interested in any food product on this show and I love food with all my heart. I really don't care about these dime a dozen products because I can't sample it anyway. I like the inventions that you don't see every day and are actually cool.

I feel like the sub container is something you see anytime you walk into any store ever and it's just a product you might buy but then find it in a closet years later and wonder why you bought it in the first place. 

[Cotypubby]

On 1/29/2019 at 8:11 PM, ljenkins782 said:

It was a bit specific. The material itself (waterproof/floats) seems like it would lend itself to the function of holding keys/wallet/cell phone on a boat, like a kayak, but I'm sure they already have those products out there.

Ha, I was laughing at that product because my dad has been using his own version for exactly that purpose (to hold his keys & cell phone while kayaking) for years and all it is is an old plastic peanut butter jar! Why would you ever pay for something like that when all you need is any old waterproof jar with a lid?

[theatremouse]

You can get a waterproof bag for less than $10 for things like wallets and keys. This guy isn't trying to solve that. It exists everywhere. I think he genuinely thinks the sandwich problem is a bigger one than it is.

[basiltherat]

Maybe sub guy is looking to get into licensing with Subway or another big chain where chain puts its logo directly on the SubSafe device.  I think guy was saying he was working on that with "a major company' as a purchase-with-purchase.  

[aemom]

On 2019-01-28 at 5:19 PM, CrazyInAlabama said:

The biggest issue with the bed shelter is it has to be a ground floor, and on a concrete slab.    That will eliminate a lot of potential buyers, because they either have a raised foundation, or don't have a first floor master.   

That's exactly what I was thinking. Most people's bedrooms don't fit this criteria, so I don't understand why everyone was getting so excited. 

[bilgistic]

Am I the only one who thought that a natural disaster (hurricane winds, tornado winds, impact of things falling on the house) could shift the shelter just enough that those inside would be trapped? The tiers have gaps in order to be tiered. It's not one solid structure. The door has to fit the opening perfectly.