This is a great rant article - and a very valid rant at that. For the responders who say
" There is no packaging that takes several minutes unless your opening tool assortment lacks such basic items as a shallow-bladed razor knife, large sturdy scissors, and diagonal cutters (type used in electronics work). "
Let's think for a moment...
Situation where you would like to open these plastic packages from hell but may not have you handy-dandy-machete collection....
Airport (yep you see this packaging at airport stores quite a bit too)
On Vacation/Business Trip
Or better yet, how about not driving home to your garage so you can open something you just bought and you won't be home for several hours.
Next issue....store security....
If someone tries to steal something from a store that is in somekind of packaging... often the trick is to hide it in the jacket while disassembling it, or take it to the restroom and crack into it there.
Here is the flaws with this approach to security:
1) Often times the store sells the very thing you need to get into the product...and amazingly, it is not under super-seal plastic...but rather attached to a piece of cardboard with a tiewrap hanging on a hook.
Case in point would be Lowe's, Home Depot, or your friendly neighborhood Best Buy clerk's unattended desk...where gobs of scissors can be found and readily 5 fingered.
2) Often times the product that is wrapped in the super-seal isn't worth stealing to begin with. I have seen product for <$10 in this packaging. I would dare say they spent $2 back at the factory for the raw plastic that went into it.
For someone out there looking to start a new business, here is an idea....
Open up a store right next to FedEx UPS USPS, etc or become one of those Post.Net FedEx Store UPS Places and buy one of these plastic molding machines. Advertise bring what you want to send, no box. Then make a rectangular-prismatic shape ont he machine just big enough for the box. Use a solid rather than transparent plastic for customers who want to be discrete (I'm sure you can find a way to charge more for this 'option') and make your impregnable box for shipping. Write on there where it goes and who it's from or any other handy-dandy label for the preferred carrier and then it will be in a stronger protection than the cardboard box.
Also, don't forget to sell:
and
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