Yesterday as I was doing some grocery shopping I stumbled upon something rather interesting. In one of the aisles in the little grocery store were bottles of BBQ sauce. It didn’t matter what the brand was, but through the dark color of the viscous liquid inside and the shape of the bottle, I knew exactly what was being sold even if I could not read the label.
As I meandered through the rest of the store I noticed a few more items that were in familiar shaped containers with labels I could not read nor understand yet knew exactly what I was looking at: Toothpaste, jars of spaghetti sauce, and even laundry detergent.
While I’m in a very foreign place for an American, it’s good to know some desired items can be found and purchased without knowing how to read. It kind of makes me wonder if this type of container design and, to an extent branding, was done on purpose or if certain industries just followed suit with similar containers based on the first one that hit the market.
In the end my shopping trip was a success as I bought some fruits to have in my apartment, I found sponges to clean my dishes, was able to bring home a container of laundry detergent, and even treated myself to a bottle of wine. Yes, even wine bottles are mostly ubiquitous in shape and labeling no matter where you are in the world!