Plastic peril
If you’ll indulge me for a moment, I want to vent a little spleen over a particular kind of vicious plastic packaging. I’m sure you’ve also seen the type I mean; they are rigid, flat-ish boxes made of clear plastic, designed to allow you to see the goodies within, but also to allow the package to be hung on a metal rail or stood on a shelf. Several years ago, similar packaging tended to be designed in two distinct halves like a clam shell, which were held together by plastic ‘blisters’. When you gently pulled the two halves apart, the ‘blisters’ would separate and you would get access to whatever was inside. Easy.
Easy is not a word I could ever bring myself to apply to the new kind of packaging. This breed requires some kind of bolt cutter (or other fearsomely sharp tool which can exert tremendous force), heavy leather gloves and a safety net or mattress. They look deceptively like the old kind, but are welded shut with a rigid plastic seam close to the edge. Because this narrow seam forms a right angle with the rest of the pack, it makes it fiendishly difficult to cut with even a stout pair of scissors. As you cut further, the thin strip of excess plastic gouges great gashes in your hand, unless you keep stopping to cut the excess strip off every time it gets long enough to damage your hands. That’s what the leather gloves are for, though they make a fiddly job even harder.
The really tedious thing is that you need to remove at least three seams from the pack before you can safely get the goods out. However, I suspect that I’m not the only person who howls with rage, frustration and pain on nearing the second corner, and—-maddened by blood loss—-attempts to tear the two halves apart with their bare hands, thus catapulting the delicate gadget within across the room to smash against the opposite wall. That’s when you need the safety net.
I’m tired of waiting for manufacturers to regain their sanity and just put the damn stuff in a cardboard box with a bit of sellotape sealing it shut, so if anyone has any great plastic-package-opening tips or tools, I’m all ears (and shredded hands).
1
Oh, and when you buy one of these at the airport, and you can't get you hands on your new toy until you get to the other end are are reunited with your Leatherman, it's doubly frustrating.
I actually find I can usually cut around the sealed edge pretty easily with a sharp knife at right angles to the "front" of the display pack.----- I share the same frustration and I second the knife tactic. With a good knife you can cut around the edges with relative ease. I use a lock-switch 2" pocketknife. Knife on a Leatherman should do the trick is well. Razor blade/Xacto knife doesn't seem to work as well, needs that oomph of a real blade behind it.
Good luck!
by Lon @ 26/01/2006 8:01 pm • Permalink •
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your not the only one to think that
http://blog.daveastels.com/?p=58
by SteveL @ 26/01/2006 8:02 pm • Permalink •
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Manufacturers will start putting them in easily opened packs when thieves stop opening the easily opened packs, stealing the contents, and putting the empty packs back on the hooks. Batteries, for instance, are so expensive nowadays that they are eminently nickable.
Most stores allow for 25% "shrinkage" on items like sunglasses - yes, they have to allow in their costings for the fact that up to 1/4 of the sunglasses on display will be stolen!
by Jonathan Briggs @ 26/01/2006 9:02 pm • Permalink •
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EMT Shears (the sort that get used to chop pennies in half in late-night infomercials) make short work of plastic packaging. And the finger and thumb loops are generously sized enough that one can comfortably use them while wearing gloves.
Plus, should I ever have to cut someone out of a seat belt or light body armour, they work well for that, too.
by scotfl @ 26/01/2006 9:02 pm • Permalink •
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how to send the message, albeit slowly, back to the manufacturers: make the store clerk open it for you when you buy it.
This also has the added benefit of making them responsible for disposing of the packaging.
by matt wilkie @ 27/01/2006 12:01 am • Permalink •
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Yes Matt Wilkie - what a great idea! And if the store won't waste their time doing that for you it's a good reason to be shopping elsewhere.
by Martin @ 27/01/2006 12:02 am • Permalink •
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We could get the Health and Safety legislators to insist that all these packs must include a first aid kit?
by tony @ 27/01/2006 9:01 am • Permalink •
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Thank god. I just thought this was a problem caused by my fred flinstone position in the modern world I was sure that there was some simple opening technique that every member computer nerd generation on the planet understood instinctively. Unfortunately like so many things in my life my attempts to open these packages have usually resulted in me using a hammer, which is not truly a practical solution but is a temporarily a very satisfying one. But only temporarily.
by john(jc.) @ 27/01/2006 10:02 am • Permalink •
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Thanks for all the tips, folks! Sounds like I need some EMT shears (though I've never seen them advertised on UK TV), because I just don't trust myself with a sharp knife (Stanley, Leatherman or anything else) with hard, slippery plastic. I'd probably lose a finger, or something.
And that's a great idea, matt wilkie. Whether they lose lots of items or not (and I can't believe that they lose fewer whole packages that items removed from packages) it's a ridiculous way of presenting your goods. I'm reasonably fit and healthy, so goodness knows how people with arthritis or other strength or mobility problems with their hands cope.
by bsag @ 27/01/2006 11:01 am • Permalink •
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For this kind of thing I always end up using a Stanley knife. Works perfectly.
Of course, if the item turns out to be faulty, it's a bastard because you've knackered the packaging and thus can't return said item. Which sucks - and, I suspect, is half the reason for the poxy packaging.
by Lyle @ 27/01/2006 11:02 am • Permalink •
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I once stupidly failed to check the store had removed the security packaging from a dvd.
Arriving home, I clearly couldn't wait until next day to take it back, and half an hour later was amassing every type of saw known to man, because I wouldn't let it beat me.
Warning: don't ever try this at home!
by Mr.D. @ 27/01/2006 12:01 pm • Permalink •
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I think that other people have said most of what I had to say on the subject, but it is obviously a popular issue, the fact that you cant exchange the goods is particularly annoying. This type of packaging has long been on my room 101 list.
by Keith @ 27/01/2006 7:02 pm • Permalink •
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I am passing this post on to my husband. Every. Single. Time. We get something in those packs he gets angry about how hard they are to open. Anger, sharp instruments and diabolical plastic are not good combinations.
by Frog @ 28/01/2006 1:02 pm • Permalink •
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I use hedgelaying tools - a billhook and welding gloves. May also useful when returning things.
by Julian @ 29/01/2006 12:02 pm • Permalink •
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I hate this problem so much. And apparently, some people hate it so much, they created a dedicated tool for it!
http://www.myopenx.com/
I bought one of these and love it. Only $5, and makes my life much easier. It also doubles as a simple box cutter. Great for stuff like the tape that seals the edges of the DVD container closed.
by Wushujames @ 30/01/2006 9:01 pm • Permalink •
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Mr. D.: I'd be amazed if you ended up with either an intact DVD or all your limbs after that
Julian: That's a great mental image.
Wushujames: Ooo, if that actually works, I'm getting one. In fact, I may buy in bulk and give them to my friends and family.
by bsag @ 01/02/2006 7:02 pm • Permalink •
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Bsag,
I love it. And no, I don't work for the company. The only thing I have in common with them (and the commenters on this post, apparently), is that I hate the plastic packaging with a passion.
It has a couple advantages over a simple boxcutter. The tip around the slide blade blade lets you use a prying motion as you cut through the plastic. That part is shaped just like a one of those plastic letter openers, come to think of it.
And the piercing blade cutting edge is really useful as a box cutter because it only comes out about 3 millimeters. Which means you can lean your palm on the thing you want to cut, and use that to stabilize the knife as you cut.
And hey, it costs $5. If you buy it and it doesn't work, you've spent about as much as a cup of coffee. I'm giving one to my brother for his birthday. Good idea on giving it to friends and family!
One silly thing is that they ship the thing itself in the plastic packaging! It's looks like it's supposed to be a joke, because they say "This is the last time you'll have to open this packaging!" or something like that. Of course, once you get it open, you can try the item itself on the packaging they sent it with. Which was pretty fun, actually. =)
by Wushujames @ 01/02/2006 10:03 pm • Permalink •
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Perhaps this packaging will disappear when someone sues them for damages to fingers ??? or when someone accidentally cuts their wrists open with one...
by zimmer @ 07/02/2006 1:03 am • Permalink •
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Scissors? Stanley knifes? Surely they don't work! I recommend flamethrowers.
by MechanicalTomato @ 19/02/2006 5:03 pm • Permalink •
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I had such a horrible experience opening one the the xbox controller sealed in this horrendous plactic. I used a sissor and as I was pulling it apart, the pastic cut right into my pinky almost to the bone. I cleaned it out, bandaged it and after three weeks, it looks like there might be an infection brewing. This plastic is very dangerous. Maybe I should sue Mr Bill Gates for his poor and dangerous choice of packaging. I now have to go to the doctor's over this. By the time I'm done, the price of the controller has gone up 4x the amount.
by Donna @ 01/05/2006 2:06 am • Permalink •
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I have just the tool for opening up clamshell packaging Without any risk to person or product. See the Klever Kutter @ www.safecutters.com.
by Tom Fri @ 24/11/2006 4:16 am • Permalink •
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Not just me then. This sort of packaging is my first choice for Room 101 I tell you. I actually broke one thing trying to cut it out of the packet and had to send it back.
by Desi @ 24/06/2007 2:08 pm • Permalink •
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I've found the answer to all your problems in opening any clam shell or blister type of package. Easy,and extremley safe. Just $8.95 plus shipping. Contact msmkg97@aol.com to order.
by DONALD @ 25/12/2007 12:30 am • Permalink •
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