Comebacks we'd like to see: #3 -- Easy to open packaging
Filed under: Shopping
This post is part of our series ranking the top 25 bygone products and trends we'd like to see return.
On Christmas morning, my house, like thousands of others, is a chaotic, frenzied scene, with children frantically opening gifts and squealing with delight.
But the joy in my children's faces inevitably turns to frustration after they tear off the gift wrap and are unable to get their little hands on the toy inside the package because the darn thing is sealed up tighter than a coffin! If you haven't opened a doll lately, with a plastic hairbrush, barettes and the like, all smaller than your fingers, these toys and many others are taped to the cardboard box, then each piece is individually wrapped in a twist-tie that makes it hard even for parents to open without a well-stocked toolbox.
I miss the days when it was simple to open a new package, like an over-the-counter medicine bottle that didn't have childproof caps or an album wrapped in plastic so thin I could puncture it with my nails-as opposed to shrink-wrapped CDs and DVDs. The editors at Consumer Reports seem to agree with me, since they started something called the Oyster Awards (named after the infamously difficult to open mollusk) in 2006, a "hard to open packaging hall of shame." Last year, top honors went to the Oral-b Sonic Complete Toothbrush Kit and the Bratz Sisterz doll, which apparently earned its moniker before a little girl even got to play with the toy.
Consumer Reports mentions a few reasons manufacturers have made packaging so much more difficult to open, including safety laws and to prevent theft. Consumer Reports also applauds some "good guys," and claim that manufacturers are beginning to make improvements -- apparently brought on by consumer backlash -- such as a user-friendly clamshell package and toys without twist ties.
What shopping experiences of yesteryear do you miss?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-16-2008 @ 8:35AM
Marcie said...
I work at a retail establishment, and the worst thing about the hard-to-open blister packs is that, most of the time, when an item is returned after being opened, nobody will buy it because the package is a mess.
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5-16-2008 @ 8:43AM
Karen said...
I literly had to use a phillips screwdriver to remove a PLASTIC car from a box!!
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5-16-2008 @ 9:43AM
brenda said...
lol
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5-16-2008 @ 10:42AM
nickelfrog said...
Cutco scissors make opening most packages easier. However when I opened my little girls new earbuds with the scissors, she noticed that they had been cut into. We took them back to the store. As she returned them the lad ylooked at her and told her that many sets had been returned because they could not be opened. I, having learned how NOT TO OPEN THEM, proceeded to open all they ahd for the store manager.
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5-27-2008 @ 12:08AM
MrsAdamSmith said...
I'm 70 and I find myself not buying stuff hard to open. i brought some asperin home several months ago, and neither I nor several friends have been able to open it. I have a lot of electronics, and enjoy computers, ipods, iphones, etc., but some of that stuff is impossible to open without a grandchild nearby. I have the money to buy. Don't the manufactorers care?
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5-16-2008 @ 11:17AM
GaBe said...
You know whats even more annoying, they sell those razor knife devices that are designed to open the blister package, but then they package them in the same damn blister package you need it to open!! I never understood that.
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5-31-2008 @ 6:57AM
Gabey8 said...
YES. That's exactly what I was going to post. I ordered one of those package-opening devices last year, only to be amazed when it came in the same kind of indestructible packaging that it was designed to open.
Um, if I am ordering one of these products, isn't that a sign that I have a hard time dealing with that sort of packaging? Don't they think that maybe their package should be designed so you DON'T need to use TNT to get the darn thing open?
5-16-2008 @ 11:55AM
Eloise Zenger said...
I tried to get a flood light out of its packaging and darn near broke it. I use kitchen scissors but even they have a hard time cutting through the plastic. But what frustrates me the most is CD and DVD packaging.
Where I live, recycling is of major importance and this packaging usually gives no clue as to whether it can be recycled.
Lou
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5-16-2008 @ 12:41PM
Roger said...
As owner of a small shop I am not all that upset when I find something that is hard to open. Packages that are hard to get into have cut my shoplifting problems by a considerable amount.
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5-18-2008 @ 7:25PM
mary said...
I have rheumatoid arthritis in my hands and my husband has multiple sclerosis. We have a hard time opening cereal boxes, far less something that is packaged in hard plastic. Opening over-the-counter medication and supplements is extremely difficult. Not everyone has small children in their homes.
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7-06-2008 @ 11:25PM
Diane said...
Hi Mary
ask your parmist to give you Not Clild proof because you have trouble opening the container easy open tops thats what I did...no problem now!
Im husband also has M.S. and me brain problems
both of us are on pills.
5-18-2008 @ 1:08PM
pd39 said...
Having worked in retail sales I can appreciate the packaging for its anti-theft properties, and medicine bottles for their "kid protection" properties. Now, being 60+, arthritic, and some parts just plain worn out, I hate the stuff. I actually used a Skill saw to open a bottle pills not long ago. Couldn't "pinch and hold while pressing down and turning". Any more, when I purchase something in the plastic packaging I ask a store employee to help me open it. So far, they have all been agreeable, although it seems no easier for them.
Beyond that, if we had a court system that would remove the freedom of young offenders, perhaps we would not have so many older offenders, and could do away with the packaging all together. I believe the day will come soon when we will walk into a store, pick up little slips of paper, hand them to a cashier, pay up and drive our cars around to the back of the business and collect our purchases. This can work fine for everything except pinching tomatoes and squeezing lettuce.
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5-18-2008 @ 11:14PM
Jon said...
Sign of the times. It's all about combating theft.
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5-19-2008 @ 9:19AM
CJ said...
Customers want easy to open packages that we can easily recycle ... remember paper grocery bags and glass milk bottles (the store gave you money back for returning the REUSABLE GLASS BOTTLES)...
We can be Green with paper grocery bags and returnable glass bottles...
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5-21-2008 @ 11:01PM
rose said...
When they first came out with child proof lids on medicine, a bottle of bay aspirins, still a glass bottle, I could not get open, my then 4 yr son said I can get it open mommy, and proceded to smash it with a hammer. Shows you the kids are smarter then you think.
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5-26-2008 @ 2:11PM
Robert said...
check out OpenX for easily opening plastic packages without harming yourself or the product! Http://www.myopenx.com/home.htm
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7-06-2008 @ 11:24PM
Diane said...
Ah the seals are more bothering
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