The shelf is read at three feet, not three inches

Most packaging is approved on a desk at arm's length. Shoppers make the first cut from three feet away.

What we watched

Two hours in a suburban grocery, one aisle, forty-one shoppers. Nobody picked up a pack they had not already identified from the far side of the aisle.

The decision that mattered happened at three feet. Everything printed for three inches — the ingredient story, the founder note, the certification cluster — was read only after the pack was already in a hand.

What it changes

  • One claim large enough to survive at distance
  • Colour blocking before typography
  • The founder story moves to the back, always
If the pack cannot be identified from across the aisle, nothing else on it will be read.

If you'd like to talk this through, just reach out.

hello@clarionandco.comBack to Field Notes

Observed2026-06-27

Six stores in Calgary, one recurring mistake

Every brand had priced for the coast and merchandised for a market that shops differently. The shelf told on them.

Analysis2026-05-02

What buyers actually ask in the first ten minutes

A listing meeting is not a brand presentation. Three questions decide it, and none of them are about your story.