#packaging

#packaging

Tokyo-based Calbee says it would temporarily use only black and white colours on 14 of its products due to a lack of supplies needed for printing ink. The US-Israeli war on Iran is draining the colour from Japan's supermarket shelves, with the biggest crisp makers swapping once-vibrant packaging for monochrome as a result of a shortage of ink. Tokyo-based Calbee, one of the most popular brands in the snack market, has said it will at least temporarily switch to using black and white on the packaging of 14 of its products, including its Calbee Potato Chips.

Safeway recently eliminated handles on its paper bags, citing supply chain shortages, but after receiving complaints, the company has since restocked the original bags with handles at some of its locations. The customer backlash was reportedly swift over Safeway's decision to switch to paper bags without handles. While Hollywood would like to believe that handleless paper bags persist throughout the ages, most people consider them a thing of the past. They're a pain to carry, plain and simple.

Sonoco Products ( NYSE: SON) shares reached a 52-week high of $57.83 this week after strong 2025 results and 2026 guidance. That marks a 30% year-to-date surge that has far outpaced the S&P 500's fractional gain. The packaging company's rally accelerated following the February 17 earnings. With the stock at 52-week highs and technical indicators flashing warning signs, investors face the critical question of whether this momentum is sustainable or the valuation catch-up has run its course.

But in San Francisco, a growing number of people are looking for something more intentional: flowers that feel like a gift the moment they arrive. That's where Flower Icon stands apart. Instead of a traditional flower delivery service, the studio is a design-led gifting brand in which every detail, from social media to packaging, contributes to the experience. At the core of Flower Icon's Valentine's Day collection are premium seasonal blooms selected for freshness, longevity, and visual impact.

Google is launching the Universal Commerce Protocol, an open standard for agentic commerce, establishing a common language for agents and systems to operate together across consumer surfaces, businesses, and payment providers. UCP is compatible with existing industry protocols, such as Agent2Agent, Agent Payments Protocol, and Model Context Protocol. Google co-developed UCP with industry leaders, including Shopify, Etsy, and Walmart. More than 20 others across the payment ecosystem have endorsed UCP, including Adyen, Flipkart, Mastercard, Visa, and Stripe.

If you're wondering why your favorite fresh berries are so much more expensive than other options like apples and bananas, it's probably because you are thinking about fruit as plants, not commodities. Like it or not, our modern food infrastructure is full of complex structures to get oranges from California, tropical fruit, and potatoes from Idaho onto the same store shelves. And being a commodity means every little bump in that road ends with a little bump in price that you see at the grocery store.

Python 3.14 is here. If you haven't done so, it's time to update your projects to test against 3.14. The following procedure is what I'm following for a handful of projects. Your process of course may be different if you use different tools. Honestly, I'm partly writing this down so I don't have to remember it all in a year when 3.15 rolls around.

Kantar's head of shopper and category insights says people still love stores, carts and the joy of finding something new, but discovery, conversion and delivery can now happen in a blink. "Someone can become acquainted with a brand, convert it and have it delivered to their house. That's... a subterfuge for classic path to purchase." In her view, the job for retailers and brands is to meet that reality, not pine for the old map.