Cheerios Solves a 'Small, Everyday Cereal Frustration'

It's about time. General Mills is rolling out Cheerios boxes with built-in Ziploc-style bags, answering what it says are "hundreds of thousands" of annual complaints and requests over stale cereal and messy, unsealable liners, reports the Washington Post. The new bag features a zipper closure running partway across to create a pour spout and will debut on original and Honey Nut Cheerios starting Tuesday via Walmart's website, then spread to stores nationwide in the months to come.

The company says 9 in 10 cereal eaters already improvise—rolling, folding, clipping, or decanting into other containers. Inc. calls it "the most annoying part of eating cereal." The redesigned bag isn't cheap to implement, trade outlets note, but it could help cereal compete with breakfast bars, yogurt, and other grab-and-go options as younger consumers increasingly treat cereal as a snack, not a morning staple, per the Post. The new packaging "takes a small, everyday cereal frustration and finally gives consumers the simple solution they've been asking for," Cheerios exec Emilie Knox says in a release.