Short-run printed packaging; a supermarket odyssey – part 2

Having started this thread on Monday evening (June 18) during my weekly shop, I found myself with itchy feet come Tuesday lunchtime.

 

Far from being rueful of the task I’d set myself during the best weather of the year, not to mention the looks from fellow shoppers, my wife and in-store security as I snap photos of short-run printed packaging, I found myself eager to find out what the grocers local to the Package Print Worldwide office had on offer in terms of themed packaging.

 

Being located in a busy part of west London means there’s a plethora of choice, as opposed to my more “provincial” home turf where there’s a meagre selection of chain supermarkets.

 

That’s not to say I’m targeting supermarkets and hypermarkets only in this unscientific “study”, but I feel they will offer the best visualization of the quick-fire nature of short-run printed packaging, and the effect of events such as the Olympics, Wimbledon tennis championship and other major sporting and social events on what we see on the shelf when we go shopping.

 

Morrisons is the supermarket of choice for my weekly shop, so will make up the bulk of what I report back on, but Tuesday I found myself wandering into frozen food specialist Iceland and the omnipresent Tesco.

 

Iceland didn’t offer much in terms of what I was looking for, but I did spot a flexible pouch that I’d first been introduced to at the Packaging Innovations show earlier this year.

 

While not short-run printed packaging as I’m looking to highlight, the pouch is used to package a selection of sous-vide food stuffs. Sous-vide is a method of cooking food sealed in airtight plastic bags in a water bath for a long time.

 

As the food is cooked inside the printed packaging, it must be able to cope with the rigours of the low and slow cooking process, as well as then being cooled, transported, packed onto shelves, purchased, kept refrigerated at home and then reheated during the cooking process.

 

This requires quite a technical piece of flexible packaging to overcome various issues, and meet the requirements for safety as expected by all food packaging.

 

There’ll be more on this in the final issue of Package Print Worldwide of 2012, but for now I was quite excited to see a large selection of this packaging on the shelf in Iceland.

 

As you’d expect, Tesco offered much more in the way of short-run printed packaging, with a host of brands capitalizing on the jubilee celebrations with themed packaging.

 

McIlhenny Co. Tabasco brand pepper sauce, Ryvita and Cadbury were notable examples.