Those reaselable plastic bags that cheese and frozen biscuits come in, are no longer resealable once I get a hold of them. I either manage to pull the ziplock thing completly off along with the “tear here” part, or I can’t get it to open at all and have to use the scissors.
Those convenient new pull tabs on cans of soup and Spaghetti O’s, incase you somehow find yourself without a can opener but with a heating source: I can’t lift the pull tab without the help of a butterknife or a spoon.
Those paper coverings on salad dressing an BBQ sauce: Ihave to tear the paper off before twisting the cap off, although the paper perforated.
It’s not just you, hillbilly queen , I’ve pretty much been hacking every package apart with some utility scissors I keep in the drawer. I don’t even look at the instructions.
My cat, on the other hand, can get into any package, even a plastic screw top fish food container.
About an hour ago, I tangled with a package of batteries. There’s a helpful set of perforations on the back of the package, but puling the tab and peeling the paperboard back only revealed a solid layer of plastic with no perfs or pull tabs.
Eh? No instructions here. Is this supposed to be a reclosable package? Or just a goof in packaging?
I wound up chopping the end off with stout scissors and pouring the batteries out.
I can’t count the number of times I’ve nicked a finger on the foil that caps most yogurt containers.
The pull-tab cans that the dog food comes in are easy to start, but invariably, stop being easy with just half an inch of lid still attached to can, forcing me to flex, twist and beg the thing to come off neatly without endangering my fingers.
I haven’t had a foolproof load of groceries in 50 years, so I don’t expect it to start any time soon.
I just keep all my sharp tools handy.
Like you say, each improvement, like resealable bags, seems to only a partial victory, as some don’t get it right. I pull out the scissors, lop off the whole top of the bag, and treat it as though there were no zipper. I.e., just close it with a bag clip.
For pull-top lids, I usually find the pulls help, but some brands I just use the electric can opener. Some even have a recommendation on them, if you don’t like tabs, to use a regular opener on the bottom side.
As for other boxes, for those 50 years they have had “easy-open” cereal boxes with perforations in different arrangements. Some brands do it right, and for others I open the tops with a butter knife and get on with breakfast.
I became convinced, years ago, that all those “easy open packages” are just great big jokes perpetrated by the factories. Factory worker “Bill” designs a package that says “tear at new easy-open notch”, knowing damn well that there is not, never was, and never will be a notch on the package. But his life is so glum and sad that this is the only kicks he ever gets.
This is almost a running gag in our house. . .how much trouble I have with packaging. It all baffles me.
The deli at the supermarket puts meat in a ziploc bag, then folds the top over, and sticks the top to the side of the bag with the price sticker. My wife just tears that thing right in half, neatly between the top and side of the bag. I always wind up with a big hole in the bag, the sticker in shreds, the meat exposed to the elements.
A cereal box? If you think the recloseable tab is fitting in the slot after I’m done ripping that thing apart, you’re crazy. It’s freakin’ superglued shut.
Jar of pickles? Pickle juice meet counter top.
CDs? Batteries? I’m getting out knives and scissors, and straining my muscles to get into those things.
Your modern world confuses me and makes me scared.
Products that come encased in molded plastic. I cannot ever open those without sharp heavy scissors and lots of cussing. I invariably cut myself badly on the plastic in the process too.
There is a special place in hell for whoever designed those - I hope a nice cool bottle of water is suspended in front of their face for eternity - encased in their own packaging.
In the case of potato chips, “Bill” got a bonus. That mylar-ish plastic they put chips in now is all but impermeable and impossible to pull the top apart. But, the moment the slightest nick is developed, the bag explodes, leaving you with one half of the bag in each hand and chips all over the floor.