Plastic packaging - Rediculously tough to open

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http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/ClamPackaging

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(PLEASE SUPPORT)



I bought a mini SD flash memory card which was sealed in large plastic super-tough-sealed plastic packaging

I wanted to istall this into my phone after leaving the store and spent the next 15 minutes trying to open the packaging. All I had was a bunch of keys. Needless to say I almost broke the card tearing slices out of the plastic

I think the tough packaging is pretty much rediculous and dangerous. You now have to resort to using knives/scissors/explosives before you get at the product. Potentially receiving an accidental cut

Manufacturers need to knock this one on the head. I guess they use this tight packaging to "protect" their product and to stop casual thieves from removing the product from the packing in-stores. Never mind the fact that you almost break said product trying to get it out of the carton!

What ya'll think? If you agree please sign the petition and let others know

I hate that stuff too. *But* ....I assume a large enough % of the population make it a necessary evil for manufacturers & retailers.

I hate it as well. Not only because its difficult to open (I use scissors now), but when you've cut it, the edges where it was cut are razor sharp.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/tools/9e01/

gosse,
Not adequate enough. This is what you need:

Is it something to do with not using packaging that wastes space/materials? I heard that it was an EU directive or something, but presumably they have this stuff the world over.

And yes, it is very annoying.

> Is it something to do with not using packaging that wastes space/materials

Which is a complete joke. I don't think the EU have any grip at all. How often do you see a small product surrounded in huge packaging? Be it a USB stick, SD Card, Mouse, etc ...
It is equally as bad as when games used to come in garden shed-sized cardboard boxes. Flight simulators being particulary guilty here. I could have filled a skip with the amount of junk they supplied with the game

I bought somethings and it was cover in large plastic super-tough-sealed plastic packaging and it is very annoying.

A normal knife wont cut it. You need strong scissors to bloody cut it!!!

Something as silly as an SD card is packed like an oodle-sized product because:
- bigger things are not so easy to steal (they won't fit your pocket)
- usually the whole thing is its own display, you can just put the whole package somewhere and it'll draw attention to itself automatically
- A shop owner can refuse to take it back when the packaging is damaged, practically this is good for the shop owner, as the only way to test the SD-card is to demolish the packaging

Yeah it stinks. I now cut them open too but once I was cutting it open and the scissors hit a hidden mini-DVD!

> A shop owner can refuse to take it back when the packaging is damaged
Good point. What if your item is faulty? The store manager can say that they have a policy of only accepting returned items in their original undammaged packing

In which case I would ask them how we, the customer, can open up the packing without annihilating it(!?!)

Manufactures make unnecessarily over-sized boxes to draw attention:
Microsoft and Logitec come to mind. Their mouse packaging is insane ..

"hey .. look at me .. I am a really special mouse. You will buy me"

I steer well clear of this type of product!
Crickey, the Eee PC comes in a smaller box than some of the mice I have seen on sale


I have set up a petition as a starting point now ..

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/ClamPackaging


(Are there any better free online petitions worth hitting?)

Geez, a pair of scissors, 5 seconds, and the packaging is done.

I did see a news report or tv show with a segment about this, they are coming up with easier to open packaging, supposedly...

I bought some some small item ( can't recall what ) a while ago that was packaged like this but the back of the package was perforated. It could actually be torn open bare handed. This produced an incredibly loud ripping sound, which I figured was a kind of anti-theft feature.

Quite a few years ago I was flailing around uselessly whilst trying to take the plastic wrapper off a box of tea bags and failing, and I remarked to my friend that if I was a chimpanzee, I bet I'd have ripped it off in 0.5 secs flat with no problems and be eating the tea bags by now ;-)

Its annoying, dangerous and not very environmentaly friendly. Packaging is really bad these days, especially the use of plastic.

In the UK they even wrap individual fruit in the supermarket!!! Not that they use that stupid super tough hard plastic for fruit, but its all very wasteful and bad for your immune system to keep everything completely sterile anyway.

Good! I don't want to eat food that half the town has been pawing at. Especially people whose personal hygeine doesn't even extend as far as washing their hands after a visit to the lavvy.

Building your immune system is one thing. Catching ghonnorea off a bag of apples is another matter entirely.

not to mention bananas and cucumbers ^_^

I've signed! :)

I would of taken this to the downing street petition page... all the way to the top... Oh wait, I forgot, nobody in goverment takes notice of that waste of tax payers money do they, silly me! ;)

I expect stuff from the fruits point of origin still gets to fester underneath the wrapping. Just wash the stuff properly and don't be lazy. Sometimes I'm really glad I left the UK right before the nannys took over.

Do they finaly have disposable sanitary seat covers in the UK public loos yet? Your much more likely to catch something from the dirty bathrooms with blow hand dryers. And what about the people that open the door and leave without washing their hands.

Not yet, but if I'm crimping one off in a public lav, I cushion the seat with bog roll before emptying myself! :D

Ah, so that's what those paper things were in the lavvies at disneyland?

I thought they were cowboy hats. No wonder people were giving me strange looks during my wild west frolicking.

There are 'good' reasons for the clamshell packaging:

1) Add size to tiny, desirable, expensive items (easier to spot when someone is trying to steal one)
2) Make it hard for a thief to take it out of the packaging in the store
3) the clamshell makes the product 'tamper proof' until after it is purchased
4) Lower returns. The store is weeding out the people that would 'change their mind' and return the object, since most of them either feel bad about destroying the packaging or simply assume that the store will no longer take it back

Scary thought of the day: Think about how nasty those things are to open. Now imagine having to deal with that stuff when you're in your 80's. :-?

And that day will surely arrive! :)

Yup, I'll be opening my 20TB memstick when i'm 80 for my Frac-ograph.

Hmmm... just imagine a whole car packaged that way ;)

Barney