I am not a big fan, in general, of grocery stores.  I prefer a trip to Trader Joe’s or Sprouts to a giant Safeway-type grocery store… but I’m ultimately pretty lazy and so I do most of my grocery shopping at Bashas’, an Arizona-family-owned grocery store.  I also don’t buy things because of the brand, I buy stuff that has no high fructose corn syrup, or is high in fiber, or grown in the USA, etc.  But every once in a while, I’ll be walking down those colorful aisles and something jumps out and says BUY ME… and I do.  Today’s example, BetterOats Oatmeal.

I was headed down the cereal aisle and saw these out of the corner of my eye.  I had never seen the brand before (at least I don’t think I have) and their packaging instantly impressed me.  Graphic Design is about solving problems, and packaging design is usually about solving the problem of people not buying a product.  Sometimes designers don’t do that well and the problem isn’t solved.  Like the recent redesign of the Tropicana Orange Juice carton.  If you didn’t notice that it had changed, you probably just didn’t recognize the brand when the new cartons were in your store.  They went too far from the design they had and people couldn’t recognize the brand.  They ended up going back to their old design.  The new packaging was beautiful and in any designer’s mind, a huge improvement over what they had… but it didn’t solve a problem, it actually created one, so it was not good design.

Back to the oatmeal.  The packaging boasts “NEW Space Saving PANTRY PACK” which implies that there was an old size… but tells me that one of the problems they were trying to solve was the amount of space they take up in the pantry.  As a mom with a VERY TINY pantry (most people would call it a cabinet!) The smaller the boxes, the better.  I loathe the size of cereal  boxes, especially the ones that give you the most cereal for your dollar.  It is nice to be able to buy a small box of oatmeal with 5 pouches instead of some giant warehouse-size box for a family of 20.  Another problem they were likely trying to solve… what happens when a family, like mine for instance, has 4 people with 4 different oatmeal taste preferences.  Well, up to now I would either buy plain, or buy the blueberry kind that I like and everyone else would eat cold cereal.  Or worse, buy one of the variety packs, which without fail has some flavor (apples and cinnamon) that nobody in my house will eat.  BetterOats created a box small enough – and inexpensive enough – for me to buy one box for each family member.  These 4 boxes together were smaller than one box of cold cereal, and, if you can believe it, about the same price.

OK so how do you get KIDS to eat it?  Well, you put cute illustrations on the front just like a regular cereal box, right?  Ok, not JUST like a regular cereal box… these are cooler and stretch “kid” all the way into adulthood.  There’s no mascot and no toys, but when I was standing there with my 11 year old son, trying to pick flavors… he knew exactly which ones were the kid flavors. 

So far, these are… as my 14 year old would say… “full of win.”  They have Omega 3, 100% whole grain, use less packaging than other brands, the carton is 100% recyclable…  how do they taste?  They actually taste pretty amazing too!  Our house favorite is the Cinnamon Roll… but I’m loving the blueberry muffin variety.  There is a dark chocolate version that beckons to me as well.  I have trouble deciding while I’m standing in front of the selection, and I’ve never said that about oatmeal before.

I’m not done though.  I haven’t even shared what I felt made this packaging so amazing and an inspiration to me as a designer.  Once you dump the oatmeal into your bowl, you use the pouch to measure the water.  AND IT REALLY REALLY WORKS!  Both of my kids made their own, and it was so super easy and they loved the novelty of putting the water into the oatmeal pouch.  I thought that was the perfect touch of innovation to some gorgeous packaging.

The brown fill line makes it very easy to see from inside the pouch, and there is no measuring cup to wash or dry, the pouch just goes right into the recycle bin when you’re done pouring the water into the bowl.

So basically, I love the packaging and the product.  The food is natural, not full of the usual grocery store preservatives and artificial crap, and my family loves it.  The design team deserves a pat on the back… it isn’t often that this graphic designer is this impressed by packaging.