Why? Why are some products packaged in those awful plastic shell things that are nearly impossible to open without risking slicing oneself on the sharp plastic edges as you desperately hack into it with a pair of scissors?
Even worse, why are allergy and cold meds packaged in those little foil packs that often require you to “bend here” at the SHARP! again with the SHARP! corner and then painstakingly peel back the foil to get at a pill? When I’m sick and feeling lousy is the worst time to make me work so hard to get the medicine I need! There are the rare cases where you can just push the pill through the fairly thin foil, but the allergy meds I’ve gotten most recently do not allow for that. Trying to push the pill through will have you crushing the pill before it ever breaks through the foil. You gotta do the “bend the sharp corner then peel the foil” thing. I’m guessing part of it is wanting to package the pills individually, but why? And isn’t there some other way than this kind of awful packaging? There must be reasoning involved. Why oh why? Or am I in the minority in struggling with trying to do the “bend and peel” thing sometimes?
This is exactly it. It’s used almost exclusively for small electronics (and electronics accessories, like headphones), which historically have had a high likelihood of shoplifting. It makes it harder for a thief to easily cut one out of its package while it’s on the shelf.
I guess I can understand that, although is it really that easy to cut something out of, say, a cardboard without being noticed? For seasoned thieves maybe it’s no big deal, but I’d think they’d figure out a way around the shell type pkgs too.
What about the meds though? They’re sold in small enough boxes that one could easily slip the whole box into a pocket to steal. It’s not like people are opening up bottles of loose pills and taking the pills, leaving the bottles, so anti-theft doesn’t seem like it would apply in that case.
The packaging on OTC medicine isn’t about discouraging shoplifting; as I understand it, it’s about keeping the pills free from moisture. IME, private-label versions of meds are even more of a pain to get out of the packages than name-brand meds are – I suspect that the private-label manufacturers are worried about every penny, and skimp on things that’d make the packages easier to use.
What about the meds though? They’re sold in small enough boxes that one could easily slip the whole box into a pocket to steal. It’s not like people are opening up bottles of loose pills and taking the pills, leaving the bottles, so anti-theft doesn’t seem like it would apply in that case.
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Child proof. Pill packs are supposed to be difficult to open. Also, tamper proof. Pill packs have to show if there has been any tampering.
Around here, a full-service pharmacist will cut your pills out for you and put them in your pill box (you pay for that level of service). Or some of them have a service where somebody in a factory will consolidate all your daily pills into one well, foil covered and stamped with the day/date for use.
:smack: :smack: OMG !! I hate trying to open a package of battery I am always afraid of having one less finger . I thought I heard something was going to be done about this b/c people were complaining it’s to risky trying to open the damn packages you can cut your hand on plastic too. I finally came up with a way to open the package of batter easier , I cut the top off then pull the two sides apart .
I do that too, and I try to do it with other kinds of the molded plastic pkgs, but often it’s impossible to just pull the sides apart (pretty easy with batteries).
To others’ comments about meds, some of those things make sense but it still seems like other ways to deal with the issues. Like with moisture, isn’t preventing moisture what those little packets are for in some medicine bottles? And child-proof, I’ve seen some child-proof bottle caps that I could barely get open myself…! I did not realize that some pharmacists will remove the pills from those foil packs for you, with or without a fee.
I suppose on balance it’s a small thing and I’m not frothing angry about it or anything, but it sure is annoying.
I have them all over the place, no rummaging required.
They both slice through both blister pack (the hard shell plastic) and the backs of the pill packs.
The snap-blade give you 10 points per blade and the blades cost pennies each; utility knives last longer, but are more trouble to change (Stanly used to sell utility blades in wall-mount dispensers of 100 blades each. I bought 2. Still going, but I may yet out-live them.
Also: snap blades are what paper hangers use to get wall paper into those really sharp corners.
The other reason to package pills individually is for overdose prevention.
I recall reading that people in the UK took to using acetaminophen / paracetamol / Tylenol as a suicide drug of choice. That’s not good. It’s also the case that it’s easy to OD on the drug but with less than a fatal dose, producing massive liver damage and a long lingering painful next year or so before you finally expire.
So they altered the packaging so each pill or two-pill group was in a separate foil pack. Use of that drug for suicide went from epidemic to nearly zero.
Folks who were sufficiently desperate to want to kill themselves found that peeling open 10 or 15 little foil packets was just too much work. So they stayed alive and uninjured instead.
For meds, it’s probably going to be to prevent tampering and degradation.
For other products, it’s not just just to make the item more physically awkward to steal - the other aspect of theft deterrent is that there may be electronic security tags inside the packaging - it makes sense from a security perspective to make these hard to remove (increases catch rate for theft)
Also, hard-to-open packaging keeps the stock in saleable condition - I’ve seen people unbox things in store to take a look at them, then inexpertly repack them, then take a pristine unopened one from the shelf and buy it. The one that they repacked is less saleable.
Not a very good idea. Most of those pills sold online are fakes and at best harmless. At worst they contain something that’ll destroy your kidneys or something like that.
One OTC item I use comes in very small quantities in blister packs. Can’t reliably open them without crumbling the pills. Or I can buy them larger quantities in bottles. No blister pack or anything. And for a lot less per pill.
Any excuse based on moisture, reducing easy ODing, etc. is out the window here.
I think making the package seem bigger is the main thing. People would be unhappy to buy a box and find a tiny bottle with 12 pills in it. Plus you can charge more per pill.
There might be some people who want to split up the packs and carry around just a pill or two instead of a bottle. But there are simple ways to do this with your own holder.
For things that come in plastic shells, I use a pair of tin snips. Meant to cut through thin metal, they nip right through that plastic as if it were paper.
Cut around the sides, lift off the plastic, no problem.