The music industry`s recent announcement that it will eliminate the environmentally unfriendly CD longbox package means that, within the next year, your favorite record store will look considerably different.
The end of the 5-by-12-inch cardboard container is an unqualified victory for consumers. As a package it`s wasteful. And in a rare moment of bowing to consumer wishes, music manufacturers have elected to continue using the sturdy plastic jewel box package.
This move, however, has made life difficult for retailers, who have to reconfigure their stores to fit the smaller package.
It has become a heated industry issue, and at the recent National Association of Record Merchandisers convention in New Orleans, retailers spent considerable time grousing about the expense and complaining that they weren`t consulted by the manufacturers.
Their hope is that the music companies, using some of the savings from no longer having to produce longboxes, will share the costs of reconfiguring the record stores.
”Whatever money is saved there will probably be used to help the retailers with their costs,” says Larry Bole, Midwest regional marketing manager for Warner Bros. Records. ”I doubt if it will be passed along all the way to the consumer.”
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Still, most retailers are making plans without counting on help from the manufacturers. One retailer, the 33-store Harmony House, will purchase, at around 60 cents apiece, up to 500,000 Alpha Paks-the white plastic storage trays similar to those used for cassettes.
”They`re definitely more labor-intensive, and they`re not too attractive, but the truth is that the current packaging is ecologically wasteful and we`re happy to see it gone,” says Harmony House marketing director Chuck Papke.