Wal-Mart and Costco have something new they’d like you to try— a square milk jug. The NYT says the new square jugs “are cheaper to ship and better for the environment, the milk is fresher when it arrives in stores, and it costs less.” So what’s the catch? Apparently, while the new jugs are helping cut costs, they kind of suck at pouring milk.
“I hate it,” said Lisa DeHoff, a cafe owner shopping in a Sam’s Club here.
“It spills everywhere,” said Amy Wise, a homemaker.
“It’s very hard for kids to pour,” said Lee Morris, who was shopping for her grandchildren.
Sam’s Club is offering milk pouring lessons complete with free cookies, in an effort to help acclimate consumers to the milk jug of the future:“
Just tilt it slowly and pour slowly,” Ms. Tilton said to passing customers as she talked about the jugs’ environmental benefits and cost savings. Instead of picking up the jug, as most people tend to do, she kept it on a table and gently tipped it toward a cup.
Mike Compston, who owns a dairy in Yerington, Nev., described the pouring technique in a telephone interview as a “rock-and-pour instead of a lift-and-tip.”
Demonstrations are but one of several ways Sam’s Club is advocating the containers. Signs in the aisle laud their cost savings and “better fridge fit.”
Has anyone tried these new square jugs? Were you able to pour it? Or were you crying over… um, your inability not to spill milk?
Solution, or Mess? A Milk Jug for a Green Earth [NYT]
(Photo: David Maxwell/New York Times)
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I buy organic milk in the old cardboard container…pours just like my orange juice in the same container type.
news flash wal-mart, the ancient greeks knew enough not to put liquids in square containers 2500 years ago. Get with the program!
When is Wal-Mart, Sams, Costco, etc, going to go to the giant vat of whatever and we supply our own containers? This means that they save tons on the shipping (they have to move one 500gal vat instead of 1000 1/2gal jugs), and the waste from having to buy new containers each time goes away. This could be done with everything from milk, to water (where I’ve seen it done), to rice, to detergent, to shampoo, and so forth. It may seem a bit nasty, but just how nasty is up to us. Anyway…
@The Boy Wonder:
I hate to get all “mathy” but less physical plastic packaging can be accomplished without making the walls thinner.
Think of a package of dimensions 1″x1″x10″. The volume of this package is 10 cubic units and the surface area (or amount of plastic required to make the package) is 42 square inches.
Now, imagine a package that is 2″x2″x2.5″. The volume is still 10 cubic inches but the surface area of this package is only 28 square inches, or a 33% decrease in required plastic.
for comparison, milk has been $2.49 a gallon at aldi.
@br549xt93: REALLY br549xt93, I mean REALLY???? If people can’t pour milk from the begging, how do you expect them to do so even with a funnel?
Our local Costco in VA had these for about a year, then brought back the old ones but even the brand of milk changed.
I happen to go to another Costco 10 miles away and they still had these horrible jugs.
A gallon of milk can be heavy to some people or children. This new design is stupid because there are people that aren’t going to be able to control pouring that heavy of a bottle. If they want square what is so bad with using the square jugs already being used for water that lay flat and have a spout on the side?
@Skankingmike and @FatalisticDread: Your cartons are coated with plastic. The days of wax-coated cartons are long gone.
@The Boy Wonder: The article said the price is lowered $0.10 to $0.20 per gallon (varying by store location, apparently).
@eben56: What’s supposed to be more efficient about these is the way they can be stored and trucked. “Regular” jugs can’t be stacked one on top of another – they have to go in containers that space them out and then hold up a container on top of them. That’s a lot of wasted space, both in the delivery truck and in the store refridgerator.
These new jugs can be stacked one on top of the other – 4 levels up, then wrap the whole thing in shrinkwrap and throw it on the truck. More can fit on one truck, with increased efficiency, and there are no containers to take back to the dairy.
How about bags?
No more milk crates? Won’t someone please thing of the college furniture?!!
@Ash78:
Guess everything will have to revert to cinder blocks
@Concerned_Citizen:
By putting the handle further towards the top, and increasing the distance from the corner that the jug rocks on, how does this make it more difficult to handle? Oh, that’s right, you must not have a knowledgeable grasp of physics and instead are just finding a way to dump on something rather innovative.
Milk Pouring Lessons!
As several other people have commented, in Canada, milk is available in bags that one places into reusable pitchers. Pretty easy, and definitely reduces the packaging component. Why don’t we have these in the States?
These things definitely do tend to pour all over the counter if you tilt them up fast. Not to tough for adults to compensate. Kids on the other hand? Get the Bounty ready.
It spills if you rush it, just like my husband.
Marketing geniuses. For milk, there was already an environmentally friendly design, recyclable and easy to pour. It’s called the carton.
@Red_Eye: You are 100% correct the volumetric size of this Gallon container is bound to be worlds more efficient than the volumetric size of any other gallon container due to its existence in multiple dimensions at the same time!
Is this where I go to get milk at Costco, and end up in an a-ha video?
@henrygates:
They have milk in a bag in Canada (Ontario mostly)
New? These have been around a few years now. I like ‘em.
@KhaiJB: I wish my fellow countrymen, women, and children could handle a bag…
Eben56 Costco milk IS local milk. All they do is slap a Kirkland label on the local dairies milk. I know cause I work in one of those dairies! Same with Target and a lot of other stores out there. Don’t be fooled by labels and brands people.
I like that Ms. Tilton is giving lessons on tilting.
I thought the lid was weird and I drowned my cereal the first time then I poured a glass of milk and it was faster and an adjustment, much like pouring from a 2 liter is different than pouring from a jug.
The shock was, and don’t tell anyone I live with, the first time I went to drink from the container and almost drowned myself. HOLY SHIT! It was all over me, the floor my shirt my face up my nose…They have cured me from drinking from the container, you’ll all be glad to know.
@Orv: YOU ARE CORRECT SIR!
The issue with the design is that the spout is on the opposite side of the handle. When the jug is full of milk, as you pour you have all the milk ABOVE the spout (in engineering terms, “head”) that is helping to push the milk out of the spout if tilted too quickly. In the conventional design this is avoided by the geometry and design. They would have a lot fewer issues if the spout was on the same side as the handle.
I presume that as this container empties, it gets easier to pour as there is less head to push the milk and cause a mess. Can anyone substantiate my theory? I’ve never seen these because we don’t have a Sam’s or Costco for mile around.
As a ninjya I have stolen milk crates many times during my training. They make excellent dorm furniture. Stack like 20 of them and throw a matress on top, and you have a bed. Put a few down on the floor and you have a handy bench, tv stand, table, etc… Stack them sideways you have instant shelving. And when it’s time to move out, they make excellent devices for moving stuff.
That said, I can understand why these crates are a waste of fuel, natural resources, time, and money. But what they need to realize is the consumers are idiots that cry over spilled milk. Even though the problem can easily be solved by a pitch or a simple funnel, or even just picking up the cup so it’s right by the lip of these containers, the consumers as a whole will never be smart enough to figure it out.
I think what they would do is have little flip open lids. (similar to how salt is packaged by a water proof version of it). That’ll give them the best of both worlds.
No thanks. I hope that jug design won’t replace the ones on sale in my local supermarket.
I can’t imagine how many times we’d have to clean up after the mess, especially when we first open and try to pour it.
Wow. You people complaining about these all must come from Red States.
We’ve had these jugs in Michigan CostCo’s for a long time now, and I’ve never heard anyone complain. I’ve never had a problem, and it just takes a little more concentration and slowly pouring the jug.
As a bonus, a gallon of milk is around 2.50.
And people say living in Detroit sucks
The claims of “fresher” milk is probably true as well. You ask, “How?” It doesn’t get here any quicker.
Well, you are right, but the fact that the can increase the number of jugs in a fridge from 80 to 200 means that there is more “thermal mass” in the fridge. As long as the milk starts out at the proper temperature, it will be much easier to keep the refrigeration unit at a constant temperature than if there is just milk and a lot of air. When you open the door, the air escapes, and the refrigerator and the milk has to re-cool the air. More consistent temperature = fresher longer.
If you can pack a fridge with almost all milk, the high specific heat of the milk does not accept the surrounding heat quick enough for there to be a substantial variation in the fridge temp when the door is opened.
I use a trick at home to help me keep my extra fridge running as little as possible due to escaped air – I use old milk jugs and fill them with water. The water is not to drink, but instead help to keep the temperature of the fridge regulated. If I need more room, I take the jugs out. You can do the same even more efficiently using these new jugs.
I’m getting really nerdy, but the reduced surface area of the jug also helps to limit heat transfer, again making the container somewhat better at resisting being heated up on your trip home.
The first time I poured milk out of one the milk shot all the way over my cereal bowl. Because I have reasoning skills I changed the way I pour. Problem solved.
NBC News ripped off the NYT & ran an story tonight about the new jugs, saying they’re at Sam’s Club.
But the video showed Kirkland milk.
Great job Costco flacks!
The new container works fine. You must be a real bonehead not to know how to pour milk from it.
My costco sells milk in 2 1-gallon jugs in a cardboard box. I’m interested to see if they’ll switch!
@baristabrawl: @vitonfluorcarbon: Thanks for the tips!
I found these at Sam’s Club a few weeks ago, and I love them. They fit on the shortest shelf in my fridge on their side, and are significantly cheaper ($2.80 compared to $3.50-$3.70). Considering that my husband and I go through about a gallon a day (we love our milk), we’ll save $21-$27 a month. Not too shabby.
Also, the cartons say “TILT & POUR SLOWLY” right next to the lid. If you can’t figure out these instructions, you don’t deserve to enjoy the cool, creamy goodness. Mmm, milk…
better tan using a bag
@The Boy Wonder: You can make many different shaped containers with the same volume, but different surface areas. In 3-dimensional space, the object with a minimal surface/volume ratio is the sphere. So, spherical milk containers would use the absolute least plastic. They would also be unbelievably strong if made correctly. Of course, they would be hard as hell to handle/pour from.
And, the other consideration is how well they pack. If you can get objects packed in with no spaces in between, you can ship a lot more per volume of truck, than if your objects cannot pack closely.
The “traditional” milk container is fairly inefficient with the thin handle and tapered top in terms of plastic usage to volume. They also don’t pack well because you’ll notice if you stack 500 of them in a truck, there’s a lot of air space between the containers. This means that your truck, which can carry a lot more weight, is limited by the shape of the milk container, and you have to take more trips to move the same amount of milk, had you used this new square design.
@Juice Box Hero: Try living in the SF/Bay area. Over $6/gallon right now, and, yes, California produces more milk than any other state in the US.
@vitonfluorcarbon: If you can fit more jugs of milk in a truck, it “could” reduce the amount of time from cow to market if milk shippers end up moving more milk in less trips. TFA says instead of 4-5 trips/week, they can deliver milk to costco in the square jugs just twice a week. It also says that there’s less labor involved in moving the milk, which could reduce cow to market time.
But, it also consumes “single use” cardboard and plastic wrap components for the jug stacking, which are recycled afterwards, whereas traditional milk uses reusable plastic crates which must be washed.
@ludwigk: Good Point, but wouldn’t the freshest milk be delivered and bought daily? I’m not saying that making “milk runs” only twice a week isn’t the green thing to do, but just saying it’s not exactly equating to freshness. I didn’t think of your point until you made it- Thanks.
I would hope that they would use corrugated, recyclable cardboard for packaging. Plastic wrap can be recycled, but not at readily as the HDPE milk cartons. My points weren’t necessarily intended to say it was the greatest “green” thing ever, but that there could be some inherent advantages to this design concept.
Wow, I guess I’m in the minority here, but I don’t really have a problem with the square milk jugs. I’ve yet to spill any, and they seem to take up less space in my fridge.
I was apprehensive about them at first, but I really do not see a big problem with them.
Mind you, if they go back to the two one gallon packs tomorrow, I’m not going to shed any tears.
@Git Em SteveDave needs a Lego advisor: I agree! I also get all of *my* scientific information from TeeVee magicians!
So that’s what this is! I saw this a few nights ago when I was babysitting. I still use the smaller cardboard containers at home, but I didn’t mind this, no spilling here.
Our Costco switched to these a long time ago, they’ve always worked just fine for me.
@Ash78: It’s a sale, but our local Smith’s often sells all* of their gallon jugs for $2.50 (about every other week).
* And by all I mean skim/1/2/whole
I love these containers! I get our milk at Costco in NJ – at $2.99 it’s cheaper than the $4.19 from Stop N Shop and the kids get a kick out of the container. The kids, (11, and 8) can pour from it and they like how they look.
BTW – I work for a major distributor and our company recycles plastic (the wrap on pallets and shipments) and cardboard. Why? Because we get paid for it. With the cost of materials on the increase, especially plastic wrap, it’s worth not throwing it out.
Of course, I wonder if my township also gets paid extra for taking my recyclables.
It’s been a learning curve, I’ve probably spilt half a gallon of milk. God damn costco.
I don’t love the milk containers, but I see why they are doing it, and I agree with it.
They moved the hole, again? I think they should focus more on changing the shape of beer bottles, maybe make that hole much larger, and on the side.
A gallon = a gallon.
Sometimes.
The current milk jug shape does have some wasted volume issues that could be recovered and filled more effeciently with more milk jugs.
But the real culprit is the handle. Get rid of the handle (not practical) and there would be tremendous volume savings.
I think the milk container would be much more efficient if it were a tube like toothpaste, this way we could squeeze every last drop.