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The advantage (for retailers) is that you have to totally destroy this packaging to get into it. It is psychologically uncomfortable to return a product with a twisted heap of sharp plastic in a shopping bag, which discourages returns caused by buyer's remorse or marginal quality.
The other advantage is that blister packs are a great way of adding lightweight bulk to small products, making them harder to shoplift.
Locked display cabinets seem a much better solution, especially since this could allow retailers to buyand sell things like flash memory cards and batteries in bulk. However, the only way of getting rid of this type of packaging may be legislation.
How about putting ONE package on display so people can read the box, view the contents inside, get a feel for the weight, etc. You can even attach it with a wire like they do with some electronics.
Then below that display, the real product you are buying can be in a recycled and recyclable compact package with tamper-evident tape. That way it's cheaper to ship, uses less resources in packaging, and won't shred your hands when you do open it.
It's like when you buy a laptop from some stores. They have one on display than you can touch and play with, but then you bring a slip of paper to the register to get the actual product. Then there's no need to have a flashy package for every item.
More importantly people need to take a deep breath and relax. Life is not that hard; opening a package certainly doesn't warrant rage.
I like how this site can complain about packaging being too big. And then when packaging is the size of the product, the site complains about it being hard to open.
Too much packaging and plastic packaging are bad for the environment.
Poorly designed packaging that injures people, or has a tendency to create the circumstances where people injure themselves or even the product inside, is bad design and poor marketing.
This is not so much a treehugger issue as a simple consumer issue. Many companies have chosen to move away from this sort of absurd packaging. They have discovered that some consumers will buy a competing product rather than deal with an obnoxious package.
Given the known tendency to injure, and the fact that the packages themselves often tear into sharply pointed shards that cut and puncture flesh, it is just a matter of time before a serious, preventable injury convinces the manufacturers to take a new tact on packaging.
Is there any way to tell manufacturers that we hate their packaging? How can we make our voices heard? I KNOW I am not in a minority on this issue. But what are the avenues available? Media pressure? Highlighting the lightly packaged alternatives in every forum available? Or is this a spread the word until 5 years from now these irresponsible companies finally get the message? I'm a little too impatient to appreciate the last method, but history tells me it might be the one that does it.
I hate overpackaging, really, no product should be sold with packagine weighing more than 5% of the weight (or maybe volume) of the product it protects.
But really, there is no need for bubblepacks, yes, they reduce shoplifting, but there are other more ecologically sound ways to do that, including the locked cabinet method (but then, you would have to employ more people to actually service customers, shock horror). I would much prefer to buy most items without any packaging, or the bare minimum, such as a paper bag.
My preference for 'hard' packaging is carboard boxes made from post consumer recycled card (some manufacturers already do this, so why can't all of them?). If you must have a transparent section, then use a cellophane window, as this is recyclable/biodegradable (real cellophane, made from cellulose, not the plastic 'celluloid' crap which seems to predominate nowadays). If you want to hang the packages, then include a hanging tab on the box. There are also plant based plastics like plantic, which break down very quickly in compost. They can be formed into most shapes and could replace PVC and polypropylene in 99% of cases.
None of this is rocket science, it is just slack manufacturers and useless politicians who don't have the balls to make appropriate laws as they are too beholden to the various large corporations, especially the oil industry, from which most plastics come.
The opposite of user-oriented design.
As a designer, I take offense with having to open such poorly designed packages.
It isn't so much theft that warrants this type of packaging but the bad habits of American consumers. We have the tendency to want to open a package to manhandle the product to, I don't know, get a feel for it. If they even had intended on purchasing it they then discard the opened one and pick a pristine one for themselves. This often leaves the packaging destroyed and unsaleable for the retailer. And yes it's an American problem. I recently imported a product from Japan that was packaged in the same material but only held shut with tape. The same product sold here is in the impossible-to-open variety.
Reminds me of this article...
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/magazine/01wwln-consumed.t.html
They make special scissors for opening them now. They're able to crack through the hard crinkly bits on the edges, and then there's a razor blade that slides out to connect the little notches you cut into each side. They work well.
We have been asked at Distant Village Packaging if it's possible to produce sustainable packaging from clear clamshells... it is not in any way possible, not yet. However, we've made custom clamshells from treefree paper which could also have a cut-out window.