While the reference to "plastic or paper" would be a common question asked in the checkout lane at the grocery store, in this case it's the answer to which container consumers most frequently purchase their milk in. The same holds true for gallons or half-gallons referenced in the title.
That was just some of the information gleaned from the Northeast Milk Marketing Area's recent snapshot of fluid milk sales. The federal milk order conducts the study every other year. From our perspective, the study also reconfirms the overall lack of innovation from processors within the fluid milk sector.
Gallons are still the container of choice: At 54.9 percent, gallon jugs continue to dominate milk sales in the Northeast, the nation's largest fluid milk market. Half-gallons had the second largest share at 26.7 percent. The federal order market specialists noted these proportions changed very little since 2003 when gallons made up 53.5 percent and half-gallons had 26.9 percent.
Half-pints, the milk delivery container of choice for schools, held an 8 percent market share which is exactly the same as 10 years ago. Quart containers have declined consistently over the decade, dropping from 6.8 to 5.2 percent market share. During the same time, pints fell from 2.6 to 0.7 percent.
Plastic or paper? Those are the two dominant choices for milk containers. Plastic notched 78.7 percent of the market share in the November 2013 survey while paper held down 20.9 percent. Glass came in a distant third at 0.4 percent.
For school children, the choice is virtually nonexistent, as only 2.7 percent of all single-serve milk containers sold were plastic. That means 97.3 percent of all half-pints still leave the processor in cardboard leaving our youngest customers with a less than stellar introduction to milk.
Where do people buy their milk? Wholesale stores lead the way as 44.8 percent of all milk was purchased in superstores, hypermarkets and wholesale clubs. That is significant growth as this category only accounted for 27.2 percent of sales just one decade ago.
Supermarkets accounted for 35.8 percent while dairy and convenience stores held 12.6 percent. Institutions - schools and military - accounted for 6.8 percent of fluid milk while home delivery dropped to a mere 0.2 percent. (Note, numbers do not add up to 100 percent due to rounding.)
