The six-pack carton was the Coca-Cola bottling innovation used to encourage customers to take bottles home.
Coca-Cola’s early business depended heavily on soda fountains and individual bottles sold for immediate consumption. The introduction of a portable carton made it easier for shoppers to carry several bottles home, helping transform bottled soft drinks into a household purchase rather than only a fountain treat.
The six-pack format also helped retailers display and sell multiple servings together. It became an influential packaging idea across the soft-drink industry, even as materials and bottle sizes changed.
This answer is not the two-liter plastic bottle, which was a later packaging development associated with Pepsi’s early nationwide use. Nor is it a wooden crate, which was used for transport but did not offer the same consumer-oriented take-home presentation.