Gusseted Bags in Stores Near You

Bags that stand up on a shelf are what consumers want in exchange for giving up box packaging. I didn’t know this about myself so it was good to find out. Such news about the consumer comes from the Sustainability in Packaging Conference in Orlando this week. According to a market study done by Zip-Pak, a manufacturer of zippers for resealable bags, consumers will choose a box rather than a bag, unless the bag is sturdy and can stand up on its own. Most bags don’t behave on a shelf; they slide, flop and annoy. Boxes are tidy, and consumers believe they keep the product better.

A new generation of bags is on the way. You will see stronger recyclable bags with a gusseted flat bottom replacing many boxes. According to packaging efficiency experts, a well designed resealable bag keeps product safe and fresh longer, takes up less space, therefore more can be shipped in one truck requiring fewer trucks and less fuel to transport.

Waste from packaging is often a topic of sustainability, and having been in the building industry for years, I can attest to dumpsters full of nothing but the wrapping from fixtures and appliances put into a new house. It all looked like waste to me, the environmental officer, but there is the other side, and that is waste resulting from product being damaged in route to the consumer. Whether the product is mushy strawberries or a scratched door knob, it’s no good. It will go into the waste stream somehow and all the materials, labor, fuel and energy that went into producing the product is wasted.


How best to package a product is driven by three things:

• Product safety and freshness.
• Consumer convenience.
• Shipping costs.

My cynical side is usually suspicious that brand managers and advertisers are out to get my emotions through packaging, and efficiency experts are practicing sleight-of-hand with sizes and textures while shrinking the product. Maybe sometimes that’s true, but the goal might simply be more durable lighter weight packaging. One thing remains true: convenience drives many consumer choices for packaged brand and for the majority of people that won’t change. Stand up bags might be a great answer. All I am saying is . . . give bags a chance.