Worst Design Ever? Plastic Clamshell Packaging 398
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."
We should sue them every time we cut ourselves (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:It's not the packaging, it's the seal (Score:5, Insightful)
I think everyone hates those offal things; I know I do. But the worst design? Hardly. Clamshell packaging never killed anybody.
Ever drive a car from the late '80s-early '90s? Rather than a knob, the volume control was buttons! Unlike earlier and modern car radios, you couldn't change the volume without taking your eyes off the road!
Worse, your ac/heat controls used to have knobs, too. You could change the temp without taking your eyes off the road. Now they have BUTTONS! God damn it, listen up, idiot designers, buttons don't belong on a car's dash! If you need buttons, put them on the steering wheel like the radio controls on my car. That has the added benefit of not letting the fatassed passenger turn the AC all the way up and freezing me out.
Similarly, what idiot decided to put the winshield wiper on the turn signal? Probably one of the many idiots that never use their turn signals. Not as bad as clamshell packaging or buttons on a car's dash, but still frustrating and stupid.
Re:It's not the packaging, it's the seal (Score:5, Insightful)
That's nothing.
Since everyone's caught up in the touchscreen crazy, it's moving towards being controlled via tocuhscreen -- where you can't even feel if there's a button being pressed!
One word (Score:4, Insightful)
Scissors
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:CFL light bulb (Score:4, Insightful)
In terms of your supposition that CFL's actually cost more than incandecents? Here is a study [google.com] that says no, In terms of the ACEEE.org study, I can't find specifics (unless you are talking about the 2006 study, which is hopelessly out of date). But electric cars top the ACEEE.org list of cleanest cars this year [plugincars.com].
Re:Clamshells are on their way out (Score:5, Insightful)
You'd think they could put up a photograph of their packaging, rather than some cheesy stock "people shaking hands" photo.
Just steal the whole package. (Score:1, Insightful)
The only way those cases stopped the drug addicts I knew as a teen is if they were LARGE; otherwise it all fits into a coat well enough. They sure have enough cameras now in the mega stores everybody goes to...
My complaint is they use #2 plastic which is not recycled in my area (but bottles they take - because those are almost always #2) and #2 has no solvent glue so I can't make that much with it - yes, I keep large packaging for using later. If they use it, it should be a bioplastic that can dissolve within my lifetime... but not that evil plastic being used today where they just use a weak binder in conventional plastic so you end up with microscopic plastic particles that last for centuries, which are already showing up in every creature on earth (including us... the large portion of which is thought to come from CLOTHING plastic not from broken down large items!!! BTW, #2 is polyester so is #1.) I've always had a horrible time thermowelding #1 and #2 but its supposed to be possible if you get the temp just right.
Re:It's not the packaging, it's the seal (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
That's what you would think. But I used to work for a store apprehending shoplifters in my younger years. The only people who are frustrated by this type of packaging are honest consumers and possibly teenage thieves. But teenagers typically would break the product when trying to remove it and toss it back, pretty much rendering the intent of the packaging useless as you can't sell broken merchandise. It's truly unbelievable how fast a heroin addict can circumvent anti-theft packaging.
Useless for Online Shopping (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:It's not the packaging, it's the seal (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:It's not the packaging, it's the seal (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:It's not the packaging, it's the seal (Score:5, Insightful)
>> I use the Walmart Rental store.
This is ok because (check all that apply):
It's a big company.
WalMart is evil.
It doesn't hurt individuals at all, just a company.
It doesn't hurt any one individual very much.
It doesn't hurt WalMart, it hurts their suppliers.
Nobody offers stud-finder rentals.
I'm helping the environment by recycling tools.
There are more important moral issues in the world.
Fuck everybody else, I look out for only me.
Surprised no one has been sued yet (Score:4, Insightful)
Clamshell packaging sucks from the consumer perspective because most of it isn't designed with consumers in mind. It's designed with retailers in mind. Retailers don't care if you cut yourself opening the package, but they are highly paranoid about the possibility of shoplifting (even though a majority of retail theft is internal).
What surprises me is that there haven't been any large-scale lawsuits over this junk. Fully-sealed clamshell packages deliberately put the end user at a greater risk of cuts (since you need a sharp instrument to open them) without providing any offsetting benefits to the end user. People have gotten themselves on the wrong end of multi-million dollar punitive judgments for much less. A good trial lawyer should have little trouble convincing a jury that a company which deliberately traded off product safety for less shoplifting should be responsible for the human costs of that decision. Especially when everyone on the jury remembers struggling with the damn things themselves.
Alternatively, the CPSC should mandate that clamshell packages must be able to be opened without the use of a sharp implement.