All About Coffee, William H. Ukers [short story to read .txt] 📗
- Author: William H. Ukers
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Note, for Example: Coffee costing 13.50 per 100 pounds (see first column), to realize 17% on sales, must bring 16.27; which really represents 21% on cost
Friends of package coffees point to the saving in time in handling in the store; to the fact that the contents of a package are not contaminated by odors or dirt; that the blends are prepared by experts and are always uniform; that the coffee is always properly roasted; and, in the case of package ground coffee, properly ground; that the brand names are widely and consistently advertised; and that the retailer has the benefit of the packer's co-operation in building up sales campaigns, by means of booklets and local advertising.
Various Types of Coffee Containers
Five types of containers are used for packing coffee, namely, cardboard cartons, paper bags, fiber or paper cans, tin cans, and composite (tin and fiber) cans and packages. Fiber packages include paraffin-lined as well as those that have been chemically treated with other water-proof and flavor-retaining substances.
The carton is popular, because it takes up less room in storage and in shipment to the packing plant, and also because the label can be printed directly on the package. Another economy feature is its adaptability to the automatic packaging machine, which transforms it from a flat sheet into a wrapped and sealed package of coffee. Moisture-proof and flavor-retaining inner liners and outside wrappers are generally used to prevent rapid deterioration of the coffee's strength and aroma.
Paper bags are the least expensive containers to be obtained; and when lined with foil or prepared paper, they are considered to be satisfactory. Like the carton, the label can be printed directly on the bag. They also lend themselves to close packing in shipping cases.
Another popular type of container is the paper, or fiber, can which is made of fiber board with a slip cover. Fiber cans are also made with tin tops and bottoms, the metal parts supplying a measure of rigidity to the package. These composite packages are made round, square, oblong, or cylindrical.
Paraffined containers are characterized by an outer covering of glossy paraffin, and are made in various shapes. In some makes, the paraffin is forced into the pores of the paper base, making for added flavor-retaining and moisture-proof properties. In this type of package the label may also be printed direct on the package.
In recent years, vacuum packed coffee has won great favor, first in the West and latterly in the East. Tin cans are used. Vacuum sealing machines close the containers at the rate of forty to fifty a minute. Private tests by responsible coffee men are said to have shown that coffee in the bean or ground, when vacuum packed, retains its freshness for a longer period than when packed by any other method.
Labels
Coffee packers must give due attention to certain well defined laws bearing on package labels. Before the Federal Pure Food Act went into effect on January 1, 1907, many coffee labels bore the magic names of "Mocha" and "Java," when in fact neither of those two celebrated coffees were used in the blend. Even mixtures containing a large percentage of chicory, or other addition, were labeled "Pure Mocha and Java Coffee." The enactment of the pure food law ended this practise, making it compulsory that the label should state either the actual coffees used in the blend, or a brand name, together with the name of either the packer or the distributer. When chicory or other addition is used, the fact must be stated in clear type directly following the brand name. The reading matter on the label should contain facts only, and should not bear extravagant claims of superior quality or of methods of preparing or packing that have not been followed.
Coffee Packaging Economies
During the United States' participation in the World War, tin became practically unobtainable, and coffee packers turned to paper and fiber containers as substitutes in packaging nearly all grades. In this war period, commercial economy became a fetish in the business world; and coffee packers worked to save not only material, but shipping space, labor, and time. Paper and fiber containers proved to be not only practical but economical packages. Because of their war-time experience, many packers changed permanently to square and oblong containers. They found these containers could be packed "solid" in shipping cases, leaving no unfilled space between packages as is the case with cylindrical cans; also, smaller shipping cases could be used. As a further measure of economy, several packers changed from the square "knocked-down" paper or fiber carton to the oblong carton that is made up, filled, and sealed by automatic machinery from a flat, printed sheet of cardboard. This type of container is generally lined or wrapped with a moisture-proof and flavor-retaining paper.
There has been a tendency in recent years to standardize coffee packages as a means of working out packaging and shipping economies. One of the leading American proponents[336] of standardization said:
One of the first arguments raised against standardization is that it eliminates individuality, and individuality is one of the big guns covering the front line trenches in the war of competition. The folly of recommending that every one-pound coffee carton, for instance, should be of exactly the same size and shape is immediately apparent; but let us not confuse such unification with standardization.
Assuming that a pound of coffee may be safely contained in seventy-two cubic inches, we find that a carton three inches thick by four inches wide by six inches high will serve our purpose; and, as an illustration of extremes, a carton three inches thick by three inches wide by eight inches high, or one [carton] two inches thick by six inches wide by six inches high, will each have exactly the same cubical contents. In fact, there is an almost infinite variety of combinations of dimensions which will contain substantially seventy-two cubic inches.
As an example of how coffee packages can be standardized this authority cites the following sizes of flat-sheet containers and their respective dimensions and capacities:
Inches High
Inches Contents
Cubic Ins. 1 lb. 25⁄8 by 41⁄2 61⁄4 73.83 1⁄2 lb. 21⁄4 by 31⁄8 51⁄4 36.91 1⁄4 lb. 19⁄16 by 25⁄8 41⁄2 18.46
VARIOUS TYPES OF COFFEE CONTAINERS VARIOUS TYPES OF COFFEE CONTAINERS
This Group of Leading Trade-Marked Coffees Illustrates the Wide Variance in Styles of Containers Used by Coffee-Roasters. The Packages Shown Are as Follows:
1—Double carton. 2, 3—Cartons. 4—Fiber sides, tin top and bottom, friction cover. 5—Vacuum tin can. 6—Fancy paper bag. 7—Machine-wrapped paper package. 8—Fancy paper bag. 9—Carton with patented opening and closing device. 10—Wrapped paper package. 11—Tin can with slip cover. 12—All-fiber can with slip cover. 13—Tin can with slip cover. 14—Lithographed tin can with friction cover. 15, 16—Tin cans with slip covers. 17—Squat tin can. 18—Napa-can. 19, 20, 21—Vacuum tin cans.
The advantages claimed for these packages are that each is well proportioned and makes a good selling appearance; each bears a direct relation to the other two; and all may be handled with uniformly good results on the same set of standardized packaging machinery. One size of shipping case, instead of three, may be used to hold exactly the same number of pounds of coffee, regardless of whether shipped in one-pound, half-pound, or quarter-pound cartons. For smaller dealer assortments, any two, or all three sizes also exactly fit the following standard shipping cases:
For 36 lbs., 137⁄8" by 161⁄2" by 123⁄4" high
For 54 lbs., 137⁄8" by 161⁄2" by 191⁄8" high
This standardization of packages and shipping containers results in a lower cost of containers and a smaller stock to carry, with attendant reductions in details in purchasing and billing departments, in inventories, and in many other overhead expense factors.
Practical Grocer Helps
Wholesale coffee merchandising does not properly end with the delivery of a shipment of coffee to a retailer. The progressive wholesaler knows that it is to his best interest to help that grocer sell his coffee as quickly as possible; to make a good
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