BREAD TAG (2021)
Bread tags (clip) (ties) (tabs)
I have lived in a time without the bread tag, but it was invented by a person on a plane who wanted to save his peanuts for later in 1952.
Floyd Paxton of Yakima Washington, a conservative ball bearing manufacturer with political ambitions, started the company “Kwik Lok Corporation” to produce his new idea.
The invention of the bread tag is one of great pride for Floyd and likely made him a lot of Money. He famously would retell the story of its invention to anyone who would listen.
Most bread clips are made with polystyrene #6 plastic, a commonly used plastic.
The shape of the bread clip is now iconic. Its flat square body, with a slight dip and opening at the top where you push the twisted plastic bread bag to secure, does not even need to be explained. You likely already have a picture of it in your mind's eye. You may remember the smooth plastic texture against your fingers as you push it down around the plastic twist.
The color supposedly points to what day the bread was baked, but this can only be true for a very small amount of the bread tags. The only bread tags I have encountered have been from companies that are too big for this to be a practical code.
They live in a dark drawer slowly accumulating overtime. Each one marks a length of time and a thing eaten. You can reuse them, but mostly for things that already come with one, so they accumulate.