So today, I unwrapped a package that came in the mail. Besides the item that was expected, there was the bubble wrap. So of course, I was looking forward to popping the bubbles, and hearing the lovely noise it makes, until they don’t pop! :eek: It wasn’t ordinary bubble wrap… it was this stuff.
It’s unpoppable bubble wrap.
Who the fuck came up with this shit? What kind of sick, demented asshole must he have been? And how was he executed?
The manufacturing process for bubble wrap has changed. The new stuff isn’t inflated when shipped, but rather inflated at the point of use. I read about it a while back.
ETA: Yeah. Just Google “new bubble wrap.”
Where have you been? That’s stuff’s been around for several years at least.
And it is evil.
And it takes all the fun out of popping bubble wrap.
You could stock up on, and hoard the old fashioned kind before it goes out of style.
FYI, when I did this Google search, the first result (going to Huffington Post) included a link to OpalCat’s virtual bubble wrap page. I hope her family is still benefiting from this.
BTW, the problem with conventional bubble wrap is that if the bubbles pop during shipping, there is a loss of protection to the item.
Except with the old style, damage was confined only the individual cell. Now, a puncture affects the whole row.
Regarding Opal’s bubblewrap page, back before I joined the SDMB, I put together a website for the local running club. On the “links” page, I included a section of random/goofy/amusing sites.
One of them was Opal’s bubblewrap.
We had a thread about this last year:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=761115&highlight=bubble+wrap
We may have had others, too.
Bubble Wrap is clearly important to people here.
I was thinking less of a puncture (which should be unlikely) and more like a bubble popping due to pressure from the item being wrapped. I don’t know if they’ve studied this extensively, though.
It seems that a big advantage of the new product is the shipping size. Have you ever received one of those four-foot-wide rolls of bubble wrap? They’re enormous.
It’s an advantage on the receiving/disposal end as well. All I have to do is lay it out and run my box cutter over one edge and the whole thing’s collapsed and fits into the recycling in a little tiny ball instead of a giant roll of bubble wrap that I certainly don’t have time to pop.
Actually, yes. 15 of 'em.
Many years ago, I drove for a same-day courier service in the Bay Area.
One day, I got called back to the base to get The Truck (think 20 ft Uhaul type). That was the load, 15 of those things.
There’s a app for it.
They’re not going to discontinue the old stuff, thank god. (Virtual bubble wrap is cool, but it’s just not the same)
They look like they’re going to hatch and something evil will emerge.
Seventeen-ish years ago I had a delivery at work that was wrapped in acres of huge-bubble bubble wrap. I gave the bubble wrap to my son, who was five at the time. Better than most purchased gifts he’d received. I’m surprised it didn’t influence him to become a stuntman.
It’s a known fact that if you try to say “bubble wrap” repeatedly 26 times within 15 seconds that you will say “Bubbadog” on the 18th or 19th attempt.
Damn them to hell! One more small pleasure taken from us by the heartless mercantilists. Have they never spent an entertaining few minutes popping bubbles themselves? It seems not. These guys have no souls.
Oh, it’ll still pop. You just have to use more…aggressive methods. Like a half stick of dynamite.
I get something akin to bow-rab, with maybe a hint of an l after the w. (Bow as in presents, a as in cat.)
Roll it up and stomp on it. You may have to jump up and stomp both sides at once, but the results are worth the effort.
With the new stuff you get one or two really huge bangs, with a lot less time required. It’s a more efficient form of relief.
