Did a few searches for this in the archive and couldn’t find anything, but that could just be operator error…so, apologies if you’ve seen this before.
Last night I purchased a new monitor cable at my local electronics store and it (the cable, not the store) came in such amazingly tough plastic packaging that I spent the better part of ten minutes just trying to open it. Now, I consider myself more than physically capable of doing this (or at least I should be), but it got me to thinking about others–what if someone with arthritis, for example, or a simple lack of dexterity, is faced with such packaging? I mean, my scissors wouldn’t open it, my box-cutter could barely pierce it. In the end, I had to use wire cutters to snip away at the plastic, bit by bit (ripping and pulling at the sharp pieces and, in the end, even drawing blood). This seems absurd. Am I missing something obvious? Is there a simple way to open these bullet-proof cases? And why, frankly, would Corporate Marketing (or whoever) decide to wrap a package so securely that even the legitimate consumer cannot open it? Is it purely an anti-theft procedure, or are there item-safety issues involved as well?
Thanks for the help!
P.S. Despite the above, I like my new monitor cable.
A guy at the hardware store told me that one reason these packages are so hard to open is because people used to use a product, put it back in the package and then return it for a refund claiming that they never even used it.
Now you have to do so much “damage” to the package to get it open that there is no question that the package has been opened and the product used.
It makes shoplifting difficult. I purchased a 512MB SD memory card that was packaged like this. The actual product is tiny, but the plastic enclosure is enormous, and most people wouldn’t be able to open it in the store.
There’s no doubt at all in my mind that this is anti-theft related. Has anyone purchased a kids toy lately?; layers of plastic and cardboard and twist ties and tape and plastic and … well, it goes on and on. It takes 10 minutes to open these things at home, with knives and scissors. I can’t imagine discreetly opening one in a store.
Thanks, petty thieves, for making the rest of our lives miserable.
I’m wondering if some of it has to do (at least for the kids toys) with being able to display the product on the shelf (and letting you push the buttons while shopping) without having to worry about it busting lose during stocking, shipping, etc…
I’m sure it’s done for a number of reasons, including those outlined above, but also, some products are prone to lots of handling on the shop floor before someone actually buys them; do I need this cable, or do I need that one; shall I get the pink MP3 player or the mauve one, etc.
It keeps the inventory looking fresh; a lot of customers are put off buying things where the packaging appears dog-eared.
Dunno why, but I’m convinced that, despite all the proclamations of it being really safe, I’d somehow overshoot the end of the package, the device would rotate in my hand and I’d end up with my fingertips sliced off. I can’t imagine a device that manages more effectively to look innocent and menacing at the same time.
Exactly. The Consumer Reports article noted that toys used to just be dropped into a cardboard box, with the tiny accessories included in a little plastic bag in the box. Now everything has to be on display, leading to dozens of wires, tape, and even little plastic manacles for the Barbie dolls. :dubious:
As for the other items in the impenetrable clear plastic, the article said that it was security, more protection for the items in overseas shipments, and the fact that the price of packing items in the clear plastic dropped dramatically a few years ago.
Having worked retail for several years in my life I can say that there are some definite advantages to this.
Security. If it takes you ten minutes and quart of blood to open these things, surely thieves trying to do it conspicuously would be completely confounded. Even trying to remove just the security tag would be a near-impossible task. (There are other ways to defeat those, however)
Resiliency. Knowing as I do just how many people not only drop the packaging, but also how they knock other packaging off the shelves when they try and reach for the specific one they want way in the back, presumably on the grounds that it has a longer best-before date, sturdier plastic keeps the packaging looking good (fewer scuffs and they’re practically un-dentable). As was mentioned, people tend to go for the better-looking packaging and often will not buy any “scratch-and-dent” merchandise even if the contents are in perfect shape – and those that are willing to take them usually want a discount.
Fraud-proof. You can’t return it as-new if the packaging is mangled. Most places willl still accept it as a return, though, you just can’t easily claim it was never used. For the merchant though, there’s a difference in procedure between overstock sell-backs (unopened product) and return merchant authorisations (opened product).
Fiddle-proof. Put any kid in front of a packaged toy with easily accessible buttons, knobs or other protrusions or playables and by the time he’s done with it you might as well call it used. Plastic helps prevent against that but the thin stuff is still pliable enough to mash the buttons within. Thicker stuff makes it damnably hard to mash anything. In line with 4 as well, it makes it harder for young kids who don’t know better to open the package so they can play with the toy in-store.
A couple of Christmas’s ago, I couldn’t decide which GPS to get for my father. So I bought one at Target and one at Amazon. They were both from the same manufacture. The Amazon one was just a cardboard box with a thin plastic front. The Target one was the same exact style of box, with an thick plastic outer box around the whole thing. My only conclusion was that retailers get a choice of which to stock.
(BTW, I returned the one to Target sans huge outer box that had been destroyed in opening it. They didn’t care one bit.)
As I was trying to open one of these heinous plastic packages yesterday and almost slicing my fingers off from 1) the scissors and the sheer force I had to use to get them to cut, then 2) the sharp bits of plastic from the package once I got the scissors to cut it… I started to think, ya know these things are dangerous. Surely many people injure their hands opening these. What about liability? How is it that this type pf packaging is still used when it’s so dangerous?
I hate these packages, yet totally understand the need for them.
I spent my college years working retail. There is a large subclass of retail customers who really, really, want to touch whatever it is before they buy it. So they open the package in the store, take everything out, lose the small bits, and leave a mess…and decide they really didn’t want it. At best the clerks were able to reassemble everything. At worst, we’d reassemble everything, but overlook a broken or lost bit untill the customer who DID buy it came back unhappy.
Even if nothing was missing or broken, itemsw were often rendered unsaleable due to damage done to the package.
Or, a certain class of scum will steal the piece or accessory to replace the one they lost or broke. This is worse than stealing the whole thing, because the store suffers the whole loss, and quite likely the ire of a legitimate customer who gets the box with the missing piece.
As a retail customer, I’ve had the experience of getting a pneumatic tool that had been returned as (prewumably as new) that someone had engraved thier name in.
Anyway, the oyster packages cut down on inventory loss due to tinkering, and help gaurantee that the ligitimate customer gets everything he/she is supposed to. The only thing equally effective is keeping everything behind a counter, and having a clerk assist each customer…only practical for high value items these days.
