The Rainbow Pack Conundrum


Why can't we pick and choose?

Have you ever purchased a mixed variety pack of something? Most likely you have. I like the sampler box of Celestial Seasonings Herb Teas. The “rainbow” pack allows me to enjoy a different bag of tea every night after dinner. I avoid burning myself out on one single flavor. And I don’t have to keep 5 different boxes of tea in my space-constrained urban pantry. But there’s one problem. I’m now stuck with a bunch of Peppermint Tea. It’s the one flavor of the five that I don’t like and I have to grin and bear it when I buy the sampler. I wish I could make my own variety pack of teabags.

Manufacturers typically hate the variety pack. It’s costly for them to assemble. They get customer complaints because there are too many black jelly beans in the mix. Or customers want them to remove Frosted Flakes or Fritos from the variety pack because no one in their household likes them.

Safeway sells a 6-pack carrier for wine that effectively puts this power in the hands of the consumer. The Safeway wine customer picks up one of the sturdy 6-pack carriers and fills it with ANY six bottles of wine. From ANY winery. With the purchase of any six bottles, they get a 10% discount on all of them.

I love this idea and I want to see it implemented by food manufacturers.

Why couldn’t Coke merchandise cases of single bottles and let me mix my own 12-pack? I would mix and match Dasani, Diet Coke, and PowerAde, into my very own, personalized rainbow pack. Wouldn’t your kids love a mix-and-match case from the frozen novelty aisle? One Popsicle, three Klondikes, two Jell-O Pudding Pops… What about frozen pizzas with mix-and-match toppings that you can choose from the freezer case?

I’ll bet a bunch of Peppermint teabags that this just might have some consumer interest.

Safeway’s “mix & match” wine carrier

Posted: Tue - March 22, 2005 at 05:42 PM        

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