Packaging Provokes Consumer "Wrap Rage"

Dreyfuss isn't the only consumer who fights violent impulses when confronted with today's hard-to-open packaging. Whether it's Barbie dolls, cell phones or cereal, manufacturers and retailers seem to be singing the same song: Buy our products, please, but don't assume that you'll actually ever be able to get your hands on them.

"When I asked Kellogg's to explain why their cereal bags are so hard to open, at first they seemed responsive and sent an e-mail saying they'd assigned someone to help me," Marks said. "But the next thing I knew they told me they just didn't have the manpower to address it and were going to take a pass."

I hate that plastic shell that is impossible to open. Seems like they could make a packaging that deters shoplifting and yet is easy to open.

The other thing that pisses me off is the glue they usboxes cereal boxs. Like you can really open the box without tearing the cardboard and making the resealable lip worthless. They can put a man on the moon, but they can't come up with a glue that doesn't cause you to rip the cardboard? I swear the image here is a photoshopped fake. No way a human could open it that well.

Then I was thinking about it some more and I realized why do you need the cardboard at all? Why isn't it just in a plastic sack with a ziploc top (all plastic containers should be forced to include the ziploc top by law) and the printing of box goes directly on the plastic? Less waste, less hassle. The rice at Trader Joes comes that way and it works perfectly.

I know what you are thinking. The box protects the cereal from getting scrunched. But, if that were true wouldn't we need cardboard around the tortilla corn chips? Those are more fragile than cereal. If we can transport our corn chips without cardboard then we can do the same thing with our cereal.

Death to cardboard.

via Journal Gazette