Walmart and Its Straight Noodles

This has nothing to do with saving money but I was just reading an interview with Walmart's head of sustainability. They have been working with companies to reduce packaging. I ran across this cool quote

" TreeHugger: I can't resist, I have to ask you about the Hamburger Helper thing.

Andy: Sure. Well, you know, it's an example of a small change that has a tremendous ripple effect. So with Hamburger Helper, based on this lens of sustainability, they took a look at the Hamburger Helper noodles, and they figured out a way to basically straightened out those noodles.

Our CEO, Lee Scott, likes to say that very few people that he's spoken with buy Hamburger Helper because of the noodles. So the straighter noodles, customers actually like them better. It also reduces the size of the box, so we have better availability on shelf level by getting more product on the shelf. And finally, just that change alone from straightening out those noodles results in 500 trucks off the road every year that were previously on the road shipping that larger box.

It's just a perfect example where, as you get this to live in the business, and everyone asks different questions, and everyone's driving toward creating more value for the customer, you open up possibilities that weren't on the table a year ago."

All you have to do is straighten the noodles!

The rest of the interview is at : http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/11/the_th_interview_andy_and_matt.php