Worst Design Ever? Plastic Clamshell Packaging 398
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by
Soulskill
from the spilled-more-blood-than-all-the-swords dept.
from the spilled-more-blood-than-all-the-swords dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "Rebecca Rosen writes that if you've recently opened up — or, more specifically, tried to open up — a CFL light bulb, you can sympathize with the question posted on Quora last year, 'What is the worst piece of design ever done?' The site's users have given resounding support to one answer: plastic clamshell packaging. 'Design should help solve problems' — clamshells are supposed to make it harder to steal small products and easier for employees to arrange on display — but this packaging, says Anita Schillhorn, makes new ones, such as time wasted, frustration, and the little nicks and scrapes people incur as they just try to get their damn lightbulb out. The problem is so pervasive there is even a Wikipedia page devoted to 'wrap rage,' 'the common name for heightened levels of anger and frustration resulting from the inability to open hard-to-remove packaging.' Amazon and Wal-Mart are prodding more manufacturers to change their packaging to cut waste. 'We've gotten e-mails from customers who've purchased scissors in a clamshell, which would require another pair of scissors to open the package,' says Nadia Shouraboura, Amazon's vice president of global fulfillment. Other worthy answers to the Quora question include the interfaces on most microwaves, TV remotes, New York City's parking signs, and pull-handles on push-only doors, but none gained even close to the level of popular repudiation that clamshells received."
It's not the packaging, it's the seal (Score:5, Informative)
Re:It's not the packaging, it's the seal (Score:5, Informative)
Why they insist on hermetically sealing them, though, that is baffling to me.
I believe it is that way for as a theft deterrent. The harder it is to open the harder it is to open in the aisle in the store and not get caught.
There are replacements for clamshells that do an even better job of this though and without the bodily injury that occurs from people trying to open stubborn clamshells.
Re:Someone sells a tool to open these things easil (Score:5, Informative)
I got a handy little tool from Think Geek called "The Plastic Surgeon [thinkgeek.com]" that works pretty well.
Re:Clamshells are on their way out (Score:5, Informative)
I've worked with companies that are trying to drive a paper-based alternative to plastic clamshells, and while there's a modicum of market activity there, none of these packagers has yet to see the take-off they'd like. One of the challenges is that a paper-based package is going to require an adhesive system of some sort that provides the package as a ready-to-seal unit into which the widget-maker can drop his widget, without buying a lot of additional materials and equipment (such as adhesive and an application system).
Want to make a self-sealing cardboard package? You could use a pressure-sensitive adhesive that would stick two flaps of cardboard together when the package is folded shut, but then you've got to have release liner covering the adhesive, or the adhesive film will end up bonded to whatever else it touches and/or pick up dirt and become useless in the shipping and handling portions of its pre-packaging life. (Think of the types of closure you see on a UPS "Red" overnight shipping box or envelope.)
Another option is using a cohesive-type of product, where both sides are coated with an adhesive that sticks to itself but not to much else. These are great, except the bulk of them are made of natural rubber and have a very limited shelf-life before they "deaden" up and simply won't seal any longer. That makes it a definite possibility that your 10,000 purchased packaging units will really only allow you to use 3,000 of them to package your widgets before the packages stop sealing, within literally a month or two after they were created and sold to you.
I'm not saying it can't be done - just that I've been watching the attempts to replace clamshells go on for years, and I've had a front-row seat to watch some of the limitations of the potential replacements.
Snopes Says You're Full of Shit (Score:2, Informative)
They suck. If the only think wrong with a CFL bulb was the "clamshell" packaging, I'd actually be happy. I saw on youtube last night of a bulb covering a bathroom with smoke/soot as it burned-out (normal operation according to the manufacturer). It cost the family thousands of dollars because they wanted to save a few pennies.
How full of shit is he Johnny? Well, Bob, he's pretty darn full of shit [snopes.com]. Nothing in there indicates it could cover a bathroom.
Re:it's worse that that! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:It's not the packaging, it's the seal (Score:5, Informative)
bring a jacket or hoodie, lay it over the basket, carry something around then pretend to be looking through the pockets while you're cutting it open under the jacket.
Re:It's not the packaging, it's the seal (Score:5, Informative)
Fry's puts taped up clamshells packages back up on their shelves.