The Four Winds is a wonderful novel set in the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. The story follows a woman facing the challenges of poverty on the Great Plains as the Depression, water shortage, and howling winds all took their toll.
Every resource was scarce and precious, including fabric. The novel’s Elsa commented: “Everyone made clothes from grain and flour sacks these days. The manufacturers of the sacks had even begun putting pretty designs on the material. It was a small thing, those floral patterns, but anything that made a woman feel pretty in these hard times was worth its weight in gold.”
Elsa was referring to the Kansas wheat companies which when they realized women were repurposing their bags, started using flowered fabric with labels that washed out. It was a generous and thoughtful step to help people through the hard times.
Have you ever considered how people use your “containers” and whether you could add an extra touch to add value to something that otherwise may be thrown away? For example, my mattress box was printed with a list of suggestions of how to reuse it. Breads Bakery in New York sells their cake loaves wrapped in a short story so you can have a “cake break.” Many Mall of America stores provide bags that can be reused (dot 2480).
Provide some extra intentionality about your product through its entire lifecycle, including what your customer does with the container it comes in.
The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah, 2021, p. 63
