I’m far from being an ardent environmentalist. But really, the amount of excess packaging that we deal with in North America is staggering.
The other day in Costco I saw iPods for sale. The packaging was oh, about 12" X 14" of the hard, impenetrable, heat-sealed plastic type that you need scissors or a utility knife, or a chain saw to get into. And of course an equally sized splashy coloured piece of paper inside.
There was a display with literally hundreds of these at the end of an aisle. Here’s the kicker, there were no actual iPods inside the package! To purchase your iPod – the instructions stated – you merely had to take one of these 12" X 14" display packages up to the cash!
Now, I understand the mentality behind overpackaging; it allows the product more prominence on the display shelf. But I really don’t think we’re that idiotic as consumers. Would not a large display with business card sized tickets have performed the same function? Are we that stupid?
Yeah, it sounds stupid, but then it occurred to me: if the actual product is in another box, after you collect and pay for it, they can just take the display packaging and put it back on the rack!
Admittedly, it would be saner to do that with a simple block of wood or styrofoam wrapped in a box and then shrink-wrapped, like they do for Adobe CS3 software at the Apple store and presumably elsewhere, but…
We *are * that idiotic as consumers. People need something tangible to hold and flip around and ooh and ahh over.
They can’t do that with a 2x3 inch “pull ticket” - there’s just no emotional attraction to a slip of paper that isn’t legal tender. Also, you would be hard-pressed to lose that clamshell display thing in the store before you get to the register. A little slip of paper is easily lost or set down on the shelf when you pick up that 12-pack of canned soup.
It actually uses less packaging than the pair of headphones you buy to replace the crappy earbuds with the ipods.
I bought my husband’s ipod at Costco, and had the same burrr-whaaa? moment. Then I got the ipod itself, and it was in just the tiniest, thinnest, barely protective cardboard box. I could have slipped the thing in my purse (which, of course, is why they only hand it to you after you’ve paid.) So for catching your interest with the larger fake clamshell (which doesn’t even have a bubble in it - it’s essentially a laminated card), and putting it back on the shelf after I’ve left to sell it to another person, and then putting the product itself in very small, recyclable packaging, I’m actually givin’ them some kudos. Plus the store isn’t littered with paper tickets that are one use, crumpled and lost. Yes, they probably could have reduced their “packaging” even further, but it’s a step, man, it’s a step.
Didja know “styrofoam” cups actually use less energy and resources to make than paper ones? And that people tend to reuse them for more uses before discarding them? Sometimes the best ecological choice isn’t the obvious one.
I didn’t think that was the problem with styrofoam. Paper cups are recyclable, and biodegrade faster. Styrofoam just takes up space for a few million years.
Yeah, Costco isn’t so bad with the packaging. I was thinking the same thing in that very store, but I figured that they were reused. I didn’t know that they give it to you in minimalist packaging, which cuts down on stock area as well.
What kills me is cosmetics packaging. (I’m a guy, btw)
There’s a jellybean-sized dollop of expensive goop in a teeny little hollowed-out hole in a jar big around as a hockey puck, and the whole thing, naturally, is packaged in a box. How much cheaper would the product be if it was packaged in something the size of coffee creamer?
For whatever reason your OP made me flip back a decade or more to when I spent time in Toys R Us. Especially for larger items, they would have pads of tear-off coupons that you would bring to the counter if you wished to purchase something.
Or there was the (now defunct?) Service Merchandise chain. Their stores were basically run like catelog outlets. You would print in your order at a computer, and go to the counter to pick it up and pay.
Both seemed like fine business models.
Can’t think of any recent horrific examples of over-packaging myself, but I tend to avoid shopping whenever possible.
Kids toys are the worst now: a) because they want the large prominent display, and b) to help minimize theft.
There’s clamshell plastic that is impenetrable without really sharp instruments. The toy, and pieces thereof, is twist-tied to cardboard and plastic mounts within the shell in insane quantities. Then the whole thing is stuck inside an oversized partial cardboard box.
I understand that hand injuries trying to open blister packs are one of the top reason for visits to the ER during Christmas. The reason for them is that they make shoplifting harder, or so they claim. It just sucks.
And don’t get me started on the kids toys with the million wire ties to keep the little pieces in place.
I was cursing over-packaging today at work. This particular drug in particular (Olanzapine, manufactured by Eli Lilly company). It’s 30 tablets in a little plastic bottle with a child-proof top. Then over the child-proof top is a plastic ‘security’ collar thingie, the shrink-wrap type. Stuck to the side of the bottle is the product information sheet. Inside is a security seal across the top of the bottle, and inside the bottle under the wad of cotton is a Sorb-It canister (you know, the dessicant stuff). Criminy.
What ever happened to small receipts? The little ones that were 2 inches wide and maybe 3 long if you didn’t buy much. I purchased 1 item at a big box store, and the receipt was 3" wide and just shy of 18" long. It had the store name, address, phone number, and hours. It had empty areas (yes, plural) almost an inch long. It thanked me for shopping there. It had a survey/lottery I could enter. It didn’t even include a copy of my signature. That would have been another 2" or so.
You want long receipts, go shopping at Fry’s. The length of their receipts is a subject of ledgend - I don’t think they’re capable of anything shorter than 18 inches.
I’ve had some that were so long, I thought the city’s phone book was being printed for me.
Flashing back to the time in the late Nineties when I bought Doom for my PC … the box was round about the size of your average packet of cornflakes, maybe a bit deeper. The contents? Three CDs.