Stores are beginning to stock packages without their corresponding products. Have you noticed? There are certain over-the-counter cold remedies that no longer hang in the drugstore aisle, ready to purchase. Now you take the package to the pharmacist, and he or she supplies you with what used to come inside. I’ve been told good reasons for this set-up exist; I still can’t help but find it odd.

Just the other day a re-release of Disney’s “Lady and the Tramp” caught my eye near the grocery store check out counter. Since I loved this movie once upon a time and knew I would enjoy seeing it again, I reached for one of the colorful DVD sleeves and found it (and every other one)…empty. I’m sure there are justifiable reasons for that, too.

And while, in both instances, the packages themselves provide incentive enough  for consumers to keep on demanding their contents – I’m struck by the fact that many of us, when “shopping” for something to believe in, buy just the packaging of faith and are satisfied to leave without the “goods.” Read more