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Standardized interchangeable packaging for consumer goods. Ever been to a book store in Japan? Practically every book is the same size. As a result, bookshelve

Standardized interchangeable packaging for consumer goods. Ever been to a book store in Japan? Practically every book is the same size. As a result, bookshelves also are designed to be the right size to optimally fit books. This allows people to fit more books in small homes. It makes books easier to transport in book-sized boxes and book-sized bags too. You can get perfectly-fitting reusable cloth covers to protect your library books. American bookstores are a war between publishers to stick out from the shelves as much as possible. There's not much that a bookshelf designer can do except guess and have adjustable, oversized shelving. That also describes the state of today's packaging. With more shopping happening online, the need for items to stand out on a shelf is lower, and the need for them to fit nicely in boxes is much higher. Nobody would force you to design your products to fit the closest available standard package size, but companies would tend to do so more often because of the efficiency gains. Logistics companies like Amazon or Fedex could offer incentives.

gfxgirl 6y ago
I don't think Japan is any different than the USA here. If you go look at paperback novels in the USA they are 95% all the same width and height, only the thickness changes. https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-stack-of-science-fiction-paperback-books-28029500.html https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-stack-of-science-fiction-p... Conversely there are plenty of randomly sized books at a Japanese bookstore. I can go walk to some today and take pictures if you don't believe me. It's possible the USA is 50% standard sizes and Japan is 70% but it's definitely not close to all of them. Even in the USA many hardbacks are a standard size. At most they are off by an inch so that you can get by with certain sized shelves and have on extra shelf for really odd sizes.
- jbay808 6y ago
  From my experience they're a world apart, but your mileage may vary. You can also tell just by doing image searches for "Japanese bookstore". Or looking at how often US bookstores shelve their books sideways. But I agree that there are exceptions in Japan (including specific shelves for oversized books, like coffee table photo albums), and in the US there are some sizes that books sometimes converge to.
  - Izkata 6y ago
    So I did the search and it's totally random whether they're as you describe or as GP describes. My favorite, differing sizes on the left and uniform sizes on the right: https://img.theculturetrip.com/1440x807/smart/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/japanese-bookshop.jpg https://img.theculturetrip.com/1440x807/smart/wp-content/upl...
    - jbay808 6y ago
      I believe those are magazines on the left. (This photo appears to be Book Off, a popular second-hand bookstore chain).
- michaelt 6y ago
  I think Japanese bookstores look very organised partly because they stock manga - where you will routinely get ten-volume series of books (with far fewer words per page than a novel would have, of course) So while every western bookshop has that shelf full of Lonely Planet travel guides that looks really organised, in Japan you can photograph an entire aisle of books that looks just as regimented.
  - jbay808 6y ago
    Western bookstores sell manga too, these days! However publishers change the format size for western audiences. Here's what it looks like when stocked here: https://s3-media2.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/W4Jp1QrsdmGXmogVT8q4hQ/348s.jpg https://s3-media2.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/W4Jp1QrsdmGXmogVT8q4... Each series is a uniform size but that's as much commonality as there is. The height and also depth of each is different. And that's starting from uniformly sized source material; Western graphic novels are even more extremely sized. (The neat shelves in the sibling comment are mostly not manga, by the way).
vinhboy 6y ago
Spot on. Why don't we have milk crates for Amazon deliveries?
- marcinzm 6y ago
  Right now, no one wants to pick up things from potential COVID plague bearers. Previously, probably how many wouldn't get reused and just get thrown away. Paper getting thrown away is eco friendly (renewable source, biodegradable, etc.), plastic is not.
  - jbay808 6y ago
    Even if it's still cardboard, just some carefully thought-out size standards that take into account packing small boxes to fit perfectly into large boxes, and large boxes to stack perfectly onto trucks/forklifts/shipping containers, would have major effects because of the scale at which it would act. It would also have knock-on effects -- by creating Schelling points for what are generally free variables, your water bottles would be more likely to fit in your car's cupholder, your tupperware would fit in the fridge, and so on. Oh yeah, and you'd be able to ship your cousin's wineglasses using the boxes that your order of hand soap arrived in, and it would pretty much just fit perfectly.
mch82 6y ago
There’s probably something to be learned from how Mexico processes & reuses glass soda bottles (assuming they still do).
- a5withtrrs 6y ago
  Mexico isn't the only one. I've visited many countries in Europe and Asia that actually recycle their glass bottles without crushing them/melting them down.
Animats 6y ago
Standardized interchangeable packaging for consumer goods. Marketing people don't like that. They want a unique look. Many US state laws requiring some standardization of sizes and fill have been repealed over the last two decades.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- TeMPOraL 6y ago
  Hence my regular ranting about the outsized negative effects marketing has on society. We really should stop accepting "but think of marketing!" as a valid reason to eschew interoperability and standardization. Marketing is ultimately zero-sum, it'll flourish in a constrained playground just as much as it does in an unconstrained one.
  - Animats 6y ago
    The dairy industry is desperately trying to break away from everybody having identical containers and competing on price.[1] Milk in sippable pouches may become a thing. With bigger markups! [1] https://www.dairyreporter.com/Article/2017/06/09/Four-trends-driving-innovation-in-dairy-packaging https://www.dairyreporter.com/Article/2017/06/09/Four-trends...
    - TeMPOraL 6y ago
      I'm afraid of all these "innovations" they described there. Nice ways to decommoditify and justify price increases, in direct opposition of my goals as a consumer: to reduce food and packaging waste. I'll grant them that kids do love things they can squeeze. My 18mo loves the baby food pouches. When we're in the store, she'll spot them and grab them off the shelves as we're wheeling by them. We ended up buying resealable pouches that we stuff with home-made food, to cut down on plastic waste.

gfxgirl 6y ago

I don't think Japan is any different than the USA here. If you go look at paperback novels in the USA they are 95% all the same width and height, only the thickness changes. https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-stack-of-science-fiction-paperback-books-28029500.html https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-stack-of-science-fiction-p... Conversely there are plenty of randomly sized books at a Japanese bookstore. I can go walk to some today and take pictures if you don't believe me. It's possible the USA is 50% standard sizes and Japan is 70% but it's definitely not close to all of them. Even in the USA many hardbacks are a standard size. At most they are off by an inch so that you can get by with certain sized shelves and have on extra shelf for really odd sizes.

jbay808 6y ago
From my experience they're a world apart, but your mileage may vary. You can also tell just by doing image searches for "Japanese bookstore". Or looking at how often US bookstores shelve their books sideways. But I agree that there are exceptions in Japan (including specific shelves for oversized books, like coffee table photo albums), and in the US there are some sizes that books sometimes converge to.
- Izkata 6y ago
  So I did the search and it's totally random whether they're as you describe or as GP describes. My favorite, differing sizes on the left and uniform sizes on the right: https://img.theculturetrip.com/1440x807/smart/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/japanese-bookshop.jpg https://img.theculturetrip.com/1440x807/smart/wp-content/upl...
  - jbay808 6y ago
    I believe those are magazines on the left. (This photo appears to be Book Off, a popular second-hand bookstore chain).
michaelt 6y ago
I think Japanese bookstores look very organised partly because they stock manga - where you will routinely get ten-volume series of books (with far fewer words per page than a novel would have, of course) So while every western bookshop has that shelf full of Lonely Planet travel guides that looks really organised, in Japan you can photograph an entire aisle of books that looks just as regimented.
- jbay808 6y ago
  Western bookstores sell manga too, these days! However publishers change the format size for western audiences. Here's what it looks like when stocked here: https://s3-media2.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/W4Jp1QrsdmGXmogVT8q4hQ/348s.jpg https://s3-media2.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/W4Jp1QrsdmGXmogVT8q4... Each series is a uniform size but that's as much commonality as there is. The height and also depth of each is different. And that's starting from uniformly sized source material; Western graphic novels are even more extremely sized. (The neat shelves in the sibling comment are mostly not manga, by the way).

vinhboy 6y ago

Spot on. Why don't we have milk crates for Amazon deliveries?

marcinzm 6y ago
Right now, no one wants to pick up things from potential COVID plague bearers. Previously, probably how many wouldn't get reused and just get thrown away. Paper getting thrown away is eco friendly (renewable source, biodegradable, etc.), plastic is not.
- jbay808 6y ago
  Even if it's still cardboard, just some carefully thought-out size standards that take into account packing small boxes to fit perfectly into large boxes, and large boxes to stack perfectly onto trucks/forklifts/shipping containers, would have major effects because of the scale at which it would act. It would also have knock-on effects -- by creating Schelling points for what are generally free variables, your water bottles would be more likely to fit in your car's cupholder, your tupperware would fit in the fridge, and so on. Oh yeah, and you'd be able to ship your cousin's wineglasses using the boxes that your order of hand soap arrived in, and it would pretty much just fit perfectly.

mch82 6y ago

There’s probably something to be learned from how Mexico processes & reuses glass soda bottles (assuming they still do).

a5withtrrs 6y ago
Mexico isn't the only one. I've visited many countries in Europe and Asia that actually recycle their glass bottles without crushing them/melting them down.

Animats 6y ago

Standardized interchangeable packaging for consumer goods. Marketing people don't like that. They want a unique look. Many US state laws requiring some standardization of sizes and fill have been repealed over the last two decades.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
TeMPOraL 6y ago
Hence my regular ranting about the outsized negative effects marketing has on society. We really should stop accepting "but think of marketing!" as a valid reason to eschew interoperability and standardization. Marketing is ultimately zero-sum, it'll flourish in a constrained playground just as much as it does in an unconstrained one.
- Animats 6y ago
  The dairy industry is desperately trying to break away from everybody having identical containers and competing on price.[1] Milk in sippable pouches may become a thing. With bigger markups! [1] https://www.dairyreporter.com/Article/2017/06/09/Four-trends-driving-innovation-in-dairy-packaging https://www.dairyreporter.com/Article/2017/06/09/Four-trends...
  - TeMPOraL 6y ago
    I'm afraid of all these "innovations" they described there. Nice ways to decommoditify and justify price increases, in direct opposition of my goals as a consumer: to reduce food and packaging waste. I'll grant them that kids do love things they can squeeze. My 18mo loves the baby food pouches. When we're in the store, she'll spot them and grab them off the shelves as we're wheeling by them. We ended up buying resealable pouches that we stuff with home-made food, to cut down on plastic waste.