Posted on August 7, 2016
Of course, manufacturers don't want people to be able to easily steal their products right out of the boxes or other packaging and stroll right out of the store. Naturally, manufacturers want the people who want their products to actually PAY FOR those products!
But in an effort to beat the possible thieves, some companies use way too much packaging, or packaging that is way too hard to open.
If the customer has taken your product home and spent 10 minutes trying to open it, has used multiple tools, has broken one or more fingernail and maybe even a pair of scissors...
Well, then, you've gone too far. Scale back the protectiveness of your packaging!
Medical professionals have to deal with thousands of patients in E.R.s with injuries from opening difficult packaging (6,000 in the U.S. alone in the year 2004). The term “wrap rage” has been coined to name the frustration created by overzealous packaging. Consumer Reports magazine awards an Oyster Award to products with hardest-to-open packaging.
Also, over-packaging uses up too many of the Earth's precious resources and makes unnecessary trash that often finds its way into already over-burdened landfills.
Today is the day to sit down and fire off letters, phone calls, or emails to companies that use too much or too difficult packaging. Today is the day for “Feedback R Us”!
- Hereis a website about how to open rigid “clamshell” packaging.
- And here are some possible candidates for an Oyster Award, or for a Particularly Preposterous Award:
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| Don't you hate it when the thing you are trying to get out of impossible packaging is extremely breakable and, to boot, considered "household hazardous waste"? |
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| Don't you hate it when kids are given presents in impossible-to-open packaging? And when the thing inside could be easily cut by whatever sharp tool you have to use to cut open the packaging? |
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| Luckily, some kids' toys are a simple matter of flipping the cardboard over and snipping three trillion plastic and wire and string holders. Of course, you end up with an entire pile of packaging to dispose of... |
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| Don't you hate it when produce is swaddled in cardboard AND plastic packaging? |
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| Don't you hate it when the scissors you buy to open particularly preposterous packaging are, themselves, impossible to get to without scissors? |
My final thought on Particularly Preposterous Packaging Day is that the talented and clever Dar Williams teaches us:
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