I guess I’m not understanding the OP’s problem. When I get a product in a bag like that, I just snip off the top of the bag with a pair of scissors.
The packaging that really annoys me is the so-called “blister pack” that a lot of small items come in. It’s especially annoying when the item is both very small and also delicate, like a microSD card. The package appears to be a single piece of cardboard that somehow magically has a little dome of clear plastic protruding from it like a large pimple, and inside the pimple is the product. How the hell are you supposed to open that without damaging the product?
It turns out of course that what appears to be a single piece of cardboard is actually two pieces glued together, which can be pried apart with a degree of ease or difficulty that depends on the specific package, but it’s usually a pain in the ass. It wouldn’t be hard to make it with a little pull tab that facilitates the task, but I guess that would cost the manufacturer a tenth of a cent more so it’s a non-starter.
I recently bought a package of Tide pods which had a “lockable” zip closure, presumably to keep stupid children from eating them. However, I found it impossible to open the package to access the zip closure, and ended up just cutting it open, which made the zip closure inoperative. Since I have no children and my cat has expressed zero interest in eating the pods, I’m fine with this.
I hate zip-lock bags. I never trust them because I have to try at least three times before they seem to seal. They mock me. Big containers with zip-lock just get cut open and closed with clips.
I’m often challenged by the flexible plastic seals across the top of many plastic food containers - thinking of Panera soups. Under the pry off plastic top. They will often have a tab, suggesting you could just pinch the tab and peel it off. But more often than not, it has been sealed with superglue, and I end up needing to cut the seal around the inside rim of the container.
Also, the redundant seals. There is a plastic seal on the OUTSIDE of the cap - which you may need a knife to cut off. Then you unscrew the cap, only to be faced with ANOTHER seal of the sort I described above…
Forget all these zip-loc bags and hard plastic packages. Have you noticed that ordinary sealed bags, like you’d get chips or cereal in, are now practically impossible to open without scissors?
It used to be you could just pinch the sides, and pull apart the seams at the top, which separated easily and cleanly.
Now it seems they are sealed with some sort of super laser or ultra-glue or something, and won’t come apart unless you have the strength of Superman.
While I’m at it, I’ve been buying Orbit gum, which comes in matchbox-sized packets of 14 pieces, for decades. I find it holds its flavor far longer than any other gum.
Each little packet is wrapped in thin clear plastic, and for most of the time I’ve bought it there was a little starter string that circled the pack, which made it easy to remove the wrapper. For the last year or two, they’ve stopped putting that string in, and that damn things are sealed so well they are practically impossible to open without the f-ing string. I scratch at them with my nails, but can’t get under the seams. I usually have to use a box cutter to slice through the stuff. Infuriating. But I’m sure some bean counter proved that they’d save 0.0001 cents per package to leave off the string.
What I can’t open without explosives is the oval tubs Persil washing pods comes in. Either you need four hands or a cutting torch. It’s impossible.
I noticed I’ve seen them in the zip bags recently. Yay!
I haven’t noticed that. Just tonight I opened a bag of Lay’s potato chips and it opened easily just as always. It must be some particular brand you’re having trouble with, or maybe a local manufacturing issue.
Speaking of food packaging, I like buying various kinds of cheddar cheese to snack on in individual single-serving sizes. They come in mesh bags with a dozen or as many as 30 or so in one of the larger bags. I like them because each piece is essentially vacuum-packed and lasts a really long time. To open, you’re supposed to pull off the plastic film that covers the little plastic tray each one comes in.
The plastic film helpfully has a little arrow in one corner showing you where there’s a loose flap that you’re supposed to grab and pull off the film. In theory. In reality? Sometimes the little flap is there, sometimes you have to really scrape and fumble for it. And with some brands, sometimes even when you get hold of the flap, the glue is so strong that it’s still impossible to pull off, and if your fingers are even slightly wet, fuggetaboutit. On a few rare occasions I’ve actually had to attack the packaging with my handy oyster shucking knife in order to get at the cheese.
I still like that format, though. I hate reaching for a big block of cheese and finding that it’s gone moldy.
Speaking of Velcro, I’ve gotten some packaging that has a reclosure that’s cheapo plastic Velcro. Yeah, worthless.
A clothes pin works more better. If you really gotta keep it in the original package.
I can’t tell you how much easier my life is with slider zip bags.
Hey, I even take the box empty all the slider bags into one of them. Throw box away. Easier to store a bag of bags. Than a box of bags. IMO
Ha! I like those too. And they do last far beyond their Best Before date, as long as they have not been opened. And yes, they can be a challenge.
No need for an oyster-shucking knife; I’ve found that a serrated bread knife cuts through them just fine. Really, just say, “The hell with this,” and cut them across the middle. Then, you can peel back all the plastic. They’re small enough that you can eat an entire one at a sitting, so there’s no need to reseal unused portions.
I’m reminded of the time that a local supermarket sold cole slaw in some kind of plastic container that had a kind of zip-strip, which you removed, then you had to press down here, and lift up there, and then something else. For all I could tell, it was, “stand on your head and spit quarters.” But I had had enough by this point, so I got out my trusty serrated bread knife, and just cut the container in two. I got my cole slaw.
That clamshell-type of packaging is often easy to open simply by squeezing and twisting—the plastic halves come right apart. Take it in both hands, give it a firm squeeze, then turn your hands in opposite directions. It’s not 100% foolproof, but it often saves quite a bit of aggravation, and doesn’t require any sort of tools.
ETA: Hmm, maybe clamshell isn’t the right term. I mean the type of packaging in the top picture of the wiki article on wrap rage (TIL that’s apparently a thing).
Mine is as minor as minor could be. But that ain’t gonna stop me.
There is a brand of individually-wrapped cheese sticks that I like. They are packaged in what is supposed to be easy, peel-apart packages. Guess who can rarely get them to peel nicely? Using a blade of some sort only compounds the problem - there is so little room to work with, cutting the plastic only leads to more heartbreak.
Serious answer to the rant. The secret to opening a recalcitrant ziplock is to slide it, not peel it.
Squeeze the two sides of the zipper between thumb and forefinger maybe an inch in from one end. With your fingers parallel to the axis of the zipper. Then push and pull the thumb versus finger, like the universal gesture for cash money. IOW, slide the index finger towards the base of the thumb while pushing the thumb out past the tip of the index finger.
The two halves of the zipper will slide past one another, at least a little. Which forces the “lips” of the bag apart at least a little. Now you can grasp them to finish opening the bag the usual way. If the bag material is real stiff and doing the finger-thumb slide near the edge that doesn’t work, try again starting near the middle of the zipper. Or pushing the opposite direction.
