Why are doughnut boxes pink? The answer could only come out of Southern California
The pink box is a distinctly regional tradition, one so ingrained it
often requires an outsider to notice. The Northeast has Dunkin’ Donuts
and its neon orange and pink box. The South has Krispy Kreme and its
polka dot box. But come to Los Angeles and it’s the no-frills pink box,
with signature grease marks, that commands counter space in our offices,
waiting rooms and police stations.
“Any time you see a movie or
sitcom set in New York and a pink doughnut box appears, you know it
obviously took place in L.A.,” says Peter Yen of Santa Ana Packaging, a
local manufacturer of the carnation-pink containers that cost about a
dime each.
According to company lore, a Cambodian doughnut shop owner asked
Westco some four decades ago if there were any cheaper boxes available
other than the standard white cardboard. So Westco found leftover pink
cardboard stock and formed a 9-by-9-by-4-inch container with four
semicircle flaps to fold together. To this day, people in the business
refer to the box as the “9-9-4.”
“It’s the perfect fit for a dozen doughnuts,” said Jim Parker, BakeMark’s president and chief executive.
More
importantly to the thrifty refugees, it cost a few cents less than the
standard white. That’s a big deal for shops that go through hundreds, if
not thousands, of boxes a week. It didn’t hurt either that pink was a
few shades short of red, a lucky color for the refugees, many of whom
are ethnic Chinese. White, on the other hand, is the color of mourning.
How the pink box has persevered so long may be about more than just
dollars and cents. Experts say the color triggers an emotional
connection to sweetness that makes doughnuts more irresistible than they
already are.
(LATimes.com)
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