Trip to the Grocery Store -- Remember the Longbox?

Remember the CD long box?  Back in the '80s and early '90s, at the dawn of the compact disc,  record stores were figuring out how to transition from selling vinyl records and cassettes to CDs.  Part of the problem was storage -- they had to fit these small CDs into storage bins meant for the much larger vinyl record.  The solution was the longbox, which was extra cardboard packaging surrounding the traditional CD jewel case.  

Frankly, it was a waste of packaging of elephantine proportions.  Even people in the '80s thought the longbox was excessive!  Through a combination of pressure from artists and music buyers (as well as the natural evolution away from records altogether), stores eventually adapted and the long box became nothing more than an embarrassing relic.

I bring all this up because of a trip I took to the grocery store today.  I've had a chest cough for as long as I can remember at this point, and because I'm tired of sounding like a 3-pack-a-day smoker, I bought some Mucinex.  I got home, and opened the package, and I realized that half the package is empty.  It's an exterior cardboard box, with a bottle (think an Advil bottle), tucked in one half.  What's more, there's a grand total of 20 pills in a bottle that could hold 10X that amount.  All in all, it was just an embarrassing waste.  All I could think of was the old CD longbox and how we apparently haven't come all that far!

On the bright side, I also grabbed some organic oatmeal raisin cookie mix from the Immaculate Baking company.  Not only are the ingredients certified organic, they support the Folk Artist's Fund and other art outreach for kids programs.  I'm not sure if that outweighs the waste produced by the Mucinex box, but it made me feel better about the trip.  And what's more, the cookies are scrumptious -- perfect with a Sunday afternoon coffee.   Nice.