A tray made for sharing

A pastry shop in Dokki sells its sweet pastries one way only: by the tray, and the tray is sized for a household, not a person.

People who live alone buy it anyway, because there is no smaller amount on offer. And then they walk out holding far more than they can finish before it goes stale.

There is only one sensible thing to do with the extra. You take some upstairs to the neighbours, or to your mother's flat, or into work the next morning. You hand it over and say where it came from. The shop has turned every sale into a small delivery to people who did not buy anything, carried by someone they already trust.

That is not an accident of portioning. It is a decision about what the product is for. The shop could have sold single pieces and boxes of four, and fitted every purchase neatly to one appetite. It would have sold to the same mouths and been talked about by nobody.

Most brands design the purchase around one buyer. The portion is for one, the pack is for one, the offer rewards the person who paid. It is tidy, and it stops at the door.

The other choice is to build the sharing in. Make the amount slightly too much, the box slightly too big, the second one almost free, so that the natural next step is to give some away. For food, word of mouth is rarely a campaign. It is a plate carried down one flight of stairs to the flat below.

A brand can wait to be recommended, or it can hand people something they will have to share.