PACKAGING

I was on the road recently and stopped at a newsstand to pick up some cigars. When I'm home I usually go to my local cigar shop and pick up some cigars out of the wooden boxes in the humidor room. But as an out-of-towner, I settled for some cheaper cigars other than my regular brand. It's been awhile since I've bought a pack of cigars like this and I was surprised by the packaging involved. First, the package of four cigars was tightly and hermetically sealed by cellophane which proved to be irritating to remove. Next was the cardboard box housing the cigars followed by a plastic zip-lock pouch. The cigars were also individually wrapped in cellophane. Last, but not least, I removed the cigar ring (only a cheap pimp would smoke a cigar with its ring still on it). Honestly, it took me somewhere between five to ten minutes just to get to the cigar. In a way I felt like Harry Houdini trying to break into something as opposed to breaking out.

I know vendors want to deliver their products fresh and tamperproof, but four layers of packaging strikes me as a little excessive. I got the feeling the packaging itself cost more than the cigars, and I was probably right.

Cigars are not alone in this regards. If you go to the supermarket, you'll inevitably come across products that are wrapped not just once, but several times and it seems for every layer of wrapping on a product, the price goes up proportionally.

Years ago when I visited my grandparents in Buffalo, New York, they liked to go to a farmers market to buy not just their produce, but baked goods, dairy products, and meat. There wasn't any fancy packaging except for maybe some butcher block paper and string. And as I recall, the food tasted fabulous and nobody got sick from it. I also remember they sold some fine cigars there at very reasonable prices.

I know we have to wrap goods to protect them but I tend to believe we have become packaging-happy and have taken it to the sublime. Maybe if we kept the lawyers and marketing people away from it, packaging costs would drop, people would save money, and the economy would prosper....Nah, who am I kidding? It'll never happen. Just buy yourself a nice little pocketknife (or machete) and you'll do just fine.

Such is my Pet Peeve of the Week.

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Tim Bryce is the Managing Director of M. Bryce & Associates (MBA) of Palm Harbor, Florida and has over 30 years of experience in the field. He can be reached at timb001@phmainstreet.com

For a listing of Tim's Pet Peeves, click HERE.

Copyright © 2008 by Tim Bryce. All rights reserved.