Hi There,
Welcome to the 5th issue of Tap to Unlock, a weekly newsletter, where I write on economics, products, & strategy. In this issue, I talk about why pizza boxes are not round. So, let's dive in
We all love pizza and it always gets our mouth watering. Humans love pizza so much that it was even delivered in space.
In 2001, the Russian Space Agency was paid more than a million bucks to deliver a six-inch pizza to the International Space Station. Russian cosmonaut, Yuri Usachov had the honor of being the first person to receive a pizza delivery while in orbit.
If pizza is so famous then why we still receive round pizzas in square boxes.
Well, in short, it’s partially because round boxes are hard to make compared to square containers.
Square boxes can be assembled easily and quickly, whereas assembling a round pizza box is rather difficult.
A round box requires specialized pieces, which isn’t particularly efficient if the goal is to have boxes prepared as the pizzas become ready.
The second reason is storage. Square pizza boxes stack uniformly in freezers and shelves and flat edges stop the box falling.
Imagine a round box with edges and folds – if round boxes are stored flat, they’ll take longer to assemble, which then cuts into the restaurant’s ability to serve pizzas quickly.
Third reason is the space inside the box. The most efficient round box would fit the shape of the pizza, but you might have a hard time getting your hand in there to grab a slice between the box edges and crust.
Also a circular box takes up the same width and length as a sqaure box so no space saving improvement.
So, if a round box is made that’s bigger than the pizza, thereby making it easier to grab a slice, extra material is required. This leads to higher cost
Restaurants can use the corner spaces in square boxes for extra toppings or sauces.
Square boxes use one sheet of cardboard. It’s more cost-effective to use square boxes that only require one sheet of cardboard than to use round pizza boxes that require several pieces and more material.
A circular box can’t easily be made out of one sheet of cardboard as the round edges cause problems. So this means it needs multiple pieces of cardboard, joining pieces, or more advanced production.
Meaning more production cost.
To stop the pizza from moving around inside the square box, a pizza saver or also known as pizza table is used.
Remember this little thing 👆
This stops the box lid from touching the pizza and prevents cheese and toppings from sticking to the lid when it is being delivered. The pizza saver's origin goes back to a 1985 patent by Carmela Vitale.
Apple also did pretty amazing stuff with Pizza Boxes
Do check out the below video 👇
The round pizza box you saw in the above video is patented by Apple for real (Link). 👇
Apple applied for a patent on this pizza box design 7 years ago, and it seems to have been using it at it’s offices. The patent lists Francesco Longoni, the head of Apple’s food services team, as one of its inventors.
It’s meant for letting employees take pizza from the cafeteria, known as Caffe Macs, back to their desks.
Apple’s big innovation here is placing a series of holes in the lid of the container so that air can escape, helping avoid sogginess in the crust. It’s a thoughtful addition but boxed-in sogginess issue is not that pervasive.
But the ad very much resonates with Apple’s slogan “Think Different”