Poor packaging designs - ice cream sandwiches

It looks so simple. Take the ice cream sandwich and wrap it in waxed paper or foil like a gift wrap. Done. Easy to open. But nooooo. They have to glue the final flap down. And you cannot just slip a finger under that flap and pop it loose. It’s glued. I end up having to cut the flaps apart over 90% of the time. And by the time you get it unwrapped your fingers are already messy. When some companies switched to the foil wrap I was fooled. I thought it would improve things. But it made it worse. If the foil tears, it continues ripping around the sandwich. They need to talk to the Post-It people.

Dennis

Weird, I have never had difficulty opening an ice cream sandwhich. I do not recall anything annoyingly glued. I cannot describe in words how I do it. Are you buying individual ones they are worried people will tamper with? Maybe those are extra hard to open.

The really hard to open package is LaffyTaffy. It isn’t even worth the effort. The candy is too difficult to seperate from the wrapper.

Holy crap, The bain of my existence. Packaging is so non-sensical. Either it’s impossible to get into or the paper is so thin it rips in many directions. I give you potato chip bags as evidence. Especially cheetos. I love my cheetos ( they are cheesy, you know).
I love my Hershey bars. They used to be so satisfying to open. The paper outer sleeve slipped right off and the nice foil that unfolded easily. Nope. Now it’s a peice of plastic-y paper that will not open right.
This reminds me…back to my letter writing campaign. Yep, I am one of those.

I’ve bought microwaveable frozen food items that instructed you to “peel back the film halfway” or something similar to that at some point during cooking, except the film is glued down so hard that it can’t be peeled back, it must be cut with scissors or a knife, which isn’t easy either when the whole thing is white fucking hot out of the microwave.

Even better when the instruction is to peel back the film, stir and then put the film back. Which is impossible, as it won’t recover the tray properly.

I have come home many times with a tiny object packed into a huge box so it gets more attention and shelf space. Total waste.

Plastic packaging, even in this day of environmental awareness, continues to be overkill, especially some of those things I buy at Costco that come on large, thick cardboard sheets with thick plastic blister packing integrated into the cardboard so you can’t even cut it with a scissors, you have to use a box cutter.

I hear ya loud and clear over those ice cream sandwiches. The final fold is glued down. It leaves a lose flap that when you try to open instead of tearing down the glued flap seam that runs parallel to the sandwich, it rips perpendicular to the seam so you just tear the wrapper around the end of the sandwich. And it’s not like the sandwich will slip out now, it’s stuck in there. Now theres nowhere else to grab the wrapper except the flap on the other end which just does the same thing. Now your left with a tightly wrapped ice cream sandwich with two exposed ends and no way to get that last piece off without making a mess.

I have the same frustration with ice cream sandwiches. The paper doesn’t tear where you want it to tear. And the foil ones open easier but they conduct your body heat. So you better eat it fast or have a gooey mess.

And those peel back and continue heating packages? Yeah, screw that nonsense. I just throw it in a container with a lid and avoid that shit altogether.

I dunno, Jim, I have probably eaten hundreds of the things and only had a few open easily of any brand. I can see the ones that are sold individually being made a bit more tamper proof, but most of the ones I buy are by the box from several different manufacturers.

I have a box of Great Value mini sandwiches right now. Walmart’s captive brand and they are excellent sandwiches with a nice crispy biscuit. I have gotten one to open without utensils so far. The one I ate this morning defied all attempts. I slit it from one end to separate the two papers and that just cut through the top one. Ditto for the other end. Now I’m stuck with the classic wrapper in the middle that Hampshire described.

Maybe they need a zipper like old bandages used to have.

Dennis

I assume they want the package reasonably leak proof. Sometimes frozen goods get left out on the loading dock.

The sealed wrapper needs to hold the soft ice cream until it’s back in the freezer.

I know this has been mentioned somewhere in another thread on this board, but it’s worth repeating. Pill packaging. Whoever thought of putting pills in little foil squares that are impossible to peel apart like they are supposed to? Even the ones that are supposed to push through the back of the packaging are often a pain in the ass.

I know it no longer matters to most people, but the wrap around CD jewel cases. Sometimes they provided a pull tab, but even then the pull tab just broke off.

Also, Old El Paso soft taco kits. The tortillas are in a shiny, reflective plastic bag held together by ionic bonds. Blowtorch not included.

I might be the only person with this problem, and it’s more old school than most in this thread, but I always struggle with things that come in boxes where you are supposed to push the tab through, then fold it up so you can pour out of the box. Baking soda and cat litter are the two items that come to mind.

I have either the world’s most delicate fucking flower fingertips or my technique is jacked because I can’t punch those damned things through and if I do (usually with the help of a knife), I can’t grab it and fold it up or tear through the top or whatever I’m supposed to be doing.

On the brand of cat litter my wife prefers, it is hard to open that damn flap even using a blade. Once they put handles on the top to carry them, the top is two layers of heavy cardboard.

Dennis

But it doesn’t seal anything. Just several dabs of glue or a short line of it.

Dennis

If frozen goods have been left out long enough to thaw, they should not be sold.

This. Goods should not be packaged in a way desiged to make it easier to sell them in an unsafe condition.

No. It’s so they won’t get shoplifted. And that’s certainly not a waste to the seller.

Remember that packaging is designed for the interests of the manufacturer, transporters, and seller. Customer is way less important than those, because the packaging is rarely very important to them, at least not important to change their purchasing habits.

Look at this thread, for example: all these complaints about ice cream sandwiches, but nobody has indicated that they stopped buying them. Instead they mention having ‘eaten hundreds of them’ and ‘the bain (sic) of my existence’. No change in their purchasing habits.

Yeah, those are pretty irritating. Yogurt containers are often like that, too - you try to peel the lid foil off, and it rips down the middle instead.

My peeve for hard opening is still Kraft macaroni and cheese cardboard boxes. There is no easy way to open these friggers- you try to peel the lid off, and only half of the cardboard comes off. It always turns into me just trying to rip my way through somehow. :frowning:

My brother and I were just discussing the ridiculousness of protein bars that are meant to be eaten on the go yet require safe cracking tools to gain access.