I’m grilling tonight, and that brings up a question. Only about a fifth of the time do I get a bag of charcoal briquets to open neatly, with the thread that runs along the top properly ripping its way across the bag. The rest of the time I get a little piece of paper in my hand and must resort to gorilla warfare to open the bag.
Obviously, either the design or manufactering are sub-par, or I’m lacking in technique. Which is it, and if it’s me, what should I be doing?
Scissors. I could hardly ever get those damn things open either.
They just want you to get all frustrated and light the whole darn thing.
Kingsford has stopped using the thread. The bag is closed by tape.
Well, at least it’s not just me. I’ll be glad to see the tape arrive, Chuck; apparently my grocer is still selling remaining stocks of the threaded bags.
I’d never bother futzing with the little string thingy, preferring to go guerilla on the bag right from the start. I First I lure it into a false sense of security by leaving it alone for a while by the grill, then I sneak up behind and grab the top of the bag like I’m going try to open it with the string but at the last moment I pull out knife and deftly slice the top of the bag off. No bag of charcoal makes a fool of me 
I take it you scream stuff like “Arrgghhh! Kill! KILL!!!” during the finale?
That is a requirement!
Stabbing motions and “Psycho” music playing the background is permissible.
Examine the thread closely. If it resembles the thread and stitch that used to be used on cat kibble bags, then you will find that the thread is chain stitched across the opening. You have to make sure that you don’t have part of another thread entangled in the stitch for it to open easily. Some people would probably think that this is too much trouble when opening the bag with a knife is so viscerally satisfying.
I believe it makes a big difference which end of the stitching (and on which side of the bag) you attack; this would seem to tie in with your experience of it only working one time in five.
Well, no, if that were the case, I’d expect it to happen half the time, given pure chance. Unless the briquets manufacturer is really lax in their QC with the “Pull This End To Open” labels".
It is indeed dependant on which end you start from.
In another life I used to have to open a LOT of bags of cotton seed hulls every day. These were stitched the same way. Back then you could get $.25 per undamaged sack, so getting the thread out without resorting to mayhem was fairly important if you wanted to re-sale the sacks.