Will New Square Milk Jugs At Wal-Mart, Costco Save The Planet? Or Spill Your Milk?
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 think there is a lot of crying of spilled milk. I have used the jug from Costco and have had no issues.
I'd be willing to make the effort to pour more slowly if it would mean less plastic waste. Unfortunately, most consumers are so spoiled by convenience and unwilling to make such adjustments.
I've used these a few times before. It's a jug. it has a hole in the top, you pour milk out of it. It's not that hard, really. The mouth is a little large, maybe, but it's not like some fundamental law of milk-pouring has been altered or violated here. What's the big deal?
Now you're going to mess with my milk? No. Fuck you, Wal-Mart. I'll drink beer instead.
A company touting cost saving practices means nothing to me until I see the savings reflected in a lower price. Costco is basically saying, "help us make more money by redesigning the wheel". Not to mention, how exactly is a plastic jug with the same volume any more green than another? The only way is to make the walls thinner.
@joemono:
Well when you are Wal*mart, and your main customer base hasn't graduated elementary school, of course you need milk pouring lessons.
I work in the logistics department of a major Japanese auto manufacturer. I won't say who they are but they make a car that rhymes with spamrey. I was talking with some of the packaging guys about milk jugs the other day. They were amazed that the old style milk jug is still around because it is horrible inefficient.
Haven't milk jugs always been sorta square?
So Costco reinvented the wheel so that we can help them make more money? Unless the customer sees the cost saving benefits, this is useless. Not to mention the fact that a plastic jug with the same volume will not be any 'greener' than another assuming the materials are the same (unless the walls are thinner). I hate the 'green' movement seized by manufacturers in an attempt to squeeze a couple more dollars from us.
I've been using these for a while with no problem. If you can't pour milk out of a jug, chances are you struggle with more basic tasks, like not wandering into traffic.
I would like to see milk in plastic bags for consumers to take home and place in their own reusable containers.
There's a lot more that goes into the milk jug's "greenness" than just the volume of the container. If the jugs themselves fit better into packaging you can ship more using less packaging (which trickles down to less manufacturing of the packaging and less gas to make that less packaging ) which means you can fit more onto the trucks which means you can send less trucks and use less gas.
I work in logistics and packaging dimensions are such a huge thing. think about how much wasted space there is in the milk cartons. Now think if you can reduce the wasted space.
I'll stick with the milkbags up here in Canada... just pop into a jug, snip a corner and pour.. once empty, dispose of bag... less waste, no fuss...
6 years and counting since I've made a personal purchase from the Evil Empire (aka WalMart/Sam's Club.)
I guess this new design makes them just a wee bit shorter?
Seems like some very modest space savings to me. But at $4.19 a gallon, when WILL IT END?
yep. they blow. i was half awake at my dad's house and i went to pour a bowl of cereal... and guess what? milk went everywhere except my bowl. it like explodes out of the lid all over everything. they need to recall that design. i don't know how you fuck up a milk jug but somehow they managed to do that
seriously? It looks plenty easy to pour. Why do people resist change? I think this is a great move on the part of companies. And, hey, it's not like they reduced the volume, right? No shrinkage ray here1
Those don't look any more difficult to pour than the previous design. If a person needs lessons on how to pour milk, revoke their driver's license, because a car is CLEARLY too complicated for them.
You know why a lot of people are complaining about the new jugs? Because they require something many Americans today lack, self control.
The fact that the mother complained because she couldn't be arsed to pour her precious snowflake a glass of milk so they ended up making a mess...
NEWSFLASH!!!!NEWSFLASH!!!!NEWSFLASH!!!!
THIS JUST IN, CHILD SPILLS MILK, I REPEAT CHILD SPILLS MILK, FILM AT 11... THIS IS NOT A REPEAT OF THE EARLIER STORY APPEARING HERE FOR SINCE MILK WAS PLACED IN CONTAINERS...
I love the Costco jugs. The fit in the fridge nicely, and they're easy to use. Of course, I also get milk in glass bottles, too. Could it be that some people are just morons?
To be fair to the complaints, this does look pretty rough for the first 1/3 of the bottle. Just a few degrees of tilt and it will start pouring out (while the traditional design would at least require tilting to clear the container itself...say, 20 degrees?). Seems inherently flawed. I don't see it lasting long.
What's the largest quantity that can be put into a squared-off cardboard container? Half gallon? Or just a quart?
It's hip to be square!
@joemono:
I find the instructions on the 2 way envelopes worse!
When I need instructions on how to open an envelope, the envelope is the problem, not me!
@The Boy Wonder:
If you read the article, you'll see that there is a major saving as the cases are eliminated. The milk is stacked with cardboard separators & then shrink wrapped. No cases to haul, no cases to return, no cases to wash, which uses a lot of water, & none are stolen to use as storage in homes & garages.
They also get more milk on a truck, meaning less fuel to haul it.
I want to know how the milk is 'fresher' when it arrives to the store - because of a change of shape?
People are complaining about these? I can't imagine the national tragedy if the entire country started using milk bags all at once. Those take a bit of skill if you don't use the official bag pitcher.
We used these milk jugs to do continental breakfast for a conference. They are very flimsy. One person bumped it against the edge of the table the seams split open and milk spilled everywhere.
We have been using these for several months and I noticed the "spill factor" right away. I though it was just me. Having used them for a while now I think the glitch is in the size of the opening. It is considerable larger than the old jug design and so the content tends to pour faster than we are used to. I am still perfecting my technique pouring with these new jugs. Perhaps if they were to make the opening a bit smaller it would make them more manageable. Even so, the spills are more a nuisance than a big deal. Nothing to cry over. (sorry, had to do it)
We fear change.
@Ash78: 4.99 a gallon? Where the heck do you live? I paid 2.99 for a gallon last night. Must be our midwest sensibility. (Or our dairy farms.)
In France (and probably elsewhere), they put milk in easily transported cardboard boxes that don't even need refrigeration. Sure, you can gripe about preservatives or pasteurization, but hell, if you want to cut costs...
@The Boy Wonder: I can only assume you didn't read the story but felt the need to make an unsubstantiated comment anyway.
More jugs can be fit in a crate, reducing the space required and thus reducing shipping costs and fuel use. The process requires 60-70 percent less water, according to the dairy, which is obviously good for the environment. And Sam's Club can store 224 gallons of milk in the space that previously held 80, reducing refrigeration requirements.
And finally, the cost of a gallon of milk is actually less to the consumer, according to the story you didn't read.
@captainpicard: @Greasy Thumb Guzik: So what happens to all the plastic that was used to make the milk crates? If they're already made, they're fine. The new stuff is not re-usable, and will end up in the compactor(cardboard) and the trash(plastic) of the final store, not re-used. This is more plastic into the landfills. A lot more.
@SkokieGuy: They say that the dairy can process the milk much faster with the new jugs - I assume this is a result of eliminating the milk crates and increasing mechanization of the process. Faster = fresher.
I'm not sure that I buy this, but that's the explanation.
I think the green factor is seriously underrated here. You have a small amount of savings with the milk jugs, yes, but the savings adds up. It's not like we're talking about a car, like the Nano from Tata. We're talking about milk jugs. Every little bit helps, you know. Being green could even help some Boobies.
Just to recap, milk jugs, which are not Tatas, could help Boobies.
Both my wife and I have tried the new jugs (no she didn't get her tits done, thank you) and have found that they require a modicum of attention else the milk ends up missing the recepticle. I have also found that the milk frequently runs down the side of the jug after dispensing the milk (no, it's not appropriate to lick the jug.) While it is nice to try out some new jugs once in a while, they need to operate in a manner that we are used too, otherwise things get messy.
@The Boy Wonder: How about you don't see the costs of higher fuel pass onto you? Really boy wonder . . . Bruce would not be impressed.
@SkokieGuy: Cheaper and easier to ship I guess.
By the way, I was noting how I really don't drink all that much milk and just how expensive it is to buy a quart of it. My folks buy it by the gallon and so I asked if I could just come down and give them a buck to fill a quart sized bottle whenever I need it. They looked at me funny but agreed it made sense (in a weird way.)
@Juice Box Hero: Eveywhere I've seen in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic has been about $4 for a couple of years now.
I haven't seen $2.99 for milk since about 2003.
I find these things to be annoying to the point of nonfunctional. If they really wanna save on shipping costs, they should do it the Canadian way and ship it in a bag, expecting the customer to place it in his/her own pitcher, which he/she presumably knows how to operate.
I actually found the Canadian bag milk to not be much of a bother at all, outside of needing something to put the bag in. But I was only there for a week.
@SkokieGuy: It's fresher because we said so, and you'll drink it anyway! Security!
@Ash78: Milk usedta come in gallon cartons--some even had plastic handles for carrying. And you could get these nifty plastic spouts that you jammed and screwed into the top of the carton to create a spigot, much like modern 2-qt cartons. Plastic jugs are lighter and cheaper than cardboard.
I work at costco and my old GM made our store one of the "test" stores so when ever the company would test out new items/packaging we would be one of the first to get it. And let me tell you everyone HATED the new milk jugs we would get at least 10-15 written complaints a day about them and several phone calls too. People were extremely unhappy with them because it's too easy to spill. Some people would even bring back the jugs for refunds because they spilled more milk than they actually consumed out of them. For kicks and giggles we decided to save the the complaints to see how many we would get in a week by the end of the week we had a stack over a inch thick lol! After about a year of complaints about them they finally pulled them from our store and brought back the "old" milk jugs. Lesson learned: Don't mess with the design of milk jugs!
haven't seen these yet(though I rarely buy milk and never from wal mart ro costco. However I started working PT for a convience store back when i was 14. every hour we had to refill the milk. I always found the milk jug design cumbersome and bloated. Plus that damn things are extremely fragile. I've had jugs break after only a 6 in fall. these new ones look a lot more secure and ruable. Plus the diea of chipping everything in card board liners is a lot more green.
If people don't like the new jugs, just save some old ones and pour the milk from the square jugs in an old one. Simple solution. Use a funnel if you have to. I know, a lot of work for milk, but it would work.
I'm not buying the green claim either. Reusable shipping racks replaced with cardboard and non-recyclable shrink wrap?
This is funny. These new jugs look kinda like those oil containers I see at restaurants.
@MissTicklebritches: I'm all for it too... but if people need LESSONS* to learn how to pour it then maybe the jug design needed to go back to the drawing board? Did anyone even test it before it got out there? When milk is pushing $4/gal, you'd think they'd get someone who knows a little about fluid dynamics to pour it.
Besides, the only problem is the top of the jug. I don't think anyone will claim that it being squarer and lighter is a problem.
* If there's a trick to pouring it, why not write it on the jug? Antifreeze has a tricky bottle if you've never poured it before... that's why they all show you the right way to pour it.
Really? Milk pouring lessons... Really? I love this country.