Also these!
I’ve had one of those for years. It works very well indeed. I have them as christmas presents a few years back. Everyone said it was the best present they’d gotten that year.
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Ok that does it, I’m getting myself one of those handy Zibra things. I can at least mitigate a lot of my frustration over the shell type packages by using something other than regular scissors to open them! These were great suggestions, thanks all.
The meds will continue to drive me nuts for the most part. I don’t want to buy loose, bulk meds online, just too iffy and even if it’s as cheap as $20 for a whole pile, that’s $20 I’d prefer not to throw away on placebo pills or worse!
Why? It would only cut into their profits, and the profits of the sellers.
Many Kirkland (Costco) brand OTC meds are sold through both Costco and Amazon. The same 600 count bottle of Benadryl generic you get at a Costco store, for example.
on nat geos 100 inventions that changed the world they say clamshell packaging came about because of Walmart and Costco’s volume of sales because they could hang 40 or 50 Walkman style cd players on a single rack peg rather than maybe a boxed 10 or so on a shelf
My dark, twisted fantasy:
Kidnap the CEO of a company that uses those unopenable packages.
Lock him in a room with pile of them.
Tell him he won’t be released until he has opened every one of them–with his BARE HANDS!
Bwahahaha…
Manufacturers hate the packages too; they’re expensive.
All you have to do is convince your fellow citizens to quit shoplifting and to quit opening and damaging boxes of product then putting them back on the shelf.
Solve that problem and CEOs will be paying you handsomely.
Imodium is a nightmare to open I think it is a dark and sinister plot by the manufacturer.
People forget about stuff. Hardware, electronic and otherwise, packed in those impossible to access packages are about theft. Medicines and other health products are sold that way because of the incredibly fiendish Tylenol Murders from the 1980s.
The tylenol murders introduced the sealed foil/plastic cover over the mouth of the bottles. Some went with the tape around the cap that must be removed to unscrew the cap.
The over-sized packaging from which the product is nearly impossible to extract without causing a commotion is anti-theft.
A couple of generations ago, only blankets, lanterns, pails - thing you cannot conceal were left in the open - everything else was in a case or on high shelves behind the cases. Think Pharmacy Window.
People would make a list - some would just hand it to the person behind the counter and wait while he/she pulled every item.
You couldn’t steal much, but you rarely made an impulse buy, either.
IIRC, it was Woolworth (see Wiki) who came up with the idea to put small items out on the floor and allow customers to select whatever piqued their fancy.
A huge success - even if 10% (a high number) of product walked out, the sales tripling covered the loss.
Now we want to have the stuff sitting out shouting “Buy Me! Buy Me!” but resent the “shrinkage” - and now materials and machinery are dirt cheap.
Until recently, if you wanted to prevent theft, you put it in a box and sealed the box.
This has two huge problems: it costs lots of money to buy and seal the box, plus it took up space on transport AND display - making it doubly expensive.
A blister pack adds pennies to packaging costs, and takes up trivial shipping/storage space.
Hence: keep sharp blades around, it’s going to be a long time…
loperamide (Imodium) is another example of an OTC drug that’s easy to find in both blister packs and bottles. It’s also something that is really handy to have in an easy to open container when the need strikes.
I don’t see how “Tylenol Murders” can explain so much stuff available in both package forms. Especially since Tylenol itself is generally available in bottles.
One use of blister packs that has me completely befuddled. Hardware stores here often have fasteners and allied bits (nut bolts screws drywall screws etc) in blister packs. Yet they will also have exactly the same item available loose right next to the packs on hooks. Just a drawer or small bucket full. Without fail the unit cost of the items in the blister pack is over double that of buying them loose. There is zero reason to ever buy the items in the pack. Yet they clearly sell.
There is one reason to ever buy the items in the pack: you’re lazy and can’t be bothered to count out the number of nuts, bolts, or gewgaws you actually need from the bulk bin, and put them in the little envelope, and write the part number and the count on the outside of the envelope.
And that’s the overwhelming majority of the hardware-buying customer base. Grab a package with >= the number of bits you need and go.
Perhaps you mean “zero good reasons”, but that’s not relevant. Bad reasons (like laziness or demand for convenience) are the reliable path to profits. Hence, the consumer’s bad reason is the seller’s great reason.
Those little bags are perfect for the 'weekend warrior" who doesn’t know the difference between bolts and machine screws, has only a vague idea of what is required.
This is a classic of “put it out so people don’t need to know the name”.
If you want something to replace the “bolt” the lawnmower threw, you just look for “ummm… - THIS looks like it might work” - and you’re out of the store while I am still counting and bagging my fender washes, self-tapping metal screws, etc.
See those little organizers with a few brads, a couple of machine screws, washers - all neatly packed in a cute little box - a “Starter Junk Drawer”.
They go well with the cheap tool sets for apartment dwellers - those “tools” would last about two days of serious use, but: if you need to tighten something, hang a picture, replace the plate over a wall switch - good enough.
Only Kirkland thing I’ve ever bought was a big thing of chocolate almonds. Don’t judge! Not a Costco member but I bought them via Amazon no problem. I guess it makes sense since they sell everything else in bulk but it never occurred to me that a Costco or Sam’s Club would sell ginormous containers of, say, allergy meds. I’d trust the Kirkland brand more than some no-name nebulous pharma company, so I just may check this out. Thanks for the tip.
I like the cut of your jib.
No pun intended. 
I know exactly the almonds you mean; they’re worth every penny and calorie! If they ever start selling their cinnamon-coated almonds on Amazon I’m doomed.
Looked great so I bought two to use as stocking-stuffers this year. Durn things came in plastic packages.
:smack:
Yeah, but after the first one is out you’ll have some practice material.
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