Shipping it by the case
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The weight
A case of jam is heavier than people expect and the weight is what decides most shipping decisions. Glass and a dense product combine into something that is cheap to make and expensive to move.
Jam is denser than water and glass adds its own, so a case of twelve pints is heavier than new shippers expect. The box has to be rated for the weight, which is a different specification from being the right size.
The movement
Breakage in transit is almost always movement rather than impact. A jar that can shift in its cell will find the one that can too, and the published advice about dividers is about stopping movement rather than cushioning blows.
- Jars must not touch each other or the wall of the box. A divider is cheaper than a replacement.
- Fill the voids. A jar with room to travel will find it.
- Pack to the top, so the box does not crush when something is stacked on it.
Case pack and what a buyer expects
Buyers have expectations about case quantity that are stronger than they look, and a non-standard case is friction at every stage after it leaves you. Pick the quantity the trade already uses rather than the one that suits your batch size. A case that matches the trade moves through a buyer’s system without anybody having to think about it, which is worth more than the convenience of matching your pan.
A wholesale account wants a consistent case pack they can order and shelve. Our jars come in case quantities already, and the pack you fill should match something a buyer can reorder rather than a number that happened to fit the box you had.
Temperature in transit
Warm and fluctuating storage are both published causes of weeping, and a parcel in July is both. A long summer route is a real risk to a product that was fine when it left.