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I wonder if there's some cultural reason for liquids in bags to be considered an unusual packaging method in Western countries, so much that milk and related products seem to be their only relatively widespread use (and even then, uncommon enough that it warrants a Wikipedia page), but it seems a common practice in Asia for other drinks too. Then again, it is common in the US for small portions of sauce e.g. ketchup to be in packets, which are essentially a scaled-down version of this.

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As an American, it blew my mind to see people in Taiwan carrying around plastic bags of hot soup. It makes perfect sense from a physics standpoint, and the convenience of it was obvious, so my mind was only blown momentarily – but it was just so unexpected. I think that's the answer to your question: the grocery stores could switch packaging any time they wanted to, but they don't want to weird people out.

If you replace "Western" with USA your statement is more accurate. Bag of milk can be found in western countries like Canada, Irreal, and generally in continental Europe.

I think the point is that even in Canada, etc, it is still only the milk that is bagged. Not other things like orange juice. But I’ve never been to Canada so I dunno

and wine (but in a box), liquid soap refills, larger containers of yoghurt by some brands.

Just speculating about orange juice: vitamin C degrades easily when exposed to light, so that orange juice in clear containers lose more vitamin C than orange juice in opaque containers. That could be one reason against (clear) milk bags, but there are certainly clear bottles of orange juice sold, and I suppose you could use opaque juice bags, though those would be less user friendly than clear juice bags.

Edit: capri sun juice pouches!

Orange juice is nearly always sold in a clear jug in the US, and that which I can remember in Canada. In fact I don't think I have ever encountered an opaque jug of juice, only paper cartons.

Also, Caprisun pouches have foil backing that cause them to somewhat maintain shape, and a design that gives them a base to stand upright. Canadian bagged milk, at least what kind I encountered when I was there, had neither of these traits.

And not very common in Canada.

While only 5 of Canada's 9 provinces have bagged milk today (Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia), in the late 1960's when it was introduced, all provinces had it. Four provinces dropped it between the 1970's and 1990's.

Of the 5 provinces that still have bagged milk, Ontario and Quebec constitute over half of the Canadian population, so I don't think it is correct to say it's "not very common in Canada" when 26 million of the 40 million Canadians have access to bagged milk.

Bagged orange juice is not sold in stores but it's something I had a kid in school. Single serving clear plastic brandless bags of OJ.

> "so much that milk and related products seem to be their only relatively widespread use"

Not common in the Benelux, I've never seen it.

The US has Capri sun juice pouches.

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