Monday, July 07, 2008

The Milk's Shaped Wrong! Waaaaaa!

waaaaaa

Ain't that America... From the NYT, emphasis by yours truly:

“When we brought in the new milk, we were asking for feedback,” said Heather Mayo, vice president for merchandising at Sam’s Club, a division of Wal-Mart. “And they’re saying, ‘Why’s it in a square jug? Why’s it different? I want the same milk. What happened to my old milk?’

Mary Tilton tried to educate the public a few days ago as she stood at a Sam’s Club in North Canton, about 50 miles south of Cleveland, luring shoppers with chocolate chip cookies and milk as she showed them how to pour from the new jugs.

“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.”

4 comments:

Chris Foresman said...

Seriously, WTF? IT IS THE EXACT SAME MILK, just in a different container. When I read that story last week I just thought, "Idiocracy is coming sooner than we think."

Anonymous said...

I have an idea that might be crazy
Maybe even crazy enough to work...

What if they got the jug home and THEN poured it from the scary new jug into an old "NORMAL" jug they used to have so that the little children (and the adults) might be able to pour the milk each time free of fear?

Look, I KNOW it's risky. I'm not pretending that the milky road ahead won't be slippery. But tough times call for risks.

pieofthemonth said...

just in case you were curious. this story made the front page of the Scotland Daily Mail newspaper, with the same photo of that lady at Sam's Club.... even though we already have different fridge-friendly milk jugs here, so why did the Scots care? maybe because they like to mock the Americans?

Unknown said...

In Canada, the milk comes in plastic bags and you buy a special pitcher to pop your milk bag into. Then you cut off one corner at the top of the bag to serve as the spout, and ladida, MILK! This confounding milk method is surely why Americans hardly ever relocate to Canada.

How is that thing only a gallon though? It looks ginormous.