This Commerce Life · Phil Chang / Kenny Vannucci

The Business of Boxes: Inside Commercial Packaging with Glenmore Printing

December 23, 2025·58 min·4 clips

James says Costco as a customer can drive founders out of business, comparing the temptation to 'sailors hearing the woman on the rocks calling you toward the rocks.'

It starts with familiar retail frustration. The opener remembers the old scramble after a listing launched, when basic store data meant paperwork, follow-ups, and answers that arrived too late to help. Then the box talk gets practical. The guest brings up a Halloween box headed for LinkedIn, using it as an example of print built to look different in the real world. Physical still has a shot against digital noise. Digital can give someone a widget or a graphic, but the guest says people are flooded with that stuff and swipe past it fast. A box can slow someone down. Because people live in three dimensions, a package in the hand still has a presence digital work struggles to copy. Shelf impact is the target. The guest talks about packaging as a way to help customers stand out where the buying decision happens. Embellishment does a lot of the work. Glosses, specialty coatings, and other finishes make a package feel more intentional and easier to spot. Neons get the most enthusiasm. The guest says they are especially good at those hard to ignore colors, the kind that make a package look different beside quieter craft-style boxes. Hot pinks and greens come up, along with neon yellow and hot red. The conversation stays close to retail reality: some customers will pay a bit more if the finish helps them stand out. The ending stays loose and local, with talk of a tour, the Rise Awards, good people listening, and the guest needing to get upstairs after mentioning a boat. The hosts do not over-polish the landing. They close by calling him a nice guy and calling the packaging conversation one worth taking seriously.

As heard by us

A practical look at how packaging and shelf presence help a product stand out.

The episode keeps circling the annoyance of having to get answers the hard way, then settles into the appeal of a self-serve platform that can launch tasks on demand. That gives the discussion a clear shape.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

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Want a behind-the-scenes look at packaging that actually gets noticed on shelf?

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