How to Use Large Plastic Jars in Your Business

There’s a good reason plastic containers are some of the most popular tools around when it comes to business purposes – they work. They’re versatile, durable, convenient, and they work. Large plastic jars especially open many doors for businesses when it comes to display and storage options.

1. Use Large Plastic Jars to Display Edible Merchandise

Gumballs, novelty candies, baked goods – these are all the kinds of edible merchandise items large plastic containers are great for displaying.

Note that if you plan to use plastic jars as display tools for food, you must make sure the containers are equipment to meet the food items’ needs. For example, if you plan to display food that has no kind of protective wrapper, you’ll want to choose jars that have lids. These lids might snap on, screw on, or be hinged or otherwise already attached to the jars. Some edible items might also necessitate jars with handles or handgrips, as well as accessories like plastic or aluminum tongs or scoops.

2. Use Large Plastic Jars to Offer Complimentary Items

Some businesses, such as restaurants and hotels, regularly offer complimentary items to their patrons and guests. Large plastic containers are great ways to store, organize, and display items like toothpicks, breath mints, hand wipes, and matchbooks as well as travel-sized containers of hygiene items like shampoo, conditioner, soap, lotion, toothpaste, and mouthwash.

3. Use Large Plastic Jars to Collect Tips

These containers are great tools for restaurants or taverns to collect tips from patrons. Because of their size, of course, you might want to save these jars for the bar area of your restaurant and look for smaller plastic containers or fish bowl containers to situate on your establishment’s individual tables.

4. Use Large Plastic Jars to Hold Raffles

It doesn’t matter what kind of business you manage; chances are, you can hold a raffle or drawing that would not only show your appreciation for your customers but would also help attract new customers. If you manage a restaurant or tavern, for example, you might want to hold a raffle for an assortment of miniature liquors. You can use the large containers to hold the prizes or collect the raffle tickets – it’s entirely up to you!

5. Use Large Plastic Jars for Storage

Keep in mind that just because they’re typically used as display fixtures, you don’t actually have to use these jars to display merchandise. You can also give them more “behind-the-scenes” responsibility and use them as storage tools under your store’s checkout countertop, in your business’s stockroom, or even in your own office.

How you use these jars as storage tools will depend entirely on the kind of business you manage and your own storage needs, but note that these plastic containers are large enough to work well to hold and organize everything from office supplies like packs of stables, rolls of tape, extra computer ink cartridges, and pens as well as retail tools such as sales and discount stickers, scissors, markers, and extra price tags.

Using Large Plastic Jars Outside the Retail World

When you think of large plastic containers and jars, you might think only of the kinds of fixtures businesses in the retail industry use to display merchandise or take collections, such as tips, from their customers. Below, however, are five ways you can use these functional jars outside the retail world.

1. Use Large Plastic Jars to Take Collections

Large plastic containers work well for everyone from charity workers taking donations to high school sports teams holding bake sales to raise money for new uniforms.

If your church or another organization you belong to is selling hotdogs to raise money, consider using these plastic containers to hold packets of condiments, seasonings, or napkins. If you’re trying to raise money for a charity situation, think about using these containers to collect donations at the registers of your local gas stations and convenience stores.

2. Use Large Plastic Jars to Store and Display Food

Whether you’re in charge of bringing the pickled eggs to the family picnic or you’ve volunteered to run the kitchen at your church’s Christmas party, you’ll find that large plastic containers are excellent tools for storing and displaying certain kinds of food.

If you choose these containers for foods that aren’t protected by wrappers, make sure you choose jars with lids to keep the food fresh and safe. You might want to also consider additional accessories like aluminum or plastic tongs or scoops to help you or others remove the food from the jars.

3. Use Large Plastic Jars to Hold Prizes

Whether you manage a booth at a carnival or amusement park, or are in charge of organizing weekly Bingo games, if there are prizes involved you can use large plastic containers to help store and display them.

Note that if you do work in an amusement park setting, you can even use these jars to hold pieces related to your games such as darts or balls.

4. Use Large Plastic Jars in Your Classroom

If you’re a teacher or teacher’s assistant, you can use large plastic containers to store and organize your classroom’s extra writing utensils, rulers, erasers, chalk or dry erase board markers, as well as arts and crafts materials like crayons, markers, scissors, glue sticks, and odds and ends such as buttons, beads, and other baubles. You can even use these jars to store prizes such as suckers or stickers you award students for good behavior or excellent grades.

Note that these tips don’t apply only to traditional classroom teachers; they work well for Sunday school teachers, parents who home school, and anyone who offers classes on any subject where small tools are necessary.

5. Use Large Plastic Jars in Your Own Home

You can use large plastic containers in nearly every room and area of your home!

• Bathroom: Use these containers to organize mass quantities of cotton balls and Q-Tips, or even extras like small bars of hand soap and travel-sized containers of shampoo, condition, and lotions.
• Kitchen: Use these containers to organize extra condiment packets and plastic utensils you have left over from fast-food dinner nights.
• Child’s Room: Organize your child’s small toys, crayons, markers, and building blocks in these containers.
• Garage or Basement: You can use these containers to organize small tools that can easily get lose such as screws, nails, and tacks.

Large Plastic Jars: Which Are Better for Your Business?

You might think the phrase “large plastic jars” is a pretty self-explanatory one, but the reality is – while they might be large and plastic – there are numerous kinds of jars too choose from as well as extra accessories to make them easier for your customers to use.

Given all the different kinds of large plastic jars and containers out there, it’s easy to understand why you must do a bit of planning before you order any for your business. Think about the kind of merchandise you want to display or store with your containers, any extra accessories that merchandise might require, and the amount of display space you have to work with.

1. Identify the Merchandise You Want to Display

Before you can choose which large plastic jars would work best for your needs, you must decide what kinds of merchandise you plan to store or display in those jars. You’ll probably store or display edible items, non-edible items, or both.

• Edible Items: Edible items you display in your large plastic containers can include everything from wrapped and unwrapped candies to snacks like pretzels and trail mix. You might want to use these jars to store and display cereal, baked goods, or even coffee beans. Note that if you plan to store and display edible merchandise in your plastic jars, you might need extra accessories to make sure the food items stay fresh and safe from debris. See below for details.
• Non-Edible Items: As long as the items are small enough to fit in the containers and allow your customers convenient access, there’s really no limit to the non-edible items you can store and display in your plastic jars. Depending on the kind of store or business you manage, you can display non-edible items like travel-sized hygiene products, convenience items like lighters, or even small children’s toys like bouncy balls. Unlike with edible items, non-edible items don’t require additional accessories.

2. Think About the Kinds of Accessories Your Merchandise Might Require

In this situation, “accessories” refers to the additional tools you’ll need to use with your large plastic jars to keep your edible merchandise fresh and clean. Such accessories will depend on the kind of food product you plan to display, but generally you’ll choose from:

• Jars with lids. These lids might be designed to screw or snap on, or they might be hinged to the containers.
• Jars with handgrips or handles. These help the customers pick up and pour the food item.
• Tongs or scoops. These tools, made of plastic or aluminum, are great for helping your customers easily access the food items they want without touching anything else.

3. Consider the Amount of Display Space You Have

Large plastic jars and containers are available in different styles – some of which take up more space than others. Naturally, you’ll need to think about the amount of display space you have to work with before you decide which – and how many – large plastic jars to use.

Ideas for Using Large Plastic Jars in Your Store

When it comes to fixtures for storage and display, plastic is one of the most common materials around. It’s no wonder, then, that large plastic containers are so popular when it comes to store owners organizing, storing, and displaying their merchandise items. Below are just a few examples of the kinds of stores and businesses that can use large plastic containers for display or storage purposes:

• Candy stores
• Grocery stores
• Bookstores
• Toy stores
• Convenience stores and gas stations
• Hotels and motels
• Yogurt shops, ice cream parlors, and bakeries

If you’re still not sure whether large candy containers would benefit your business, below are five fairly common ideas for using these containers in your business.

1. Large Plastic Jars Are Great Fixtures for Candy Displays

Large plastic containers like jars are excellent fixtures for candy displays – whether you manage a candy store, grocery store, or even a bookstore!

Unless you plan to display wrapped candies, you’ll need candy jars with lids and most likely accessories like aluminum or plastic scoops so your customers can easily access the candy without contaminating those pieces they don’t want.

2. Find Large Plastic Jars to Help You Store and Display Food

If you plan to use plastic containers to store and display food (aside from wrapped products like wrapped candy), make sure you choose food-grade containers.

In addition to plastic jars, you can also find acrylic food-grade containers with accessories like lids, handles, handgrips, tongs, and scoops that help keep the food fresh and safe from debris as well as help your customers more easily access the food they want without touching any of the rest of it.

3. Use Large Plastic Jars to Display Convenience Items

Convenience items – such as small, travel-sized bottles of hygiene products like shampoo, lotion, soap, and toothpaste – work well displayed in plastic containers and jars. Other small convenience items you might want to consider include lighters, eyeglass repair kits, and on-the-go sewing kits.

4. Large Plastic Jars Help Offer Complimentary Items to Customers

Chances are, not every display in your store is meant to display items for sale; many establishments – from restaurants to hotels – offer complimentary items to their customers.

Depending on the kind of business you manage, you can use large plastic containers to store, organize, and display complimentary items like matchbooks, hand wipes, toothpicks, and breath mints. If you operate a hotel or motel, you might even want to use these containers to hold your rooms’ soaps, shampoos, conditions, toothpastes, mouthwashes, and lotions.

5. Use Large Plastic Jars to Create Novelty Item and Toy Displays

Whether you manage a candy store, convenience store, grocery store, or bookstore, chances are you have at least one or two kinds of merchandise that fall under the “novelty” or “toy” labels. These items might be small, plush children’s toys or bouncy balls, or they may be “stress balls” geared more toward adults. No matter what the items are, if they’re small enough to fit in large plastic containers you should consider these containers to display them.

Different Ideas for Clear Plastic Containers

You’ve undoubtedly seen a variety of businesses using clear plastic containers. Businesses often use these containers to store and display everything from candy and other dry foods to small children’s toys and travel-sized convenience items.

Because they’re available in such a wide variety of sizes, shapes, and styles, these kinds of plastic bins are some of the most versatile tools available for any kind of organization; however, retails businesses aren’t the only kinds of businesses that can use these containers. Below are just a few ideas of other organizations that use plastic bins for organizing, storing, and display items – as well as an assortment of other uses!

Businesses Use Clear Plastic Containers at Tradeshows

Clear plastic containers are lightweight and generally rather small when compared to other display tools, which makes them perfect for tradeshows. Any kind of professional who attends a tradeshow can use clear plastic containers to display his products, hold his business cards and collect the business cards of other organizations, and even offer freebies and prize drawings to spectators.

Nonprofits and Charities Use Clear Plastic Containers In and Out of the Office

Nonprofit organizations and charities can uses clear plastic containers both inside and outside their offices.

These containers are great for organizing office tools as well as collecting donations, and many nonprofit organizations and charities use these containers to passively collect donations at other retail locations throughout their area. For example, you can choose a few popular businesses throughout your city, ask the store manager if you can place a container on the store’s countertop, and start collecting donations.

Fundraisers Use Clear Plastic Containers for Organization and Collection

Whether you’re organizing a car wash or managing a bake sale, clear plastic containers are great tools for collecting proceeds as well as organizing and display your tools or the items you’re selling.

And, just like nonprofits and charities, fundraiser organizations can use these bins to collect donations at retail locations. Just ask the store manager if you can place a container on the countertop near the register and wait for donations to roll in.

You Can Use Clear Plastic Containers in Your Home

You don’t have to offer a professional service to have a need for clear plastic containers! Homes have many uses for these containers:

• Kitchen: Use plastic bins in your kitchen or pantry to organize food items or odds and ends like extra plastic utensils, hand wipes, and toothpicks.
• Bathroom: Plastic bins are great for organizing, display, and keeping clean hygiene items like cotton balls and cotton swabs. You can even use these containers to store trial- and travel-sized products you’ve collected and hung onto for emergencies like small bottles of shampoo, conditioner, lotion, and mouthwash as well as tubes of toothpaste and toothbrushes.
• Children’s Room: Use these containers to store small children’s toys like bouncy balls and jacks, building blocks, crayons, play jewelry, and miniature cars.
• Garage and Basement: These two home areas are common locations for storage and work, and you can use plastic containers to organize and store nuts, bolts, nails, screws, and other small extras.
  

Versatile Plastic Containers Work for Nearly Every Business

If your business sells any kind of small merchandise – whether it’s edible items like candy or non-edible items like key chains – you should be aware of how using plastic containers can help you store, organize, and display your merchandise.

These versatile containers come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and colors to help you best use the space you have to work with and add visual appeal to your display, and they can be paired with accessories to increase your customers’ convenience.

Shape

Some of the most popular shapes of plastic containers include round, "fish bowl," square, rectangular, and hexagon. You can also find holiday-inspired shapes like a Santa Claus boot and Christmas tree.

The container shape you choose will depend on the kind of merchandise you plan to display as well as the kind of space you have to work with. For example, if you plan to display round gumballs, a fish bowl or round plastic container will work best. If you have a small countertop or very little space on your display rack, a tall, square plastic container will make the most of the space.

Size

Plastic containers are available in sizes small enough to act as tip jars and large enough to hold merchandise like an assortment of jumbo gumballs or small plush children’s toys.

Choose the size of your containers based on what you plan to hold in them and how much space your countertop or display rack offers. For example, if you plan to display unwrapped candies on a small countertop, you might want to choose one large plastic container or two or three small containers. If you have plenty of countertop space, or an entire display rack, then you might want to use a few large containers or many small containers.

Color

Clear plastic containers are probably the most popular kind. Not only do they "match" every business décor, but because they’re see-through, they also offer extra convenience to both you and your customers.

However, colored acrylic bins have much to recommend them, too. You can find these containers in colors like pink, blue, green, yellow, and orange and the colors are transparent enough so that you and your customers can easily see the merchandise inside. Many businesses can have fun with colored plastic containers, choosing colors that match their stores’ themes or coordinate with the kind of merchandise displayed in the containers. For example, candy store owners might choose to display Atomic Fireballs in red plastic containers.

Accessories

Accessories for plastic containers are designed to increase the convenience of the containers and the cleanliness of the merchandise inside.

If you plan to display loose merchandise in your containers, such as cereal, or you know you or your customers will need to lift the containers for any reason, then you should choose handgrip containers. At the same time, if you know you’re going to display unprotected edible items, such as unwrapped candies like gumballs or other unwrapped foods like peanuts, you should choose plastic containers with lids and make sure your customers have access to plastic or aluminum scoops.