The New York Times reports on a new, more environmentally friendly milk bottle being offered by Wal-Mart, Sam's Club and Costco. They're easier to clean, using 60% less water. They can be stacked more efficiently without crates, saving fuel used by delivery trucks. They also keep milk fresher, cost less, and fit into the door shelves of your refrigerator.
But there's a problem. Apparently, people spill milk all over the table like a three-year-old trying to fix dad's breakfast for Father's Day.
The shape and lousy spout make it clumsy. Sam's Club had someone demonstrating to customers how it should be poured -- tipping it rather than lifting it off the table, and pouring slowly.
It's tempting to say, get used to it, as Ashley does at AdventuresInSocialMedia. We should be able to make a few sacrifices for the environment.
Unfortunately, most people don't. Beer and soda cans used to have pull tabs that pulled off the can and ended up in waterways where they choked animals to death. Several firms designed pull tabs that stayed connected, but people couldn't figure some of them out (push the dot on one side first, then the other side, then lift.)
Vendors even started making commercials making fun of beer guzzlers whose brain cells were too deteriorated by alcohol to figure them out, and gave instructions. Finally, someone came up with the current design, and it became universal.
So there's a lesson. Figure out how to make a milk jug with the same properties but is easy to pour, patent it, license it cheaply, and you'll make a fortune. It's too hard to teach people new tricks.