ABSTRACT
Packaging myths flourish at the consumer level. Ask a sample of non expert retail shoppers about product packaging and readers will hear general agreement that most items are “over-packaged.” Like the power of compound interest, a few pennies saved on each retail package generate huge savings when multiplied by the total number of units produced over time. The company had packaged its line of putty knives on hang-cards for retail display. Before 1993, the standard CD retail package consisted of the plastic “jewel case” inside the “long box,” a chipboard structure that doubled the length of the jewel case. The entire package was shrink wrapped. It measured 300 mm long by 150 mm wide. CDs were packaged this way because that’s how retailers said they wanted them. The association adopted the position that after a certain date retailers would require all CDs to be packaged simply in a “jewel case”—no long box.
