Dear Trader Joe,
We need to talk. It's about your little packaging idiosyncrasies. As in, what the heck is up with your package designers??? On the one hand, you package your recycled toilet paper in coded, recyclable plastic, and on the other hand, your cookies (your extremely addictive little cookies) are packaged in non-recyclable plastic containers. You gratuitously shrink wrap most veggies, yet your frozen fish is packaged in the smallest vacuum pack possible. I don't get it.
It's maddening, I tell you. Usually I can get past it, but the other day it got out of hand. I was making Irish soda bread, and grabbed for the baking powder and baking soda. I ended up having to throw out about 3 cups of flour and butter as well as the above mentioned ingredients. Why?
Check this out:
This is the iconic baking soda package, right? Pretty much everybody copies this box, because it screams BAKING SODA.
Just like all tissue boxes look like Kleenex brand boxes. They're icons. You don't have to promote an icon. Everyone knows what it is just by glancing at it, right?
And this?
Baking powder comes in a small, round cardboard container, usually with a plastic lid to preserve freshness.
Like this.
And this.
So Trader Joe, I ask you: What the heck is this?!
I know. It says "BAKING SODA" right there on the label. And I myself am not exactly a packaging neophyte. I've designed packages and labels for years. In fact, I regularly read the fine print on labels to compare ingredients, nutritional analyses, and even look for who owns the damn company in case it's someone I'm boycotting at the moment.
I know. It says "BAKING SODA" right there on the label. And I myself am not exactly a packaging neophyte. I've designed packages and labels for years. In fact, I regularly read the fine print on labels to compare ingredients, nutritional analyses, and even look for who owns the damn company in case it's someone I'm boycotting at the moment.
I just can't believe I missed this.
Sigh. Happy Monday.
3 comments:
And now I'll bet you're out of flower!
I had the same problem when shopping in Abu Dhabi recently. Went looking for the baking soda and could not find it anywhere. Now, I know these people bake, so what's up? Right? So I ask someone, thinking they might not know baking "soda" so I'm all multi-lingual and ask for bicarbonate soda and he takes me right back to the baking aisle and there it is in a little round can, just like the baking powder! How the heck am I supposed to know that?! I was looking for tried and true baking soda BOX!
That is annoying.
It's hard enough to read a recipe for muffins in the wee morning hours knowing the difference between the baking powder and baking soda. And then to have the container trick you.
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