A whole new angle on milk jugs

Tag : Plastic Pallet Rack
Sam’s Club members in Northwest Arkansasare among the first in the nation to get a glimpse of a rathersquarish reinterpretation of the traditional milk jug.
The 1-gallon plastic jugs are stacked like bricks in the largerefrigerators at 189 Sam’s Club stores nationwide, includingstores in Bentonville and Fayetteville.
Each pallet holds 224 gallons of milk, and there are four palletssitting side by side in the cooler case in the Bentonville store.
“I bet that this fits in the refrigerator a lotbetter,” said Bella Vista resident Hollie Baker, who wasshopping with her family Wednesday at the Sam’s Club store inBentonville. “With seven children in our house, we buy a lotof milk at one time.” The redesign helps Sam’s, themembers-only wholesale division of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., move milkmore efficiently, the company said. The stackable design does awaywith ungainly milk crates and metal racks that require frequentwashing.
Less nonmilk weight means Sam’s Club can transport about 400more gallons per truck and reduce annual truck trips by 11, 000,said Kristy Reed, a spokesman for Sam’s Club. That’snot just good for the bottom line, it also benefits the environmentand drives down the retail price of milk, the company said.
Still, some consumers just want a clean pour.
“They are too hard to pour for me,” said Richard Wrightof Rogers, who was shopping Wednesday with his granddaughter.“I spill them all the time.” Reed said most club membershave been pleased with how the milk jugs stack in theirrefrigerators and the per-gallon savings of 10-20 cents. However,the company is taking steps to inform the buying public about thejug’s unfamiliar tipping action. “We do demos on it, sopeople can see how to properly use it,” Reed said. “Onthe side of it and the top of it, we are including instructions onhow to pour properly to try to help everybody out.” A companynews release trumpeted the redesign as “consistent with thetransformation of milk from pitchers to glass bottles in the late1800 s and then cardboard cartons to plastic gallons in the early1950 s.” That was echoed by Heather Mayo, vice president ofmerchandising for Sam’s Club, who called the redesign an“exciting change for Sam’s Club members and the dairyindustry.” But it’s unclear whether the milk industry,which is struggling with record-high feed and transportation costs,will make the switch.
“Everybody is always looking for ways to improve theirproduct and improve their container. Unfortunately, it is veryexpensive, because those machines that blow the bottles are veryexpensive pieces of equipment,” Walt Coleman, controller ofColeman Dairy in Little Rock, said Tuesday.
Two calls to Springfield, Mo.-based Hiland Dairy, which bottlesmilk at a plant in Fayetteville, were not returned Tuesday orWednesday.
Reed said four dairies are bottling with the new jug. One of thosecompanies, Superior Dairy of Ohio, invented it.
Calls to Superior Dairy were not returned Tuesday or Wednesday. Ina voice message, a manager at the dairy said he wasn’tauthorized to talk to the media about the jug.
Reed said Sam’s Club ultimately intends to put the new jugdesign in all 600 stores, though she didn’t know if Wal-Martwill do the same thing. She also didn’t know how long itwould take for the new jug to reach all Sam’s Club stores.Wal-Mart shares fell 53 cents, or 0. 93 percent, to close Wednesdayat $ 56. 50 on the New York Stock Exchange.