How do you feel about packaging that doesn't work the way its supposed to?
Asked by
Trillian (
21148
)
February 24th, 2010
Please don’t get the idea that I’m a lazy person when I ask this. I’ve just been increasingly frustrated and foiled at every turn by packaging that doesn’t open the way it’s supposedly designed to. You’ll clearly see a red line across the pack on the inside, and there is even a notch where you’re supposed to tear. It says “tear here”. And yet, I can’t tear it! I finally get the scissors and cut right over the red line, and the package still has half an inch of sealed front and back all the way across! The perforations on the soda box wont allow you to poke through without tearing through where you’re not supposed to, and if you try to grab the front and back of a bag of chips to pull the top apart it won’t pull! Wont! I don’t know what they’re sealing chip bags with now, but it must be designed not to open, like some bizarre x-files conspiracy, they want you to have an untidy opening. The same can be said of cereal bags inside the box, and the box is about the only thing left that still opens properly. Cling wrap, foil, any of the boxes with rolls inside tear so that the whole roll is difficult to tear off. Food in plastic pouches with snap-seals are pointless because the seal piece comes apart from the inside of the pouch.
Enough! I say, stop charging me extra for handy dandy resealable packaging that doesn’t work, and I’ll just put it in a sealed box or bowl or bag myself. Is it just me? Does anyone else have a hard time getting at food or other products sealed in plastic?
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17 Answers
Maybe you’re right…. that it’s just you….
Some people who lack the patience to figure out stuff usually end up like you do, frustrated and pissed at the whole system.
but I must admit that cheapo items that purport to claim to work really doesnt… Why? because they’re cheaply made…. As the saying goes, you get what you pay for.
I’m thoroughly convinced that clamshell packaging was invented by some satanic being. It’s everything wrong with the world. and it’s covering my pencils.
Box of macaroni and cheese. It says “Push Here” on the side of the box or whatever.
Never works.
This happens to me. A lot. You are not alone. The little notch and “tear here” thing on little candy bags never works for me…oftentimes, there isn’t even a notch! And @Grisaille is right about the mac n’ cheese boxes…those never work.
Also, Jerry kinda knows how you feel
My reaction? Grrrr!!
I spent more than 5 minutes just yesterday trying to open a box of detergent without tearing the lid of the box. I hate those resealable packages of cheese and other foodstuffs that, when initially opened, tear right down to or beyond the reseal strip. I do battle with pill containers all the time. Once I took a picture of the little shreds that it took me 15 minutes to peel away from the back of the sheet of pills. I sent it to the manufacturer along with an interesting letter that they ignored.
I blame the perpetrator of this crime. I think he did more than any other criminal has ever done, including the Unabomber, to affect the everyday lives of ordinary Americans. Packaging has never been the same since. Manufacturers would far rather annoy and inconvenience you and me than risk lives or pay off a lawsuit.
@Jeruba That, at least, is a reasonable explanation. I remember the Tylenol thing, and for a long time I was convinced that there was going to be some kind of acid in eye drops next.
Word!
I also dislike the things that annoy me.
You heard me
Nah I agree. I bloody hate it when I buy new DVD’s or video games, and you gotta ravage your way through like four peels of wrapping, and THEN fight to the death with seal stickers everywhere to open the fucking case…damn man.
I got caught out. I always carry a pack of batteries for those occasions when my flash exhausts all of my rechargeable Lithiums. I was using the flash heavily one night in a remote area (photographing crocodiles) and this happened. The packaging on the spare batteries was thick, welded shut poly-plastic. The edges were too small and smooth to get a good purchase on, too thick to bite through too flexible to break by repeated bending. We were too far from camp to just “duck back” for a knife. I eventually had to borrow a cigarette lighter and melt it open – no one had anything capable of cutting. (I now make sure that I have a pocket knife in my camera kit.)
I’m with you on this. Aside from clamshell packaging, the resealable pouches where one side detaches from the bag probably piss me off the most.
I totally agree with this. The thing with chip bags, for me, is I pull and pull and have to exert so much force against the bag that when it does open it tears and chips go flying all over the place.
But I’m reminded of a Charlie Brown strip where Linus literally rips open a box of Snicker-Snack cereal. Charlie Brown admonishes Linus, telling him that the Snicker-Snack company spent a lot of money to design an easy to open box. Linus tells him, “My heart bleeds for the Snicker-Snack company.” Sarcastically, you see.
Oh, @Trillian you are so right. Some packaging defies even sharp knives, And @Jeruba so right about pill packaging. Yesterday I had to get tweezers to get the cottonwool out. Then the actual pills filled less than ½ the bottle. @DarkScribe I bought supersize pack of AA’s and had a 10 min fight, with th sharp knife!
I hate the razor packaging at Dollar General Stores. you cannot open the package from the front, you cannot open the package from the rear. you would think Fort Knox was inside this package, instead of four razors to shave my face. i gave up and pulled out my hunting knife and stabbed it open. yeah, i lost my cool, but who cares?
It merely reinforces the fact that man-made products fail quite often. There is a whole section of law called product liability which is proof of this.
Frustration!!! Totally… The companies like to claim that it’s resealable but then the seal is too cheaply made to work more than 2 times. the chip bag says tear here to open and you go Grrrrrrrr trying to open the darn thing…
And they charge extra for many of these things when they should just not bother and figure we have a chip clip in the drawer for the remaining chips and a container for whatever it is that the bag tore down the entire side when we were going Grrrrr to open it!
Or you just put it in a bowl and call some friends and get rid of the whole bag!
Thank you almost everybody!
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