If you’re like me, I bet you struggle with certain types of packaging. Like the impossible-to-open clamshells that protect things like batteries and cords, electronics and light bulbs..
Even the folks at Plastics Ingenuity, a company that creates “thermoforming packages,” agree that their products are not easy to use. “Plastic packaging has one disadvantage on the customer end: difficulty of use. Certain kinds of plastic packaging are very difficult to open. While this is ideal for transportation and shelving, once the product is in the customer’s hands, it could create frustration.”
If you’re like me, you often grab a sharp knife and start stabbing away. In fact, some people get so exasperated they resort to razor blades, box cutters, and ice picks—In case you think I made that up, I did not.—which has led to myriad trips to the emergency room. One study showed that wrestling with clamshell packaging alone leads to 6,000 hospitalizations in the U.S. each year. The problem is so prevalent there’s an actual name for it: wrap rage.
Why do retailers use hard plastic packaging? No, it’s not to slowly drive us mad. It’s because, as previously mentioned, the containers protect products during shipping and facilitate easy shelving. They also help prevent pilfering and allow customers to see the product prior to purchase.
Note that we can’t blame all this fumbling to open packages on plastic. Have you tried tearing open a bag of chips, lately? Then there’s that tiny foil bit that covers the end of a new tube of toothpaste, and that cardboard peel on the top of the peanut butter, and that push-and-twist top on prescription meds. Ugh!
It might make you feel better to know that companies are just trying to protect us, especially in regard to products we consume. It all goes back to 1982, when an assailant laced Tylenol capsules with potassium cyanide and placed them on shelves in a number of stores in the Chicago area. Seven people died and all these years later it remains a cold case crime. As you can imagine, the packaging companies pretty quickly made their containers tamper proof, but I’m thinking maybe they’ve gone just a bit too far. (See those 6,000 ER visits above.)
Is there anything we can do about it? Probably not. I got a little excited when I saw that Amazon has an entire section of products labeled Certified Frustration-Free Packaging. But when I clicked the link, there was nothing at all about frustration-free packaging. So, now I’m…frustrated.
In the meantime, I found a hack to get through those clamshells. It involves a can opener and a sharp knife.
Oh…never mind.
Your Forgotten Sons
Inspired by a true story
Anne Montgomery
Bud Richardville is inducted into the Army as the United States prepares for the invasion of Europe in 1943. A chance comment has Bud assigned to a Graves Registration Company, where his unit is tasked with locating, identifying, and burying the dead. Bud ships out, leaving behind his new wife, Lorraine, a mysterious woman who has stolen his heart but whose secretive nature and shadowy past leave many unanswered questions. When Bud and his men hit the beach at Normandy, they are immediately thrust into the horrors of what working in a graves unit entails. Bud is beaten down by the gruesome demands of his job and losses in his personal life, but then he meets Eva, an optimistic soul who despite the war can see a positive future. Will Eva’s love be enough to save him?
Release Date: June 6, 2024
Bookstores, libraries, and other booksellers can order copies directly from the Ingram Catalog.
Anne Montgomery’s novels can be found wherever books are sold.
Author Anne Montgomery 
Too true! I have now experienced more than a few finger tip “paper cuts” by slicing the tip of my finger trying to separate the top and bottom of these molded plastic egg containers or fruit clamshells. God bless the plastic cheese packs that have an unsealed corner that says “lift here”…and actually works to let you inside.
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I see you feel my pain, Sherm. I too have scars from the plastic wars. But lately it’s the chip and cracker bags that have me tugging wih all my might. Geez! 😉
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When I worked in the airport business lounges we had those tiny rectangles of cheese shrink wrapped in plastic; one of the passengers, battling to find an opening said ‘I am English, I will not be defeated.’
After 9/11 that was the end of us lending passengers scissors or knives to try and extricate the ‘toys’ they had bought in duty free from their plastic shells. All our scissors and sharp knives were taken away and none of us could get into anything.
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A problem within a problem, TS. I do miss the Swiss Army knife I used to carry until I lost one to the TSA. While I miss the blades, it’s the lack of a corkscrew that makes me anxious. In regard to containers, I especially abhor the ones that give me an “Easy-opening Tab” which is nothing of the sort. 😉
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Omg , i have such problems opening things now, nice to know it isnt just getting older!! Half the time when bartending now i end up passing to a patron to help and it pleases me to no end when they struggle too!
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It is reidiculous, Kim! The ones that get me the most are the packages which provide an “Easy-opening Tab,” which never works or is the least bit easy. Ugh! 😉
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