of time when Costco would open their awful packaging at the checkout. They had a special tool. Maybe workers were injured or something but they stopped that. Also - CDs are ridiculous to open.

who can't figure out all this new fangled internet music stuff.

I don't even know why I have my old one's sitting in the car if I think of a song I want to hear I just download it to my phone for free & boom it's there for ever.

Gobs of them. We even have a few cassettes and a selection of 8-tracks. We also have all the equipment to play any of them, kept in repair by my husband. One thing we don't have is smart phones.

a few months back, he took it out looked it over then tried to put it back in the case. It took him a good 90 seconds to figure out how to put it away. It was a sad day for me.

When his mom told him there was music on it he looked it over and asked where to plug the headphones in. 😆

neither of our little kids has ever used a land line phone!

to call the house phone & me either having to talk in front of my parents, have a 50 ft phone cord that I might be able to drag around the corner or maybe a cordless phone. But there were 3 girls in the house all within a 18 mths of each other so the phone was a hot commodity.

whichever comes first.

I'm a tech baby so making sure I have plenty of juice is a necessity.

but the compression kills a lot of the sound. CDs aren't as good as vinyl, but they are light years ahead of compressed music.

Flat screen TVs with no sound bar are not very good either. Got a DVD of my favorite pianist and the parts where he plays in concert are really disappointing. The sound is so thin. His CDs are much fuller and a joy to listen to.

I continue to buy CDs so I can then rip them myself to FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec.) Wav-files are best because they aren't compressed, but then take up more room on your high-end PMP (Portable Media Player.) I own a Cowon Z2, 32gb with MicroSD slot for added capacity

Now, if you can afford to own the highest-end products like a Cowon Plenue 1, or HiFiMan HM-802, or Sony ZX2, or Astell&Kern AK240, or FiiO X5, then you might want to go with uncompressed audio files.

Because they were too freaking hard to get into for our industrial plant.

for it to have any effect.

Actually I've seen it done with some USA made goods, as well, but you are right that it is mostly goods made in China or Taiwan.

Wielding sharp knives, or using scissors at awkward angles - nothing good will come of that!

a horribly thick plastic package, the kind they weld all around the edges.

So, I'm traveling on business, in a hotel room opening this thing, got my sharp penknife out, pressing down on the package, but it slipped, I don't know how, and stabbed my thigh.

Made a cut about 1 1/2 inches deep, about 3/4" wide, blood all over the place. I drove to urgent care, got in quickly, they got questioning about if I was in a fight and all, lots and lots of questions, guess they believed me and did not launch a police investigation.

Damn, I was holding the package correctly, the package was so strong a very sharp knife had trouble cutting the ultra industrial strength plastic. Ended up with about 6 stitches, a tetanus shot and lots of bandages. Damn, it hurt a week or two, still have a scar.

Cats are exceptionally ingenious about opening things they are not supposed to open.

how you didn't mean it.

to travel from a long ways away but we not only have trouble opening them but we have to recycle them. And there is a lot of material inside the box that cannot be recycled.

I'm tempted to throw the entire thing away, product and all, due to the fact that you practically need a chainsaw for some of them.

That's exactly what I'm talking about. If packaging is so hard to get into that you have to go to the emergency room for stitches after an attempt, something is WRONG.

have saved me a great deal of aggravation over the years when it comes to that damned heavy plastic that is impervious to kitchen knives, ordinary scissors, hedge clippers, and saws.

I don't know who invented that damned heavy plastic wrapping but I'd love to get him alone in a dark alley for a few minutes.

I didn't think of tin snips. Do they also come in packages which require a set of tin snips to get into them?

They're just large and heavy enough that the heavy bubble plastic isn't cost effective. Mine came with light cardboard holding the handles together and a couple of twist ties holding the cardboard on.

for humanity as a species, after all.

Regular scissors are puny.

Good gosh, I had to get my husband out of bed to open the battery thingy. (The Oral-B screws, but the Crest thing requires a super-human grip)

No you are not alone. All of this stuff drives me crazy. I've got arthritis and there is no mercy for us.

and I am pretty nimble with my hands, but I've nearly lost a finger getting into some of these horrible Fort Knox contraptions.

If there is a threat of amputating a finger to get into something, who the hell wants to steal it in the first place?

We had a program at my department, and a free thumb drive was one of the giveaways, and I had to open 150 individually packaged ones...Yeah, I cursed a whole lot since that hard plastic when cut can slice your hand like a shard of glass

Do you still have all of your digits in tact?

but I agree 1000% that this hard-seal plastic packaging needs to be eliminated...Hard to believe there hasn't been some kind of lawsuit already...Always fun when you use an industrial pair of scissors and end up scratching your product or cutting through the instruction booklet...

I've had to use HEDGE SHEARS(!) on some of the bigger packages...I'm serious...

when you either dice up the instruction booklet or scratch/destroy something taking it out of the package. It annoys me less than getting wounded on the hard, sharp plastic though!

...It's a stretch to call them papers, more like single ply tissue paper. Is it my eyes or do I really need to buy a microscope to read the teeny tiny print of these instructions now?

The only reason why is that I am so near-sighted without vision correction that I can't see a foot in front of me. What I do is "float" my contact lens aside so that I'm not using correction, and bring it right in my face. I can read just about anything in that circumstance.

First, the package. Then a billion twist tie thingies all rolled in opposite directions. Then scissors needed to snip the plastic ties holding parts down.

But she is in pristine condition so there is that.

are pretty damn dangerous to snip off, too.

just opening them up!

And my little pony sets with all those tiny parts!

I'm half convinced it's some sort of bizarre social experiment

if severing an artery might be a potential hazard of getting into an item, something is just not right here.

The Jaws of Life.

it's got a handle and a little razor that goes around the edge of the clear bubble plastic

with a handle doesn't sound all that much safer LOL!

to perform surgery than open a USB drive, the company is doing it wrong LOL!

It should be outlawed. Invented so you can't return anything and it's dangerous

The plastic stuff is sharp when you cut it, and whatever you are using to break into the vault holding your product you just bought can slip, too.

They came in a blister pack containing blister packs, wound in ultra-strong tape, within some blister packs.

I'm really not sure they're fully opened now, and I've been using them a couple of weeks.

I have a couple of things myself that I am not completely convinced are fully extracted from the safe they came in!

to get something out of whatever it was sealed in, the company packing/producing/selling it is doing it wrong!

Can pretty much slice around the prize inside without too much ado.

Still, is it really necessary to close things up so tight that you need a tool devoted to getting into something you just purchased!?

I have cut myself on it. Awful stuff!

or whatever tool you are using to crack the vault it came in!

WRAP RAGE!!!!

And I am totally hip to your post!! Drives me right up the freaking wall that so many household items today are wrapped so tightly, in such an unpenetrable, hard plastic vacuum seal, that the only way to open them is with a small set of explosives!

Aaaargh I tells ya, AAAAARRRRRRGGGGHHHH!!

to mine for gold than to get into your damn product, you are DOING IT WRONG!

I could have gone on about those and all the little tag thingies they have on them, but they are a drop in the bucket compared to the clamshell packages that electronics and various items come in.

With the sticker on each sock? All neatly hung over the tiny little sock hanger? I swear they are afraid one of those little socks are going to take off and run away.

Someone is clearly going to run off with two pairs of socks that cost $2 if they don't secure them from sock theft.

trying to think of the right joke here


dangerous contents but opening box more dangerous

What the heck are they thinking?

and that is when the fun and blood begins

ghads , i hate everything coated in cellophane and packaged so tight they seem to say .I DARE YOU . insert evIl laugh here .

"You just paid $15 dollars for me, now try to get to your purchase, foolish mortal!"

I can't think of another way to get those stupid plastic packages open.

extremely useful! What on earth are these companies thinking packaging crap in these things like they are selling diamonds?

That way we can pay to burn more fossil fuels to crack open this (no doubt petroleum based) exoskeleton that enhances the corporate bottom line by like 0.001% at the expense of everyone else involved.

The pocket knife that is always in my right pants pocket makes short work of all package opening chores. It is an excellent tool. My wife has a similar one, although smaller, in her purse.

I recommend that everyone have a knife handy. Who knows, you might have to cut a seat belt to save someone's life. Buy a pocket knife and keep it sharp. You'll be amazed at how often you use it.

Good quality, too.

I've encountered some plastic so hard and thick surrounding a product (usually something like electronics) that they barely get the job done and you barely escape injury.

whether the knife is sharp. Never use the point to cut plastic packaging. Use the very sharp edge to cut a corner of a raised area, then slice the plastic around the product, always cutting away from youself. Zip, it's open.

A dull knife is dangerous. A sharp knife is a valuable tool. Opening packaging is a natural job for a sharp knife.

And trust me, it isn't exactly that easy. I sharpen my knives at a 17° angle progressively (when I first obtain one) from 300 grit, to 600 grit, to 1200 grit and finish with a 2400 grit.

I don't stroll around with poor quality or poor edged pocket knives, so your information is not helpful.

Now if *I* (at 42) have issues getting into packaging being able to harness that type of equipment, how hard do you think it is for someone without it, or people with arthritis?

Answer - heading into cutting the shit out of themselves territory.

It is a very valid gripe.

None. I just slice it open and get on with my day. Haven't cut myself for years. They use that packaging for advertising, shipping protection and theft prevention. It's very effective for all three. Now ask me about Styrofoam molded blocks. It can't be recycled, takes up enormous space and is unnecessary, since molded paper pulp packaging works as well and is completely recyclable.

None. I just slice it open and get on with my day. Haven't cut myself for years. They use that packaging for advertising, shipping protection and theft prevention. It's very effective for all three. Now ask me about Styrofoam molded blocks. It can't be recycled, takes up enormous space and is unnecessary, since molded paper pulp packaging works as well and is completely recyclable.

That styrofoam is totally unnecessary.

The "great" thing about the hard plastic is...it will finish biodegrading a few seconds before the earth dies.

probably still be a cockroach sitting under a kudzu vine, blissfully unaware.

why we continue to buy these things. We should be protesting this by not buying things we will not be able to get into.

BTW, those cheap product catalogs sell a special tool to use to open this packaging. I don't know if it works, but it says something about a society that requires a special tool to open things we buy.

That was my point. If I have to buy a product to get into the product I just bought, something is not right here.

And is that opener tool contained in the same hellish plasto vaulted nightmare?

And companies package shit in ways that will harm someone who tries to tear open the package in a hurry, because often people try to tear open packages in a hurry to steal those things.

I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but that's why.

between security and usability - I get that. But when something requires special tools to get into the thing you just bought, you can potentially injure yourself while opening it, and this seems A-Ok, something isn't right.

I've actually come close to needing stitches from some of that crap.

How well it works we may never know. I used to sell those damn things. They came in clamshell packaging.

Could have predicted that from a mile away

had a great episode about this.

but he went to buy an exacto knife for the job and it was clamshelled, too. Jeff got in a wreck because his wife was giving fellatio, Larry sees the wreck, goes to get the knife to cut the seatbelt and discovers he can't open it.

Not sure what you're supposed to open that with, though.

expensive than the product contained within. And most of it requires a small nuclear device to frack the seal open.

field that designs this crap, and people employ calculus to mold the plastic in the most "secure" and inconvenient way possible to keep down storage space.

If you had a reason to hate math, well, here's another one - what they do with it in volume calculations!

Fortunately, my fingers survived the experience.

I'll take those microscopic directions tissues and put them in my scanner; then blow 'em up on the computer screen.

that we have to go through such gyrations to get into the thing we paid for! I can get into a tin can with a pocket knife more easily!

If you can open one of those "finger traps" as you call them without uttering something completely explicit and unacceptable in polite company, clearly you are unable to speak at all.

English and profanity. And, profanity has the edge when dealing or talking about recalcitrant computers, bubble wrap, Republicans and most other politicians.

pretty & nice and WHY are we doing this shit? ok. child proof i get. but the little pill tins, we found a LOVELY chartreuse plastic nylons box i think. a perm box. aluminum. the little tubes. cello tape tins. type writer ribbon tins. put band winds in OLD METAL BOXES instead of flimsy paper boxes..

Packaging used to be something that enticed you to buy something. Now it makes you grimace and wonder how the hell you will get what you bought out of there.

But it makes me want to blow up the whole store.

Box cutters don't work. These damn things laugh at scissors. Sharp knife? Amateur.

Wrap Rage. I has it.

Theft prevention, but the rate at which you want to commit arson goes up LOL!

With all the miracles of modern technology, they still can't make a package that's openable without power tools.

If I need a $20 tool to open a $5 purchase and risk substantial harm if said tool slips, you are doing it wrong. Hell, I can open a can with a pocket knife can opener (Wenger and Victorinox !), and that's pretty much a lost art.

Amazon does some "frustration-free" packaging. If i knew anything about organizing I'd start a movement to get them to increase that effort thousandfold.

I understand (to a degree) the marketing value of a pretty package and the anti-shoplifting reasons for some of that packaging, but I don't need that on Amazon. There is no threat of shoplifting, and I can see the pretty packaging on the site, you don't need it to be shipped to you.

to seal a $5 SD card in a plastic bunker?

Also, some people like that crap. When I worked as a clerk in a convenience store, it always amazed me that people insisted on a bag to carry out one item they'd just purchased. The best I could figure is that they just felt they wanted all that was coming to them. (Also, some people make use of the bags, but not most, I'd guess.)

If stores were more willing to hire staff, they could have clerks retrieve those things from secure locations, but I think most customers don't want to deal with that. They'd rather risk a knife wound from trying to open the package.

for even more reasons than the significant damage to the environment!