Printed takeout bags for University Heights restaurants.

Where the streetcar used to stop

University Heights was built around a ride. The University Heights Community Association tells the story: the Park Boulevard line ended at Mission Cliff Gardens, at Park and Adams. A big car barn went up on Adams Avenue at Florida Street in 1913. On April 24, 1949, the last streetcar pulled into that barn, and rail transit in San Diego was done.

The tracks are gone, but the shape stayed. The shops still line up along Park Boulevard toward the spot where riders used to step off. The City's Uptown Community Plan calls it a well established and popular business district at the north end of Park, lined with palms and sweetgum trees, and ending at Adams Avenue.

Today the riders are walkers. They come up Park on foot, eat, and head home with a bag.

A strip you walk, not drive

On a walking street, every customer becomes a moving sign. They leave your door, pass four or five other spots, and stroll home past a dozen front yards. Each person who passes them sees the bag at arm's length.

That is the whole case for printing. You already paid for the bag. Printing your logo on it turns every order into a short walk of free advertising down the busiest few blocks in the neighborhood.

• Pick one strong color: red, black or forest green all read well on brown kraft.
• Keep the name short: people read a bag in passing, so two words beat six.
• Go big: the print area is 12 × 14 in on the front, so fill a good chunk of it.

When the rush hits all at once

A strip like Park Boulevard gets busy in waves. A dinner wave, a weekend brunch wave, a late night wave. When the orders stack up, nobody on your line has time to tape a sticker on a plain sack or hunt for the good bags in the back.

Keep printed bags stocked right at the pickup shelf, already opened and standing. Each one goes out looking the same, no extra step. A subscription box brings 150 bags each delivery, which is a lot of Friday nights covered.

The tap game at the top of this page is a fun way to picture it. Ten seconds of tapping turns into a stack of bags, and the card shows how many boxes that pace would take.

Strong enough for a whole table's order

Noodle soups, curry bowls, burgers and pizza boxes all leave Park Boulevard in bags. Ours is 12″ × 7″ × 14″, made from 110 GSM kraft with a flat bottom and flat paper handles, and it holds up to 22 lb. Put the soups flat on the bottom, boxes on top, and seal the fold with a food tamper-evident sticker.

Just south, North Park restaurants share a lot of the same walking crowd. And if you are just starting to compare, the home page explains logo printed takeout bags in San Diego from first proof to doorstep.