Bubble wrap, the packaging material made by Sealed Air Corp. and used in packaging since the 1960s, has been changed forever — the new Bubble Wrap doesn't pop.
While it does look like Bubble Wrap as we know and love it, the new version, dubbed iBubble Wrap, is inflated using custom-made pumps by the shippers, with bubbles not bursting when pressure is applied to them.
The change is of course driven by money, with the company being able to package a lot more Bubble Wrap in a roll if the actual bubbles are not inflated. In fact, the iBubble Wrap uses a tiny one- fifteenth of the space that the old Bubble Wrap did.
Protective packaging for shipping companies is a big business, with sales hitting a massive $20 million in 2013, according to Freedonia Group. The business is only set to grow as companies like Amazon and Target expand their global shipping operations. Despite this, companies like Amazon are always looking for new ways to ship products as cheaply as possible, while making sure that products arrive at their destinations without any damage.
As companies have been searching for new ways to ship products, Sealed Air has seen a decrease in Bubble Wrap sales, with Bubble Wrap itself only making up 3.6 percent of Sealed Air's sales in 2012.
It's actually somewhat surprising that Bubble Wrap is still being made at all. In 2012, Sealed Air got a new CEO in Jerome Peribere, who quickly ordered that factories in Mexico and South Africa be closed, saying that Bubble Wrap would stop being made altogether if profit margins did not turn around quickly.
Of course, while the price of iBubble Wrap is quite a bit less than standard Bubble Wrap, customers also have to buy a pump for the air, which runs for $5,500. Sealed Air, however, hopes to get this price down to $1,000 within the next two years. It is also looking into ways to deliver iBubble Wrap in smaller quantities.
Of course, all this new profit will not protect Sealed Air from fans of classic Bubble Wrap young and old, who now will not open their package to find two equally as exciting new products, instead only finding what they ordered and some boring old packaging. There is even a Facebook group called "Popping Bubble Wrap" that boasts over 500,000 members, with one, April Holliday, not only enjoying popping Bubble Wrap, but who wraps herself in it for costume parties.
