Why do they make jam jars

long and skinny now? 

I bought some raspberry jam this week. I do not buy jam very often but a friend wanted "raspberry jam tarts". These were my contribution to the afternoon tea she was having as a fund raiser. 

I am sure my friend thought she was doing me a favour. "All you need to do is buy the jam. S... is buying the pastry cases and she can put them together."

I actually bought both the jam and the pastry cases. The pastry cases are actually very good being made from real butter. There is no point in trying to make them. S... is "not really a pastry cook" and I am absolutely hopeless at that sort of thing.

The jam? I stood there in front of the jams on the supermarket shelves. There was the cheap jam I remembered from my childhood. It comes in a much smaller jar now. Mum used to tell us that the pips in it were wood chips and we were never allowed to have it at home. I cannot remember eating it anywhere else either but I suppose we must have. Mum made jam but she never made a lot of it. Time and money would have prevented too much jam making.

I ignored the cheap jam from childhood. It would not have been right for the occasion. There was still a choice. I looked. The woman standing next to me looked as well. We looked at each other and she asked me the question I was thinking.

"Why do they make such long, skinny jars these days? Those little round pots looked so much more comfortable."

She was right. The little round pots did look more "comfortable". It is the way jam should look.

"I have to dig it out with a knife," the woman told me, "You end up with it all over your hands. It's a messy business."

It is. It might be another reason I do not often buy jam.  

 I worked out the unit price and the likely quality of the other three brands. One brand is made in the hills behind us. It was "on special". That does not mean much at all of course, or not in the usual way. Right then it meant it was only slightly more expensive than the other brands. I know it is highly regarded and I though "buy local" and put a jar in the trolley along with the milk and the broccoli and the environmentally friendly bags I put my household rubbish in. 

In the "fast" checkout queue the man behind me, someone I know slightly, said, "I saw that jam is down in price this week but why do they have to package it like that. It's so hard to get at by the time you get near the bottom."

That was two people saying what I was thinking. There must be more people who think the same way. What are the jam makers thinking?