Bags, boxes, bottles: easy is the key

Shopper Report, The, Jan, 2004 by Mona Doyle

Gift bags are making inroads onto turf once owned by gift boxes, at the same time that pouches are making inroads on turf once owned by folding cartons. The gift bags are turning assortments of foodstuffs into goody-bags of gifts. They are easier to assemble and carry than the gift baskets, which have also been growing in popularity. The bags save time and trouble; they are easier to reuse than gift-wrap and the ribbons and bows that go with them; and they are much easier to store than baskets. The biggest bag benefit is easy.

When it comes to fast access to what's inside, bags are best, boxes are challenging, blisters are worst. A Christmas Day column in The New York Times zings Palm Pilot "and any other company that packages products in hard, clear vacuum-formed plastic designed to hang on hooks in retail stores. You can't tear the stuff, you can't cut it, and you can't stab it. In fact, nothing short of a chain saw will open these things, but you don't find that out until you've ruined two pairs of scissors and bent your best steak knife. It's shrink-wrap for Superman."

The same columnist goes on to praise "Apple, which seems to put as much effort into designing the packaging as it does designing what's inside it." The idea that good products should come in good packages doesn't stop with that reporter. A consumer this month complained that "the cap on Electra-Sol liquid takes two hands to open at a time when you don't really have two hands available. The cap on Palmolive liquid is a better-designed flip top. I always liked Electra-Sol but if the Palmolive package works better, maybe the product works better too."

The Shopper Report[R] Copyright 2004, edited by Mona Doyle, is published 11 times a year by The Consumer Network, Inc., P.O. Box 42753, Philadelphia PA 19101. Phone (215) 235-2400 FAX: (215) 235-6967. The Consumer Network provides consulting and research services including focus groups, shopping partnerships, home visits, and mail and e-mail surveys.