Wag Of The Finger To Schneiders
November 14, 2010
I don’t want to be the over-packaging police, but sometimes ideas can take the form of an improvement or enhancement of an existing product. Just in this case, it’s in the form of wasteful packaging. Again.
The culprit: Schneiders’ Lunchmate Stackers, a cheese+deli meat+cracker combo, served with a candy bar. It’s not advertised as a meal explicitly, but at 390 calories it can be a full meal for a child, or a large snack for an adult. I do enjoy these once in awhile as a meal on the go.
The crime: way too much packaging for the amount of contents. If you take a look at the pictures, you could easily reduce the amount of packaging by half. And if you were truly vigilante about the amount of packaging, then you could probably excise two-thirds of the current package design.
All the food (except for the candy bar) is cylindrical in shape, and could fit in a cylindrical container as such. I will acknowledge that the meat and cheese has to be sealed in separate enclosures, even still you can squeeze this into a much smaller container.
The worst part of all this wasteful packaging, is the fact it was all designed with calculated intent to mislead the customer about how much food they are getting. No matter where you go, these Stackers are placed to face the consumer directly (like how I was holding it in the top left of the top picture). The box appears to be a sandwich and then some in size. Of course the dense white plastic and cardboard liner will prevent you from seeing how much food you are really getting.
These boxes are designed to not be stacked in any other fashion, as there is no product labels on the sides or back.
Bottom line: Too much packaging, too little product. The cost of the added packaging is passed onto the consumer. The added volume of the package also amplifies the cost to transport it to retail, which is also passed onto the consumer. The whole thing can fit into something about the size of a small can of Red Bull.
I predict: A new label in the future, exclaiming: New To-Go Size! Smaller Greener Package! Reduced Price!
Entry filed under: Environment, Food. Tags: Consumerism, Environment, Food, Money.
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