The Danbury, CT-based firm calls them "the container you'll love to use, but can afford to lose." Positioned beside storage bags and plastic wraps, GladWare required packaging that would fit smoothly alongside these products. "We wanted something that would display easily and that we could stack two-high," says Julia Hobbie-Low, group product manager at First Brands. Gerstman + Meyers (New York, NY) came up with just the thing: a bottomless folding carton that displays the Glad® name prominently and stacks nicely. It also lets consumers see and touch the product because it only extends about half way down the sidewall of the nested containers. Stackability also figures into the product itself. Sold in packs of five, the containers are nested with lids resting on top of containers to illustrate to consumers the ease of keeping lids and containers together. The carton consists of 22-pt SBS, offset printed in five colors plus an aqueous varnish. It's from Rock-Tenn (Norcross, GA). Containers are currently packed into cartons by hand, though automated packaging is scheduled to help facilitate a national rollout. GladWare comes in two sizes, one that's deep for soups and salads and the other wider and shallower for leftovers and entrees. Introduced in Baltimore and Minneapolis in August of '96, GladWare is now in about 30% of the country, primarily in the Midwest. Suggested retail price is $2.39 for a five-pack. National rollout is anticipated by April 1998.
