WHY CONSUMERS CAN'T ACTUALLY GET TO THE PRODUCTS THEY ARE TRYING TO CONSUME

Tales from Packaging Hell

Comments

[anon]

Bout time someone made a site for this

[puppytoes]

let's hope this never happens to chocolate.

[BS]

Same thing happened to me when I tried box cutters on that damn invisible blog!

[obi wan]

*snorks puppytoes

'course, ain't gonna matter once everybody gets their (not there) invisibility cloak and just walks out the store with the thing anyway...

[Juggler of Geese]

I just wish that my local Best Buy and Target would actually demagnetize their products after purchase and have a working sensormatic system to let them be warned when something is being stolen. I cannot tell you howmany times I have walked in to other stores and been searched because the alarm went off.

[Annie Where-but-here]

JoG - perhaps you need to be checked for 'shrinkage' (the kind in the article, silly!)

[24-aholic]

I'm thinking about letting my 2 year old run with scissors as opposed to buying a toy with today's packaging.

[ScottMGS]

The ones I *especially* like despise are the 12"x16"x3" clear plastic containers in Costco that contain... a phone card. ISIANMTU

Even better are the ones (about the same size) that contain a picture of an iPod. Take it to checkout, buy it and they give you another box with the actual iPod in it. (Whether you get to keep the empty box or if the picture is of the actual same iPod, I don't know.)

[sthnbelle]

Been there - done that. Nearly amputated a finger trying to get the package open on darling son's new Gameboy charger.

[Eleanor]

When a distributor says, "That's something to be considered" (last line of article), you can bet it's never going to happen!

[Brainy Jello]

I think it's to discourage customers from retuning items cause the packaging gets all jacked - making some feel too guilty to returning since it can't be reshelved.

[Brainy Jello]

...and sometimesing I'm a gooder enlgish talker but not this times.

[mudstuffin]

It really bogs down Christmas morning when you gotta take a half-hour time out to get a #@!*X# Barbie out of the box.

[cebasham]

Brainy jello, you are so right about the packaging. So stand up and be counted! Return the crap they sold you in the impossible packaging! Hope they get cut hands.

[KOW]

If the power-that-be were serious about being anti-smoking, they would be packaged similarly. Nothing can be opened by hand anymore, though I seriously doubt anyone's opening an XBox 360 and slipping it into their pocket, though people can be quite enterprising when need be.

[Matt]

Has anyone else actually debated accidentally cutting themselves on purpose with the plastic of doom? You know, for lawsuit purposes....

With it's prevelance nowadays, i'm sure a jury would give you millions, just to go home and accidentally cut themselves....

[Juggler of Geese]

I would agree Annie, If it had happened on the way out. But this is as I am entering the stores. Usually the Office Max next door. I have to admit one thing though, after 17 years in retail. I wouldnt want to have to put up with a third of the crap that the store employees have to in the South Boston/ Dorchester Target. Christmas in the toy section is a war zone. They spend hours straightening it up and by the time they finish the last aisle the first one is a wreck again.

[Sondra]

I actually made a store employee open a package for me, after I paid for it, because I knew I would probably open an artery trying to do it myself. Fortunately,he didn't need stitches.

[Tamara Rhymes With Camera]

I don't understand. Does the impossible-to-open packaging also weigh 16 tons? How does it prevent shoplifting?

[mellio]

That's what I want to know. "blister packs" or "PVC packaging" or whatever they want to call these things are not going to deter someone who really, really, really wants to steal them--unless they weigh a lot (they don't) or unless they're not 'pocket-sized' (depends on the object).

After having spent over 10 years in record/tape/CD retailing, I can definitely say that 'size does matter' in this regard. These packaging people have the right idea, but their execution stinks...

[Cheryl]

... special packages to avoid shrinkage ...

*immature snork*

[Annie Where-but-here]

Ouch! I just went to open this thread, and I broke a nail. I'm suing! ;)

[Sarah J]

Ah, Wrap Rage

[CoastRaven]

And why do they pack scissors in these same packages?? How the H&LL can you get them out without scissors?!?

[Brainy Jello]

*SNORK* a CR - I've actually seen that! The irony has to be pointed out to me. Thanks, then.

[Musically Challenged]

As a father,I would like to get that type of packaging for my teenage daughter who is beginning to date.

[jps]

I can't come up with a funny comment because this kind of packaging pisses me off. I was trying to get my baby's toy Elmo phone open the other day and it took me 20 minutes, with her saying "Mine! Mine!" the whole time. Mommy said a bad word, and we both had to have a time out. The stupid thing cost $8. Other $8 items are not packaged this way. Maybe if they get sued a few times, it will become cost-effective to come up with some other kind of packaging. Shrinkage, my lilly white ass. These people are sadists.

[CoastRaven]

*SNORK* @ Musically Challanged!!!!! and one more ! for good measure!

[Punkin Poo]

Yeah, dontcha just love it on Christmas morning when you're trying to open the package and unscrew the one million twisty-ties while your 2 yr old is doing the screaming-hissy-fit-dance-from-Hell because you won't give her her toy.

[Somewhere North]

My favorite is when the item is put into this nuclear proof packaging and then they give you a little warning not to use a sharp object to open it. Makes me suspicious they are laughing at me.

[slyeyes]

*drags out soapbox*

"As a consumer myself of other products, I've always wondered how the heck do I get this open," said Paul Chen, PDP's vice president of content and licensing. "We could probably do a better job to outline the best way to open this product. That is something to consider."

AND LET THE CHURCH SAY A!MEN!

I've broken fingernails, cut myself, and have come close to committing mayhem JUST to open those #*#!!$ packages.

I have also been known to return an item to the store. When asked "Is there a problem with it", I've said, "Yes, I can't use it because I can't get to it." B@st Buy couldn't even open one computer item I attempted to buy.

THIS would be one class action lawsuit I'd be happy to join. My luck, though, my lawfirm would be defending it and I'd end up working on it.

*returns soapbox and chills out*

[Annie Where-but-here]

Somewhere North - they're covering their butts anticipating the lawsuit we were discussing. "But the packaging says NOT to use a sharp object!"

Somebody needs to use a sharp object on the people making the packaging.

[Ann]

Maybe we should start putting cash in those packages and using it to pay for everything.

[Annie Where-but-here]

On the flip side, maybe if a company offered 'easy-open packaging', they'd make a mint, especially at Christmas time.

[Somewhere North]

Annie, that is just wishful thinking. What they will likely do is create a product that opens packaging (single use only) that we have to pay a minimum of $24.99 for and comes completely enclosed in a blister pack for which there is an entirely different package opening product marketed on the side.

I say we just go back to giving our children blocks of wood to play with and to h*ll with it.

[Eleanor]

I've had stores open CDs for me before, that I wanted to immediately play in my car.
They have some sort of "instrument" and do it in a New York minute!

[Tamara Rhymes With Camera]

*tries to hide evil glint in eye*

I'm going to open a PACKAGE-OPENING store! In the AIRPORT!

*sits back and waits for you to catch on to the sheer brilliance of this scheme*

*now sits back and starts jest a-countin' them chickens...*

[Sarah J]

SN- the blocks of wood would probably last longer than whatever toy comes wrapped in "clam packaging" anyway.

[Tamara Rhymes With Camera]

What rolls down stairs,
Alone or in pairs,
Rolls over your neighbours dog?
What's great for a snack,
And fits on your back,
It's...

[CoastRaven]

Sorry guys... the answer is already here.

[Sarah J]

That doesn't happen to come in bubble packaging, does it, cr?

[Tamara Rhymes With Camera]

CR: Does it also make julienne fries?

[CoastRaven]

It slices - It dices - it castrates and it mast... erumm never mind

[Annie Where-but-here]

I'll bet all the 'shrinkage' experts have one.

[Ann]

CR - It magistrates? Wow!

[Sarah J]

...it masticates?

[Ann]

SJ: even better, thank you.

[Dylan]

I have found heavy duty tin cutters to work quite well on the otherwise impossible plastic packaging. My two girls seem to be favorably impressed when I resort to using the cutters to open the package. Whether they are impressed with my cleverness or the package's resilience is hard to say.

[daisymae]

THanks, CR, a tool for every job.

[Cat R.]

CR ~ OK, so my PC doesn't have sound, but I stared at that demo for about 3 or four minutes, and it looks to me like that Pyranna (not "piranha") guy has had to swipe that thingie on the plastic package, like, 250 times. And he shows no signs of stopping. This is progress...?

[MoFaux]

when I was a kid all we had to play with was polyvinyl chloride.And Man, are our teeth ever white>

[O. the U(manity)]

My personal system to open such packaging is to use one of my various "hunting" knives, with the "gut hook" blade on the back side of the regular blade ... a careful puncture to insert the "hook" and then zipzipzip and my package is open, without cutting any fingers, clothing or household (or motel) furnishings ... no dangerous sharp, pointy parts (on the "hook" side)

Of course, I carry such a tool every day, to use at work, and the last one I bought cost $40 ... but still ... it werks (very well, thank you) for me ... merely ... uninjured ...

Interesting how they edited the comments of Mr Mroue or whoever it was:

There was nothing anywhere telling us how to open the (darn) thing. I don't understand why they make it so goddamn hard to open these things."