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A moment of silence, please. The metal school lunchbox is dying.

Remember metal lunchboxes? They were usually covered with stars from the covers of teen magazines.

They made a brief comeback a few years ago, but it wasn't the same. Barbie and cartoon characters replaced the likes of David Cassidy. Those were then replaced by hard plastic.

It is now the dawn of soft lunchboxes and bags, but prices are friendly. I remember dropping $10 for a metal lunchbox in the late '70s. Now, as you prepare for a new school year, you can pick up a soft lunchbox or bag for a modest $5.99 or spend up to $15 for the high-end models.

Cartoon characters are still big. Spider-Man, Scooby-Doo, Powerpuff Girls and Sponge Bob are all big sellers. (Sponge Bob is that new cartoon character with square pants who works as a short-order cook. If you have children, odds are you've seen him.)

Mark Leffler, manager of the Springfield Township Giant Eagle, credits the Cartoon Network with fueling sales for Scooby, the Powerpuff Girls and Sponge Bob boxes.

"We see sales go up a little with movies, but I think most characters are popular because of the (TV) shows," he said.

Giant Eagle has stocked less movie-spawned merchandise this year because it is harder to tell whether a movie is going to flop. Movie flops translate into bargain bins at the store, Leffler said.

But sales for Spider-Man items are up, partially because of the recent movie, said Dennis O'Dell, operations manager at the Arlington Road Kmart. He's not sure how many of those sales are fueled by collectors and how many by schoolchildren.

Popular lunch bags are insulated and some have Thermos bottles. But Trish Daily, sales floor manager at the Romig Road Target in Akron, said the bottles are almost purely cosmetic. Few parents will reject a bag just because it doesn't have a Thermos.

Mike Hulchanski, assistant manager of CVS on East Market Street in Akron, attributes the waning popularity of the Thermos to disposable juice boxes.

"I remember my mom packing milk," he said. "Now, it is all juice boxes or they buy their milk at school."

Disposable is a selling point for lunch items. Pudding cups, gelatin cups, single-serving bags of chips and string cheese are very popular, Leffler said.

Pringles also is making single-serving cans of chips, and cookies are being packaged in small tins, Hulchanski said.

Unfortunately, the more disposable, the more expensive. Six-packs of individual pudding cups start at $1.49. You can make your own for about a third that. Boxes of 12 individual-serving chip bags can run $4 or more. A big bag of chips is about half that.

By junior high, lunchboxes are no longer cool, area experts say. Some teens will carry soft bags, but soft-sided boxes are definitely uncool.

For teens, plan on packing brown bags. Lots of them. If you expect your 13-year-old to bring home plastic containers and to recycle bags, you might as well try to lasso the moon.

For teens, think disposable: disposable bags, disposable containers and disposable drinks. And if you're very lucky, they won't trade away all the healthful food.

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