Empty Spaces

Pink Floyd poses a food-related question this Foodie Fun Friday although I’m not sure it was quite planned that way.  Interestingly, the Center for Science in the Public Interest has the answer.  Of course you know there’s a business lesson in there as well.  I’m telling you, where else but here do you get combinations like that on the Internet?So here is what Pink Floyd asks:

What shall we use to fill the empty spaces
Where waves of hunger roar?

That’s right – from The Wall, one of my faves.  Anyway, here is what the CSPI says as reported by Media Post:

In its latest food-related initiative, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) is now urging the Food and Drug Administration and state attorneys general to “crack down” on “slack fill” in food packaging that does not conform to federal regulations. Slack fill is the food industry‘s term for space within boxes/ packaging not taken up by food/ingredients, or the difference between the capacity of a container and the volume of product inside.

We’ve all had that experience – we open a big box of snack crackers or cereal and find that the box is 2/3 empty.  Slack fill indeed.  I get it’s by weight not volume, but it would be interesting to see what happens if one manufacturer makes the package ft the contents a bit better so the consumer perceives the box to be more full.  What a great marketing platform – it’s greener (less landfill, etc.), and it makes up for the shrinking of package weights to permit effective price increases while not raising prices (less stuff for the same dough = a price hike!).

I don’t know about you, but I still find lots of broken crackers or “cereal dust” despite the “slack fill” designed to stop that.  Let’s be honest – if the box looks big, we think it’s worth more.  It’s not good business to disappoint us with less inside so why not shrink the box to fit the contents?  It shouldn’t take the CSPI, the government, or Pink Floyd to get you and your business to think differently!

Any particular product you find with too much air and not enough stuff in the box?