On a 2005 trip to New Orleans, we went into a few shops on Bourbon and Royal Streets and asked what type of customer carry-out packaging they used and why. The results were very mixed and interesting.

Ruby Ann Bertram-Harker
At the shop of Ruby Ann Bertram-Harker, we found they used plain white pasteboard jewelry gift boxes and nice glossy white tote bags with red tissue to wrap customer's purchases. The manager of the shop said the boxes and bags were custom printed with the shop name and city (New Orleans). An elastic gold band is placed across the gift boxes. Most of the jewelry we looked at seemed to be in the $20-$200 range, with many pairs of earrings available at the lower end of the range. They said that they thought it was worth the extra expense to send the customer out with a nicely packaged purchase.

The Brass Lion 
Another jewelry shop had a different opinion. The proprietor of The Brass Lion said that since she shop was mostly visited by tourists who were less likely to become regular customers than a shop with local traffic, she felt that the bother and expense of high end packaging was not justified. Plain paper or plastic bags and white tissue were just fine she said.

The Brass Lion not only sold jewelry, but also chandeliers and unusual lighting fixtures. The additional light from these overhead confections not only gave extra sparkle to the jewelry on display, it tended to warm up the shop--not necessarily a good thing in New Orleans climate.
                   

Fabrik

At Fabrik, a stylish shop for young women,  we were told that their packaging helped them establish and strong identity. As you can see from these photos, they keep one of their colorful and sturdy bags in the front display window. Since the ceilings are tall, the the bright bag with the shop name is closer to eye level than the store's hanging sign. 

The hot pink bags have flat bottoms, rope handles and black tissue. The one word name of the shop is easily seen printed on the bag.