Slashdot Log In
Amazon Launches "Frustration-Free Packaging"
Posted by
kdawson
on Mon Nov 03, 2008 08:11 PM
from the save-the-earth-and-keep-more-of-your-fingers dept.
from the save-the-earth-and-keep-more-of-your-fingers dept.
mallumax notes Amazon's new Frustration-Free Packaging initiative. Over several years the retailer hopes to convince many of its suppliers to offer consumer-friendlier packaging. It's starting with just 19 products from Mattel, Fisher-Price, Microsoft, and Transcend. Until this program spreads to more products, better get one of these (ThinkGeek and Slashdot share a corporate overlord). From Amazon's announcement: "The Frustration-Free Package is recyclable and comes without excess packaging materials such as hard plastic clamshell casings, plastic bindings, and wire ties. It's designed to be opened without the use of a box cutter or knife and will protect your product just as well as traditional packaging. Products with Frustration-Free Packaging can frequently be shipped in their own boxes, without an additional shipping box. Amazon works directly with manufacturers to box products in Frustration-Free Packages right off the assembly lines, which reduces the overall amount of packing materials used."
Related Stories
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Full
Abbreviated
Hidden
Loading... please wait.
Best packaging innovation ever (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Best packaging innovation ever (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Best packaging innovation ever (Score:4, Insightful)
The odd thing is that even in situation where theft isn't an issue (like, behind the counter, or in a locked case) the products are still (often) clad in highly annoying, theft-proof, finger-slashing packaging.
In any case, the manufacturer could still use user-friendly packaging, and the stores (were it an issue) could use those reusable plastic lock-boxes you sometimes see software or videos in, which are cheap enough to buy in quantity but still need to be opened with a key at the register. One could make a case that this is even more secure than blister packaging (the anti-steal rfid is inside the locked box, instead of glued on the outside) and since the boxes are reused, much waste is eliminated.
Parent
Re:Best packaging innovation ever (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't think you realize how cheap those blister packs are, or the economy of scale in packaging everything a given manufacturer makes in the same kind of packaging (even if not the same size). Different kinds of packaging require different kinds of very expensive machines to handle, and that means different assembly lines that can't be easily converted to a product that uses the other kind of packaging. And so on.
Plus, at the retail end, anything the requires a key to sell requires, if not a manager, at least a senior employeed who has been vetted more throughly than the average cahsier.
Parent
Re:Best packaging innovation ever (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm wondering if there's a local aspect to the packaging strategy as well. In the EU, if a seller uses redundant packaging material, he has an obligation to either (a) take back all the packaging that isn't necessary to protect the product, or (b) pay what amounts to a monthly packaging tax. Most retailers still opt for (b), but at least in my country they're required to offer you a way to dispose of the excess packaging before you leave the store.
As for Amazon, I've hardly ever seen them use too much packaging. Their packets are made of recycled carton and open by pulling on a paper strap. Everything inside is exactly how I want it. I *want* the DVD cases, and the toy boxes! Getting your Legos in a bag is quite different from getting them in a flashy designed box - six sides with pictures that can show you different ways of assembling the parts.
They could get rid of the plastic wraps around the individual items, no big deal, but that's been done before, and is not news-worthy.
By the way... sometimes there's stuff in those packages that you didn't order. I got small packets of gummy bears a few times, and a "complimentary book" (twice). All in all, I can't complain.
CJ
Parent
Re:Best packaging innovation ever (Score:5, Informative)
I can tell you have never worked in retail management. Now you have to a) train all your cashiers not simple "call a manager/whatever to open the lockup case," but rather at least two (or maybe more) tiers of "if customer wants x, call manager, but if customer wants y, call Joe the Department Manager, but if customer wants z, call Barb the Head Cashier." You also have to train the manager, Joe, and Barb in all this, as well. And no training is perfect (and cashier and sales rarely make more than minimum wage, with expected effects on their skill set), so you also back up the lines with each error made. Plus, you now have multiple lockup cases, which a) require more management to keep functioning properly, and b) require yet more multiple levels of training, different for different employees, as to what goes in which case.
Plus, you're now gow multiple sets of security systems, all different, to maintain, both physically, and as part of your security policy.
All in an industry with a net profit margin under 5%, and often under 3%.
If you've never run a retail store, you cannot even imagine the value of economy of scale, and consistenty in training across all employee positions. And few things cost you money faster than a stoppage at a cash register because the minimum wage cashier can't remember who has the key to the right lockup case (or even which lockup case the goods are in).
Parent
Re:Best packaging innovation ever (Score:4, Insightful)
As the trend goes to software being sold with nothing much besides the DVD we might very well just give people the jewel case and put an antitheft shell around it. And then we use bigger shells with the same locking mechanism for hardware. Bam, immediately training transfers between the music, software and hardware departments.
If your cashiers are too stupid to know how to operate the detagging device on the register - what the hell are you doing emplying such morons? The fact that they're cheap doesn't mean they're cost-effective.
Parent
Re:Best packaging innovation ever (Score:4, Insightful)
I can tell you're in Retail Management. You actually think that searching CUSTOMERS cuts down on EMPLOYEE theft.
Parent
Re:Best packaging innovation ever (Score:5, Insightful)
Anything that requires a key requires basically any lackey who works in that department to unlock. No seniority at all.
Having been involved in retail management for 25+ years, I can tell you, with certainty, that if it's worth locking up at all, it's worth your minimum wage sales drone's effort to steal. Far more theft in most retails stores is by employees than by customers.
At many stores security usually does an audit at the end of each night to check for theft in all locked areas
And at far more, that would require hiring security personnel (who are more expensive to employ, and a lot more expensive to hire, since there's no point in hiring a security person who hasn't been vetted with a background check, unless you want them to organize the employee theft ring) specifically to review those tapes, because most stores that have anything worth locking up have quite a bit worth locking up. And, generally speaking, a lot of it is dispersed enough that it's not under a camera. Cameras (and recording systems) are rather expensive, especially if you expect to be able to actually identify even someone you know in the video, and installing them is a lot more expensive. At most retailers that even have security cameras, less than 10% of the total sales floor is recorded by one. And your minimum wage employees won't even have to figure out which lockup cases aren't watched, since that will be part of their orientation (if you know how to run your store).
The only solution to virtually any security/shoplifting problem in a retail store is, ultimately, to spend money. Generally quite a bit of it. Which comes out of your 3-5% profit margin.
Retail's a bitch of a business.
Parent
Re:Best packaging innovation ever (Score:4, Interesting)
> Maybe then they should increase the price by putting a landfill tax on it.
So, you're saying that as consumers, we have to put up with annoying, wasteful packaging that we didn't ask for, which doesn't serve any direct purpose to us, and we should pay a tax on it to boot?
Parent
Re:Best packaging innovation ever (Score:5, Insightful)
Because then we don't buy the product as it's too expensive, which forces the manufacturer to cut those costs.
No-one is forced to buy any particular brand. Unless you consider yourself a consumer - ie the lowest form of life, destined to open your wallet every time the tv tells you to. You can tax the manufacturer or the consumer but in the end it's always the consumer who pays.
Here in the UK we used to have milk delivered every day in glass bottles. The milkman used to collect the empties for washing and refilling, and the delivery was done with electric vehicles. But - it was cheaper for the milk companies to use plastic and get rid of the milkman, so now we have problem plastic going into the ground as landfill AND the milk has to travel much further to regional bottling plants then be re-transported back to its original area for sale in shops AND we have put thousands of people out of a job*. So which is cheaper in the final analysis ?
* These workers were also delivering bread, vegetables, other dairy products, and also were usually the people who alerted the emergency services when somebody was ill or incapacitated (due to yesterdays milk still being there) and also helped keep burglary and crime down by being around at times when everybody else was asleep. But no, fuck that, we want cheap and disposable. Money rules FTW.
Parent
lawsuits... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
The package doesn't maim the customer, the customer maims themself. There is a proper way to open a package, sometimes it's not all that clear, but it is possible to open a package without causing bodily harm. It's not all that apparent, but quite a bit of thought goes into designing a package; sadly, the end-user isn't always the main concern.
Re:lawsuits... (Score:5, Insightful)
You can dance around it all you like... but it doesn't change the end result. People every day are injured in some way by this "two plastic bubbles melted together" method of packaging. Because it practically requires bladed weapons to open.
I have instructions on jars that tell me to twist open a cap... I'd say the whole twist cap thing is pretty self explanatory, yet people feel the need to put instructions on how to open jars.
You know why there's no instructions on how to open a solid lump of plastic? Because it being able to be opened isn't on their mind at all... not that it isn't their "main concern". They'd put it in a solid lead bubble with a cytotoxic theft deterrent system, but sadly that costs them more money.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Because it practically requires bladed weapons to open.
That's the wrong tool for the job. Use a small pair of tin snips, and there's very little chance that you'll injure yourself. (Making packages that require tin snips to open is still stupid, though.)
Re:lawsuits... (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah..like everyone has a pair of those laying around...
[rolls eyes]
Parent
Re:lawsuits... (Score:5, Insightful)
Even if they did, tin snips still aren't very effective at getting open blister packs safely unless you're wearing heavy work gloves, in my experience. You'll still end up with a sharp edge whipping around, even if you're not ripping it open with your hands (which is undoubtably unsafe).
The fact that we have to have this discussion at all just goes to show the level of insanity that went into blister packs.
Frustration-free packaging can't come soon enough. I hope Amazon works out a deal with CD and DVD distributers too. They're not blister pack-dangerous, but still a major pain in the ass.
Parent
Re:lawsuits... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:lawsuits... (Score:5, Insightful)
The package doesn't maim the customer, the customer maims themself(sic). There is a proper way to open a package, sometimes it's not all that clear, but it is possible to open a package without causing bodily harm. It's not all that apparent, but quite a bit of thought goes into designing a package; sadly, the end-user isn't always the main concern.
That's the defence that Detroit used to fight the safety features that they were dragged kicking and screaming into introducing by Ralph Nader. Initially they blamed the victims instead of taking responsibility for producing dangerous products.
I'm sorry, but packaging should protect the product AND be possible to access safely. If there's no obvious way to use it and avoid injury, the designer is at fault.
There is no way that I have discovered to get into a clamshell without running the risk of serious injury either from the metal blade that I have to use to cut it, or the plastic blade that is formed when using scissors and always ends up pointing into the path of my oncoming hand.
Whoever invented plastic clamshells should be sentenced to an eternity of sitting in a dark room opening one of his creations after another.
Parent
Re:lawsuits... (Score:4, Informative)
Why is it people are sued for their coffee being too hot... but people haven't sued the crap out of corporations for packages that quite frankly maim their customers?
The ladder is frivolous in comparison. The coffee case has largely been misrepresented in popular media. Liebeck, the plaintiff, suffered third degree burns on her thighs, buttocks, and genitals. She required 8 days of hospitalization, skin grafts, and $11,000 in medical bills. Liebeck first sought to settle out of court for $20,000 to cover said bills. When McDonalds countered with a $800 offer, Liebeck took the case to court.
There have been frivolous lawsuits, definitely true. The scalding coffee was not. Other coffee vendors around the city were, at the highest temperature, 20 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than McDonald's coffee.
Main source. [reedmorganpc.com]
Parent
Re:lawsuits... (Score:5, Informative)
You expect hot coffee to be well, hot. It's supposed to be freshly boiled water. Otherwise it is luke warm.
You cook pies at a temperature of 350 F, but you don't serve them to people right out of the oven. Why does coffee get a free pass to be served at temperatures that cause third degree burns in only 2-7 seconds of contact, as in the famous McDonald's case?
It would be one thing if McDonald's was selling cups of molten lava with a warning that clearly said, "Don't let the stuff touch you until it cools, you freaking morons!" but one generally expects FOOD to be safe to touch to your body.
Also, it should be easy to add cream and sugar to a cup of coffee without dumping it all over yourself. McDonald's had bad lid design in that respect too. Furthermore, documents produced in court showed the McD's was well aware of the fact that other customers had suffered third degree burns from their product and continued to sell it in an unsafe manner. They even alleged in court that people who buy coffee mostly take it home or to work and drink it there instead of in the court (which frankly doesn't pass the laugh test).
No, McDonald's was clearly negligent, if not reckless, in their behavior and deserved to be punished for it. Coffee isn't a product that should be that risky to purchase and consume. How exactly does serving coffee at 185 F do anything positive for the customer?
Parent
Re:lawsuits... (Score:5, Insightful)
I work at Starbucks. In fact, I worked there this morning from 5am to noon. I've worked there for a few years, so I know what Im doing there.
Our coffee is between 190F-200F. We only hold it for 30 minutes, and it's warmed during that time. Also, when telling customers how to brew coffee, we recommend 190-200F, unlike green tea, coffee needs very hot water to unlock the flavor. However, we steam lattes only to 180 before giving dire warnings to customers who want hotter. Ill usually say "Grande SCALDING mocha" or something to warn the drinker.
Ill say this: only a moron puts a boiling cup of X liquid between their legs. Everybody knows coffee is SUPPOSED to be hot. Now, however, lid deign does indeed suck, and fair to sue over. Especially how many lids crack at Sbux. During rush (7-9 am), I perhaps, deal with around 10 defective lids. They could easily cause insta-burning spill.
Parent
Re:lawsuits... (Score:5, Insightful)
You expect hot coffee to be well, hot... If you pour hot coffee over yourself, you can expect to be burnt.
The point of the Liebeck case wasn't that the coffee was hot -- she expected that much -- but that it was significantly hotter than coffee is supposed to be. Coffee served at industry standard temperature can sit on bare skin for quite a while without causing more than a mild burn (redness and tenderness), whereas coffee served at the temperature that Ms. Liebeck's coffee was served at can cause third degree burns (requiring skin graft surgery) in as little as 2 seconds.
In other words, coffee is dangerous, but this coffee was significantly more dangerous, therefore she should have been warned.
To put it in perspective: everyone has spilled coffee on themselves at some point in their lives (I've done it, and I don't even drink coffee). Yet her coffee spill resulted in $11,000 in medical bills. Can you not see the difference between this and a normal coffee spill?
Parent
Re:The coffee suit was an abuse of the legal syste (Score:4, Funny)
But this was at McDonlads, so that's irrelevant.
Parent
Re:lawsuits... (Score:5, Insightful)
That woman who sued over hot coffee was not simply whining about scalding her hands. She went to the hospital with 3rd degree burns. Probably the coffee had been reheated in a microwave. One hazard of heating liquids this way is that you can make them superhot [wikipedia.org] without causing them to boil.
Anyway, we both know that people's hatred for blister packs has nothing to do with the risk of personal injury. (I have several scars on my hands from cutting vegetables or slicing bagels. Not one from opening a blister pack.) It's the extreme frustration you experience while you try to cut away enough plastic to get at the contents. Unfortunately "frustation" aint tortable.
Parent
They could also call this (Score:5, Insightful)
"Laceration-Free Packaging" as far as that cursed clamshell packaging goes. I hate that crap, good riddance.
Re:They could also call this (Score:5, Funny)
And I always figured that this packaging would end when someone hijacked a plane with it.
Parent
I'll be happy if... (Score:4, Insightful)
I never accidentally cut the cord of something while opening the packaging with a pair of scissors.
Knowing that you've accidentally ruined something worth $50 or more is a horrible feeling.
Re:I'll be happy if... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:I'll be happy if... (Score:5, Funny)
I can't help it! I'm a discrete math major. I'm like 5 layers away from the soldering iron!
Parent
Re:I'll be happy if... (Score:5, Funny)
If he has a knife sharp enough to accidentally cut through 2 gauge wire, we should probably let him keep his geek card.
Parent
I'm not crying, I just have something in my eye! (Score:5, Insightful)
*sniff* I never thought the day would come!
Seriously, as a parent, I've seen packaging on kids toys get progressively worse. Not just ultrasonic-sealed plastic clamshells, but toys attached to cardboard boxes with dozens (sometimes over a hundred) wire twist-ties and highly strecthy rubber-band-like straps.
It took me over an hour just to de-package ONE toy for my kid last Christmas. Seriously, there is no excuse for such obnoxious packaging. I, for one, will be keeping a close eye on this initiative and it will likely make me look at Amazon first for my purchases.
Re:I'm not crying, I just have something in my eye (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Shoplifting (Score:5, Interesting)
The current trend in packaging was for two reasons. It allowed the consumer to actually *see* the produce he/she was getting. And it reduced shoplifting. Big box retailers (rhymes with ball-cart) pushed for these even though the consumer didn't want it.
Fortunately, sites like Amazon can now pressure manufacturers to go back to the more traditional packaging. Maybe I'll finally be able to wrap birthday gifts without needing an additional box/bag. And on Christmas morning, my hands won't be sore from opening 200 packages, cutting wire-ties and tie-wraps, and dealing with having to unscrew the frickin' battery compartments.
Will they do this for DVDs? (Score:4, Insightful)
Now Amazon needs to do this for DVDs. After all, Amazon doesn't have a shoplifting problem.
Given that DVDs are a shock-insensitive waterproof object shipped inside a rigid case, they should be mailed with far less packaging. A manila envelope would be sufficient. Most of the perimeter seals, "Security Device Enclosed", and shrink wrap could be dispensed with. One seal that's broken on opening would be enough to identify packages that have been opened.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Especially: Fix those two pieces of stupid tape (Score:4, Insightful)
... that ruin the clear plastic cover over the artwork when you try to remove them.
Parent
How about frustration free snack bags? (Score:3, Insightful)
You know what I mean. Plastic snack bags where the tops are fused together so tightly they're near impossible to open. When you apply the force required to get the top open then the cheap plastic bag splits all the way down to the bottom. Chips/pretzels spill out. Oh joy.
Re:How about frustration free snack bags? (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:How about frustration free snack bags? (Score:5, Funny)
Perhaps, but be aware that rodent urine is probably more fit for consumption than the soda.
Parent
There's a cheap solution to this (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I have a couple of these and they really do work well. Between that and a pair of cutters for wire ties, I can open almost anything in under a minute. Including convoluted child toy packaging.
Toy packaging these days is far, far worse than the plastic clamshell. Dozens of industrial strength wire ties, miles of tape, plastic screwed into other plastic through cardboard, plastic pull-tabs, and obnoxiously shaped boxes. They make me pine for simple hand-slicing clamshells.
Better opener (Score:5, Informative)
That thing on thinkgeek is a piece of crap. It's a flimsy knife with a weird handle. This is much more effective [amazon.com]. And cheaper (since you get three). And you can cut metal with them. They're called tin snips. AKA, the manly alternative to the overpiced ones designed by and for women [amazon.com].
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Oblig. Penny Arcade Link (Score:4, Funny)
Frustration? Try tamper free (Score:3, Insightful)
I'd quite like to know that shiny new 8GB SD card is actually brand new and not returned or refurbished goods.
Just how hard do people find it to use a knife or scissors anyway? Have schools gotten so over cautious that you now need a college education before you're permitted anywhere near safety scissors?
Re:Frustration? Try tamper free (Score:5, Interesting)
I've never injured myself with the tool used to open hard plastic clamshell packaging before.
I have, however, had my fingers or hands cut open numerous times by the cut, torn, or ripped edge of the plastic itself when the packaging finally gave way to my cutting implement. I tell you, Boy Scout training on knife safety when cutting wood or animal skins does Jack to teach you about how to open nightmare packaging.
Happens with scissors, knifes, box cutters, or whatever. It's the plastic that scratches me up. I'll admit to being a klutz, but that style of packaging is just an irritating menace.
Parent
It's about time! (Score:5, Insightful)
I will NEVER forget being forced to buy a CAT5 cable while on travel once upon a time. Upon returning to my room with it I was faced with one of those damned impossible to open packages. Thanks to TSA I had no knife, no scissors, no normal way to slash open the damned package. I ended up sawing it open on the metal frame of the bed like a madman! Truly disturbing to get so desperate to open one of the damned things.
I really miss cardboard packaging and I hope that Amazon's example starts a trend...
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I think the FBI have him on a protection program, even his family don't know where he is now.
Re:Good for them and all, but let's be honest (Score:5, Informative)
Um, what? Of course they'll use it to cut prices. Unlike some companies, Amazon is in a competitive field. And when people are shopping online, it's trivial to comparison shop, so people do. There are plenty of other online retailers selling the same stuff as them, and one of the reasons Amazon does well is that they're cheaper. Sure, they want more profit -- but once they find a way to cut costs, the optimal way to make more profit is to pass some of that cost savings along as a price reduction, in order to attract more customers. Remember, there are two ways to increase profits -- increase margins, and increase units sold. In highly competitive markets, the optimal use for any cost cutting measure will be a mix of the two.
Sure, you won't see the whole reduction passed along (at least not until everyone is doing it and they can't afford not to), but who cares? The stuff gets cheaper, and friendlier for the environment, and less frustrating to open. I rather like this idea.
Parent