You ever wonder......

[ZONA]

I was grocery shopping today and we've all seen this obviously all the time when we go there but this thought popped into my head today as I was shopping.

Almost every damn package of something, is roughly twice the size of what it's contents hold. Cereal, crackers, chips, etc. Not that I really buy that stuff because I don't. But how many trees do you think are used on this stuff when it really literally could be half of that. How much extra plastic is made for the sake of making the product look bigger and holding more goods then it actually does. That's just twice the amount of crap going into landfills that doesn't need to.

Anyhow, don't know why that popped into my head today. Well I did pick up a bag of steel cut oats to look at it. I thought, for $7 that's a good sized bag of organic oats. Then when I picked it up, like 2/3 of the top were air. That bag probably would have made 6 bowls of oats, hahaha, what a rip off.

[mennonite]

I was grocery shopping today and we've all seen this obviously all the time when we go there but this thought popped into my head today as I was shopping.

Almost every damn package of something, is roughly twice the size of what it's contents hold. Cereal, crackers, chips, etc. Not that I really buy that stuff because I don't. But how many trees do you think are used on this stuff when it really literally could be half of that. How much extra plastic is made for the sake of making the product look bigger and holding more goods then it actually does. That's just twice the amount of crap going into landfills that doesn't need to.

Anyhow, don't know why that popped into my head today. Well I did pick up a bag of steel cut oats to look at it. I thought, for $7 that's a good sized bag of organic oats. Then when I picked it up, like 2/3 of the top were air. That bag probably would have made 6 bowls of oats, hahaha, what a rip off.

Packaging of almost all products is automated. Imagine you are putting pieces of cereal into a bag. If you do it once piece at a time, you could fit them all nicely into an appropriately sized bag. But that's not how it works in food production. Machines drop the products into bags as quickly as possible. Even round objects like puffed cereal won't fit as "perfectly" as the "by hand" method. If the bag was exactly the size of the product you would end up with a lot of spills and poorly sealed bags. The density of the product also plays a huge tole in this. Slight fluctuations can lead to bags that seem half empty on one run of a product to being completely overstuffed on another.


Teh "Product may settle during shipping" disclaimer is something to consider. If you a have a food product that is fragile, it may be necessary to first place it into a bag and then put that into a larger box. This would also make it easier for shipping and placement on store shelves.

Businesses don't want to waste money. If they can think of ways to spend less money by using less packaging without losing quality, rest assured they will do it.

[baja]

Interesting tidbit: in some cases the packaging is more costly than its contents.

[OBF1]

Small electronic items are a huge abuser of oversize packaging.

[bpc]

You could go to India and brown sack it if you like.

Packaging is all about marketing for your dollar. We talk about money spent advertising. Manufacturers know that the grocery store is their last chance to reel in your money. I think the number is staggering, something like 90% of purchasing decisions are made at the store.

[Kaylore]

The reason for the air is because if they packed everything snug, when they shipped those items to those of us at altitude, the pressure change would cause them to explode.

Interesting tidbit: Shelves at altitude fit less because the sealed items inflate and cannot be packed in as well.

[pricejj]

I've noticed that certain packages have gotten smaller. For example, before you could buy a 14 oz. bag of Frito's for say $3.50, now they've shrunken the package to 10 oz, but sell it for the same price.

Just another example of rampant inflation.

[BigPlayShay]

Is a smaller package a sign of Low T?

[B-Large]

Is a smaller package a sign of Low T?

Think of how much rubber that would save....

[baja]

The reason for the air is because if they packed everything snug, when they shipped those items to those of us at altitude, the pressure change would cause them to explode.

Interesting tidbit: Shelves at altitude fit less because the sealed items inflate and cannot be packed in as well.

Interesting tidbit;

When you see in a post "Interesting tidbit; " you will see the same phrase a few posts later.

[baja]

The reason for the air is because if they packed everything snug, when they shipped those items to those of us at altitude, the pressure change would cause them to explode.

Interesting tidbit: Shelves at altitude fit less because the sealed items inflate and cannot be packed in as well.

Another little known reason for the double size packaging is it helps defeat Global Warming by shipping excess air from a hot environment to a cooler environment.

[baja]

If Blue reads this it's going straight to the butt.

[baja]

But she will be sure to give us some lame reason why she did it, supposedly, making it all better.

[Action]

I don't know about all bags - but I know that chip bags are filled with nitrogen to keep the texture and freshness. Now - is it necessary for the ratio of air/bag : chips to be at that level? Questionable.

[Rohirrim]

In a few years, cereal will come in an envelope.