Plastic Packages Cause Injuries, Revolt 533
massysett writes "Everybody has been frustrated by plastic retail packaging that's nearly impossible to open. New toys and electronic gadgets arrive encased in plastic bubbles. Manufacturers say the packages protect goods and make them look nice, but opening them can be difficult enough to cause injuries that land people in the emergency room. Manufacturers have an appropriate term for the frustration: wrap rage. One man even invented a cutter designed specifically for cracking open plastic clamshells."
Re:this story was accepted at the wrong time (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:this story was accepted at the wrong time (Score:3, Insightful)
then you would have gotten a buttload of seriously frustrated, angry, and demented comments in the affirmative
You must be new here... this story will get reposted multiple times before the holidays.
Just look for the "buttload" of seriously frustrated
Chainsaw anyone? (Score:2, Insightful)
The worst packaging is for computer accessories and such. The thickness and strength of the plastic used is absolutely ridiculous. It's obvious no consumer pre-market testing ever takes place. I've seen this develop in the past 20 years and it's gotten completely out of control. I wonder how it is for the elderly and disabled to get into many household goods and such.
I've also wondered about why it has come to pass. I understand the need for keeping food fresh and products safe from damage, but I feel the current packaging "paradigm" is way out of control and needs to be reigned in.
Some other interesting things to ponder is that all this packaging is made from plastic, derived from oil, and will end up in a landfill, and take quite a few years to decompose. So in effect you have an extremely inefficient use of resources and energy to protect products and food that is also very detrimental to the environment.
Re:Now (Score:3, Insightful)
WORST TOY EVER.
Should be subject of law (Score:3, Insightful)
Trauma shears (Score:3, Insightful)
Should be able to pick them up for $4 or so. Get a couple. They're extremely handy.
No good for precision cutting, but perfect for cutting through tough, thick plastic, cardboard, or card stock.
Re:What do other people do? (Score:2, Insightful)
Your poor knife!
Duh. You're sharpening the blade way more often than necessary, and in such a way that you're probably removing way too much material each time as well. I doubt your knife needs to be sharpened more than once every six months, if even that much. Instead, you should buy a honing steel to keep your knife edge "true". A honing steel doesn't sharpen, but it can make your knife seem sharper because it's straightening out the sharp edge that may have been blunted from previous cuttings. In most cases, a "dull" knife actually just has a blunted edge that can be restored with honing.
Re:What do other people do? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:And what do they expect *us* to do? (Score:5, Insightful)
I work in a PC store and there's loads of stuff that can make a thief a quick buck in a few seconds. Ink cartidges are the biggest target, with Lexmark (Crappy cardboard rectangle) boxes being found open without contents all the time, whereas the really-tough-sealed ones aren't being nicked. Epson have a compromise, they've got the hard-squishy plastic shell (that milk bottles are made of) with a plastic film coating over the front. You need to pierce and open these (knife makes simple work) but it's not too easy to do instore.
Stores care more about stuff going missing from the shelves then it being purchased and not being opened at home. Granted this stuff is too hard to open and they need to sort it out, but slowly compromises will come.
Re:Nah, you can have your cake and eat it too... (Score:4, Insightful)
Maybe, but that's not obvious to me. Perhaps the major reasons are to assist in packing and prevent damage in transit. Small widgets are sorted and packed at high speed by machines. If you design a package that can be opened by the pretty feeble forces a human fingertip can exert, then it's not going to be able to be sorted at 80 MPH by the metal claw of a robot.
You're looking at it from the point of view of the thing sitting on the display hook in the store. But that's near the end of its life before use: it has a long history from factory floor to the store that you need to consider, and there's a good chance major aspects of the packaging are designed to meet the needs of distribution and transport.
This is what product liability litigation is about (Score:3, Insightful)
This is what product liability legislation is about: Making companies pay for the damage their products cause, so they think twice about producing dangerous products.
A few mulitmillion dollar judgements for people who cut the nerves in their hands on the sharp edges created by opening the packaging should make some execs start balancing "inventory shrinkage" from shoplifing more sanely against bottom-line shrinkage from damage to their customers' bodies.
That should make a BIG difference in package design quite quickly.
Did you sue? (Score:3, Insightful)
With the event you described, any decent ambulance chaser would take the case and negotiate a settlement, and the business will likely settle for an amount just less than their projected cost to win at trial. The lawyer will take most of that, so you won't end up with much. Nevertheless, if this happens often enough, the corporation will learn a lesson.
As much as I hate the way this country has become one big lawsuit factory, nowadays (often silly) personal injury lawsuits are often the only way to effect change in corporate cheapness.
What about twist ties? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Hand Surgeons Love Em (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Nah, you can have your cake and eat it too... (Score:3, Insightful)
Unless you're talking about a mail-order warehouse, AFAIK, most of the transportation/sorting is done by the pallet or some other moderately large quantity bundled together. When the machine sorts a box full of boxes, no matter how flimsy the interior boxes are, unless it sticks a proboscis through the outer box or something, the inner boxes shouldn't be damaged....
There are four likely reasons: to deter shoplifting, to make the product as visible as possible, to reduce cost (cheaper to fuse plastic together than to do a box with a single clear plastic case), and to reduce returns on inexpensive goods. Every return costs the companies a chunk of change If you can't restore the factory packaging, they can make it really hard to return it unless it is defective (which most returns are not). All four of those have to do with putting real money into the manufacturer's bottom line, whether through increased sales from higher visibility or through cost cutting.
This is what razor knives are for, IMHO.
Re:And what do they expect *us* to do? (Score:4, Insightful)
Let's have a show of hands from all the kind folks who have attempted to open a plastic bag of spaghetti at the seams, only to have it rip down the sides sending noodles flying all over the kitchen floor. I've never understood the logic of using a glue that is stronger than the material it is intended to seal.
Re:What do other people do? (Score:5, Insightful)
BTW, the plastic clam-shell packaging doesn't piss me off as much as DVD and CD packaging. There's nothing that starts the pounding in my head like the "Peel here" tab that can't be peeled, complete with too-strong glue that forces you to choose between cutting it along the seam with a razor blade and leaving it, or cutting it and then peeling it off from the unglued center, warping and stretching your brand new $23 DVD packaging. (Lets face facts here, I'm paying for the convenience of the packaging (which includes the DVD itself AND the case), not the movie itself, which is available for free (minus ISP costs) online).
Tin snips (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What do other people do? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What do other people do? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:What do other people do? (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm not saying this is a bad idea, because it's likely that the retailer does have a nice heavy-duty pair of scissors somewhere, but I do take issue with something.
The people working at the retailer are normal human beings that also buy things at stores. They know how horrible the packaging is, and the person that will be opening your package has absolutely nothing to do with it.
Re:It's because of shitty customers. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:And what do they expect *us* to do? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:What do other people do? (Score:3, Insightful)
No, not the kind that are stamped sheet metal that are popular now. The kind that are forged steel. Not that hard to find. And they work fine for cutting the welded seams on this sort of packaging. That's really all you need to do is cut away the welded seams. Which are right out on the edge of the packaging.
I like this form of packaging, because once you know how to open it, if you need to return an item, everything just slides back into the hard form of the package. You only cut the welds off one or at most two edges.
Re:Actually, it's more sinister than this. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Did you sue? (Score:3, Insightful)
Did you sue? I sure as hell would have. The only thing that is going to stop this madness is for everyone these things happen to sue. And don't just go for medical bills. File for unspecified punitive damages for the mental anguish you went through almost losing your [lw]ife.
Sue for WHAT? I sympathize with the guy for a very scary incident -- but knives don't just "jump" and slash your wrist. She was holding it in some dangerous fashion (how, I don't know -- I can't even see how this happens in the first place), and tried to muscle it out of the packaging. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that you should be careful with knives. If the woman had carefully cut the knife ALL THE WAY out of the package with scissors, this wouldn't have happened.
But hey, we all do foolish things and have foolish accidents. But when I have foolish accidents, I don't immediately look around to see where I can displace the blame.
Re:What do other people do? (Score:3, Insightful)
I think The kitchen shears I have, about $1, are powerful and sharp enough, and as safe. For more heavyweight use, gardening shears. Ultimately, woodworking tools. The idea that you have to use a certified "package opening tool" is just more consumerism. If you don't have any of those, at least $6 isn't extortionate.
Re:And what do they expect *us* to do? (Score:5, Insightful)
Just this morning I was attaching some caster wheels to some furniture, and realised a needed a longer screw attachment for my drill. I went and bought one and sure enough it was sealed up good. Took me a bit of hacking to open, and that was with my toolbox right next to me. Again, opening items like this is easy enough, opening them without damaging them is another matter.
Another one that pisses me off is when they print the instructions on the cardboard which is sandwiched between the layers of packaging, so just cutting through it with scissors means cutting through the instructions. Not that I ever read instructions. *cough*
Then there is the whole environmental thing... where does all this packaging go once the item has been unpacked!!!
Re:SOMEONE isn't doing their job... (Score:3, Insightful)
You miss my point. If you're properly staffed, then when a customer comes in, you move towards him, greet him, establish needs, present solutions, overcome objections, close, and add-on product/services. Lather, Rinse, Repeat.
Doesn't anyone know how to actually SELL things in a retail environment, or has everyone resigned themselves to just dealing with stock pickers, and cashiers?