If I wanted to take a break from printing, scanning, and packaging during the holidays, I was quite unsuccessful. Responsibilities, issues, and opportunities in these different areas proved plentiful. These three examples come quickly to mind.
Setting up My Mom’s New Photo Printer
My mom received the Canon SELPHY CP1300 printer for Christmas. As she has a bad track record with printers (and I’d like free babysitting this month), I proposed setting it up for her.
She wanted to be able to easily print from her iPhone as well as her camera. After experiencing difficulty establishing a direct connection between her phone and the printer, I did achieve success in 1) helping her print with the phone over her home Wi-Fi network and 2) showing her how to print with the camera’s memory card.
We quickly learned the printer uses thermal dye sublimation technology versus inkjet, which means that photos can be handled right away. The main question she had, though, was how much the ink and paper will cost over time. Regardless, she acknowledged that it was nice and convenient to have the printer to print a photo here and there (and it is tiny and cute).
Scanning Fish at a Children’s Museum
My family and I spent a day at the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York. It was there I was pleased to see document scanning used in a fun way. Children (or adults) could decorate a fish coloring page, put it on a digital scanner, and then watch their fish appear in a large digital aquarium projected on the wall.
According to an inscription on the scanner, the device is a “Pro Series Fish Scanner WRW/0519 from SMP Imaging Inc”. It was certainly easy to use, and the big screen overhead let the artists preview and accept their image before it made its way through a digital pipe. I think kids really enjoyed creating something with their hands and seeing it in a cool digital environment.
Searching for Rice Krispies and Other Packaged Goods
My last story isn’t as happy as the other two. It’s about how I haven’t been able to find Kellogg’s Rice Krispies over the last couple of months. It seems there are many reasons for this, including strong demand for Kellogg’s breakfast offerings during the pandemic (for example, sales grew 5.6% in the most recent quarter), supply chain bottlenecks, and a shortage of workers/labor issues.
I’ve also been unable to find Yummy frozen chicken patties (from Perdue), and it’s clear many other products are also missing from store shelves as well.
My research into this topic has revealed that various packaging-related issues are playing into the shortages, including higher prices for packaging materials, a shortage of cargo containers to move bulk material from overseas, and disruptions in product packaging production—sometimes related to labor issues.
Our packaging clients are undoubtedly feeling the effects of these challenges, despite higher demand for their products and services in many instances.
Keypoint Intelligence Opinion
It can be hard to escape the print and document scanning industries—it is even more difficult to hide from the packaging sector, given that not all of us can solely purchase our food and other necessities from farmer’s markets and the like. These industries are currently facing many challenges but, at the same time, we are seeing new and exciting use cases as well as increased demand in many areas.
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