Why is toothpaste sold in a box?

Maybe because things in boxes look aesthetically better? For me, they do at least.
Or maybe they just cannot fit all the health info, ingredients, and warnings on the tube.

Not all toothpaste is sold in a box. Some is in upright standing plastic bottles. I buy those toothpaste containers personally. Tubes of toothpaste are sold in boxes so they don’t get squashed. Nobody would want to buy some pummeled tube. haha

For the most part I think it would have to do with shipping.

So that no one can poison the paste without opening the box. Remember the Tylenol poisonings?

tubes dont stack well on a grocery shelf. Boxes do.

Because a naked tube of toothpaste on a store shelf will look like a crushed bruised banana in no time and nobody would buy it. Marketing 101.

Tradition: toothpaste comes/came in otherwise delicate foil tubes. The box was to protect the contents in shipping.

They also stack better on store shelves. :-)

The plastic tubes aren’t that tough so not all of them would survive the shipping without the box.

It’s easier to pack and transport them if they’re rectangular.

Besides all the good observations about stacking and storing, the box provides some measure of tamper evidence.
You don’t want to buy a tube of toothpaste that has been tampered with because a nefarious person could have poisoned it.

You spit toothpaste out. I doubt it gets a box because of tampering. That’s a beneficial externality.

@Ltryptophan I doubt you could spit potassium cyanide out fast enough. You can try. I’ll let you!

I hate to be one of those really annoying pedantic people but (there’s always a but)... I thought potassium cyanide was only toxic after it reacted with the acid in the stomach. Wasn’t that how Rasputin avoided dying from it? Because he had really low stomach acid?

The tubes have to be kept clean. Not sterile but clean. It’s not over packaging. Cardboard box is a better idea than some sort of plastic crap.

Besides if someone is set on poisoning people with toothpaste I doubt they’ll let a box stop them. It’s only a minor deterrent from that sort of evil.

@Lightlyseared When was the last time you brushed your teeth and didn’t swallow a little bit? And could everyone using the stuff rinse well enough??

True but the LD50 (dose required 50%) of fluoride is about 900mg compared to potassium cyanides 300mg so its pretty similar to what’s already in toothpaste.

To keep people from opening them up and also to stay safe so no one can tamper with it.