Two examples of packaging arrived in my life on the same day recently. The first one is the box in which my new batch of contact lenses was shipped:
Notice the extreme ratio of package size to contents size. Perhaps they made the box so huge because they wanted more surface area on which to plaster the photo of this chick named Kylee, along with ill-punctuated marketing slogans (“I am, customer service. I am, your order made right. I am, 1 800 CONTACTS.”)
Inside, along with the actual goods, was a plastic-wrapped contact case with “Walmart” emblazoned on the lid. As Sarah Palin claimed to have said regarding the Bridge to Nowhere, “Thanks but no thanks!”
The second type of packaging is this (i.e., the thing on the left; contact box included for scale):
That’s a sac full of praying mantis eggs! An acquaintance, who works pruning grapevines in a local vineyard, finds lots of these during a day’s work. He gave it to us so that we could put it in our garden and have a healthy mantis population there next summer. They’re great predators of garden pests. (Just don’t let it hatch inside, he warned.)
Imagine if all the companies that wrap stuff up for consumers made it their mission to package goods as efficiently and beautifully as the mantis packages its eggs.
Anyone have an example of a cleverly-packaged item you’ve recently bought?