# Stupidest product design you’ve experienced **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 25, 2023, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621 "2023-03-25T02:57:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 30
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2023, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/581 "2023-05-23T21:16:32Z")
Why wouldn’t they want to feel them? ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2023, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/582 "2023-05-23T21:25:22Z")
Not stupid but more diabolical. The vending machine at my work sells yogurt. How are you suppose to eat the yogurt? They sell spoons in the row right under the yogurt for $1 each ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2023, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/583 "2023-05-23T22:07:22Z")
Not stupid, exactly, but a mild pet peeve is packets of several socks where each of them is a different colour or has writing that is. Make them all match so they are easy to sort. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2023, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/584 "2023-05-23T22:16:27Z")
I don’t like those, either, but I wouldn’t call it a pet peeve. I just don’t buy that kind. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2023, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/585 "2023-05-23T22:17:58Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > They sell spoons in the row right under the yogurt for $1 each I used to keep a stash of plastic cutlery in my desk at work for stuff like that. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2023, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/586 "2023-05-23T22:45:14Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > The public will tear open the bag to feel the merch, then nobody will buy the torn-open bag because cooties. I have bought an awful lot of socks in my life that weren’t displayed in any sort of bag at all. Why should they be in any sort of bag? > [@enipla](#): > > People need to feel socks that are sold by the dozen? If I’m going to buy an entire dozen pairs of socks, it’s going to be even more important that they feel right than if I’m only buying one pair. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2023, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/587 "2023-05-23T22:52:34Z")
I buy two kinds of socks: - Cheap cotton mass-market ones from Hanes or Fruit of the Loom and come in a bag by the dozen. There is no need to feel them because they’re all identical. I’m probably wearing the same one that I’m buying. - More expensive special-purpose kinds like for dress, hiking, cold weather, or whatever. Feel is important, but they don’t come in a bag and I’m not buying them by the dozen. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2023, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/588 "2023-05-23T22:54:24Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > There is no need to feel them because they’re all identical What about the potential first-time buyer? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2023, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/589 "2023-05-23T22:56:38Z")
The first time I bought cheap cotton socks, I’d already been wearing them for 18 or so years. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2023, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/590 "2023-05-23T22:57:22Z")
Usually the socks in a bag are six or eight white crew socks. The fancier socks are sold in individual pairs and not in bags. And if you’re buying the _really_ fancy socks, you have to wait for the clerk to measure your feet and then knit them for you on the spot. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2023, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/591 "2023-05-23T23:03:02Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Usually the socks in a bag are six or eight white crew socks. I’ve even seen those sold not in a bag; just with a band around the pairs holding the correct number together. – have bought them that way, too. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2023, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/592 "2023-05-23T23:03:52Z")
Sure, they’re sold that way as well. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2023, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/593 "2023-05-23T23:16:57Z")
So, as I started off saying – there’s no need to use a bag at all. It’s just yet another unnecessary chunk of plastic, made deliberately to be disposed of. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2023, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/594 "2023-05-24T00:27:21Z")
Most of this packaging is either about keeping the product clean in shipping and display, or about managing pilferage and “shop-wear”. All of which are about reducing the cost of goods as sold. The plastic is evidently cheaper than the amount of unsaleable socks it prevents. There is always an argument about whether cost is a perfect proxy for environmental impact. Often it is close, and also often it is far from close. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2023, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/595 "2023-05-24T00:57:43Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > The plastic is evidently cheaper than the amount of unsaleable socks it prevents. Well, maybe. But this doesn’t seem to usually be a decision made by the stores. Even at individually run stores, when I comment on excess packaging, by far the most common response I get is ‘yes we know, but that’s the only way we can get it from the distributors.’ Somebody way up the line is deciding ‘that’s how these things come packed now.’ I suppose it’s possible that the decisions are always made after a careful study of relative short-term financial costs of packaging versus possible increases in losses (probably leaving the environmental costs out of it entirely), and never based on the decider having stock in, and/or friends running, or just having a sympathetic ear for the sales force of, the plastic-packaging company. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2023, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/596 "2023-05-24T02:08:54Z")
Are people who feel the socks the same people who squeeze the Charmin? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2023, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/597 "2023-05-24T11:04:54Z")
I buy socks from Amazon. They’re socks. I’ve never felt the need to feel them prior to purchase, and I’ve never been disappointed. They’re socks. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2023, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/598 "2023-05-24T11:37:24Z")
The Disappointing Socks = band name! ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2023, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/599 "2023-05-24T11:39:40Z")
Also a good title for a novelty Christmas song. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2023, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/600 "2023-05-24T12:44:31Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > I buy socks from Amazon. They’re socks. I’ve never felt the need to feel them prior to purchase, and I’ve never been disappointed. They’re socks. ^ I used to buy the bag 'o socks. But never cared what they felt like. But, as it goes, “Whatever floats your boat” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621.md?page=29) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621.md?page=31)