THIS is how it’s done!
(I know it’s April 1st, and everybody is paranoid, but the above link is in no way, shape, or form, a RickRoll or an even more off-putting RebeccaRoll.)
I don’t remember injuring myself, but I have ruined a Playstation controller by cutting the cord while trying to open the packaging with a boxcutter.
A friend of mine wore just Saran Wrap to a party. I think that qualified as a fashion accident.
I’m a fan of this tool, myself. Big offset wire-cutter-esque jaws to scissor off the edges or cut those wire ties holding toys in packages, a spring-retracted boxcutter blade when you need to cut something, and even a tiny screwdriver to open battery compartments. It’s everything you need for Christmas morning.
I once got an assortment of LED flashlights from Costco that came in a package of heavy plastic (at least 20 mil) and secured with steel rivets to hold it together between the different flashlights. After attacking it with scissors and other tools, I finally got it open using a garden clipper that is made to handle tree branches up to maybe and inch thick.
But the packaging most irritating is of meds in blister packs. I take a number of pills that are almost always used by AKs (old farts) like me. Yet most of them come in these packs that are getting increasingly difficult for me to open. Anyone with arthritis in their hands will find it impossible. One of them comes in a blister pack that I already have to scissors open. Ironically, that happened when it became generic. What is the point of this horrible packaging? Just to save the pharmacist the problem of counting pills? Then package them in packs of 30. Bad enough the outrageous costs of these meds; they are also impossible to open. Big Med really hates us.
I’ve found that a well-sharpened Swiss Army Knife tends to cut right through that stuff, at least enough for me to peel it open and get at the delicious electronics filling inside.
Though, of course, if you are using a folding knife that does not lock open, you should be careful not to pull the blade backwards, as that could fold the knife shut on your hand (one of the drawbacks to SAKs, I have to admit. did I mention that scars on your fingers were like a rite of passage in the Boy Scouts when I was a kid?)
I suppose one could just stop at customer service and have them open the package on your way out of the store. I keep swearing to do this for those impossible to open jar lids, too. They sell the stuff like that, put the onus on them to open it.
I’m convinced that whoever invented clamshell packaging is going to hell.
When they get there I hope the Devil hands them the only glass of cool clear water available - encased in a clamshell. And that the only tool they get to open it with is a rusty butter knife.
I have an excellent pair of Fiskers kitchen shears - in my damn kitchen! Which is nowhere near when I need to use a product I just purchased on a job. That is when the utility knife comes out and accidents happen.
Clamshell packaging is about theft prevention to some small extent, but it is mostly about labor reduction. A machine can drop the product into the open shell, a second machine can fold the shell over and a third machine “welds” the shell closed and trims off the excess. And nobody is employed to stuff the product in the box.
They are designed to cut through ‘live’ bone. Should you really need something like that to get at your new earbuds?
Blsiter pack is evil.