The names says it all doesn’t it. Might just as well have called it Aggravating and Agonizing Packaging. I guess that name must already be in use somewhere.
This is the type of packaging that give all other forms or packaging a bad name. You can spin it anyway you want, but when it gets to the consumer you can bet it will induce frustration, pain and probably injury (hopefully minor). There’s even a Wikipeadia page for Wrap Rage based on this stuff.
The most likely reason for a manufacturer using this sort of packaging is because it presents the product in a way that is appealing. In particular, you can see most details of the product while stood in the store, without opening the box. But packaging is part of the design of a product and when the packaging is this bad it screams “We don’t care after you’ve bought it.”
To put it another way, its that favorite old business model:
when you’re a prospect they want their product to be as appealing as possible, but
when you’re a customer, they don’t really care so much.
Lets take a look at an example of clamshell packaging.
Durabuilt 8 Piece Toolkit
What red-blooded male can resist the temptation of buying more tools. Even the ones who have blood that isn’t red still want to buy tools. And look at this package. Ohhhhhh, shiny.
So, in exchange for your dollars, you walk out with a handful of new tools. It’s just a matter of taking them out of the packaging.
Ah. Yes. Just.
This package is made out of a type of plastic that would be well suited for many military purposes. Well, except those that involve hiding things, because it’s see through, but I digress. Not only is the plastic pretty hard but the edge seams are welded. Even worse, there are seven (yes, seven) spot welds in the middle area of the package. You know, in case it pops open.
Now obviously, in the hi-tech world of the CrapPackaging.com labs we have the latest in tools and techniques to handle the trickiest of packaging. Ionic lasers, Nuclear flux de-fluxifiers, Transdimensional quantum separators and sharp pokey things for getting boy scouts out of horse hooves. But one thing we pride ourselves on is the ability to think like normal people. You might think we’re normal people, but trust me, we’re not. So, for this exercise we checked with someone who certainly could make claim to being “normal” and they informed the most likely method to get into our tools was to use scissors.
Scissors. My. How quaint. I unplugged the flux de-fluxifier and powered down the lasers. At least the electric bill won’t be so bad.
After a minutes use of scissors, I had cut around three side of the package. What the de-fluxifier would have cleaved cleanly in two, was now a jagged edge longing to take a chunk out of my fingers. I could remove some of the tools but still had to rip apart the spot welds in the middle of the packaging to get everything out. The plastic was an amazing combination of both brittle and hard to cut. It seemed to want to crack in unhelpful directions (usually to create a jagged edge with the hope I’d impale myself on it). Perhaps there’s a trick to opening these things. Maybe I should oriented myself correctly with respect to the summer solstice. In fact, I must just have one of the lab guys look into that connection.
Anyway, I got the product out of the packaging and kept by blood inside my body (always a good sign). But it could have been easier. Even the Transdimesional quantum separator would have made things easier.
Did it induce Wrap Rage? Well, I didn’t throw the thing across the room, but if the designer had been there I would have thrown him or her. I might even have powered the fluxi-whatsit back up again. I can but dream.
So there it is. The original crap packaging. Probably not the worst example (for some reason computer mice seem to be cursed to always be in this stuff) but good enough to start with. The dynamic team here at CrapPackaging.com will be on the lookout for other examples but if you have something that deserves the full attention of the boffins in the CrapPackaging.com labs, let us know.
In the meantime, I’m going to get the Ionic Laser going. I’ve been dying to see what it would do to one of the poky-out out bits they have hanging off those fancy satellites. After all, its only 200 miles or so.
