And you say I always post depressing stories!

Clamshell packaging on the way out
Some retailers are trying to reduce 'wrap rage' by simplifying coverings
Bruce Ward, Canwest News Service
Published: Thursday, December 18, 2008

Bruce Ward, Canwest News Service
Published: Thursday, December 18, 2008

Finally, a gift for every parent whose Christmas morning begins with stab wounds and muffled curses: The dreaded "clamshell" packaging that imprisons toys behind hard plastic is on the way out.

A number of retailers and manufacturers, including Amazon.com, Sony, Microsoft and Best Buy, are creating alternatives to clamshell packages as well as those maddening plastic fasteners used to hog-tie electronics.

The retail industry even has a term for the anger caused by the hard-to-open packages -- wrap rage.


Trying to opening plastic packages can result in injuries such as cuts and stab wounds.

"I think we've all experienced the frustration that sometimes occurs when you try to get a new toy or electronics product out of its package," says Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of online retailer Amazon.com and the father of four young children.

Bezos says parents shouldn't have to face Christmas "with a needle-nose pliers and wire cutters.

"But that is what I do: I arm myself, and it still takes me 10 minutes to open each package."

Amazon.com has come up with "frustration-free packaging," an initiative involving Mattel, Fisher-Price, Microsoft and Transcend, an electronics maker. These companies send some of their bestselling products to Amazon in cardboard boxes that don't attack customers when opened. The product is exactly the same; Amazon has just streamlined the packaging to make it more environmentally friendly.

One of the first products to launch with frustration-free packaging is the Fisher-Price Imaginext Adventures Pirate Ship, which is now delivered in an easy-to-open, recyclable cardboard box.

Amazon says the friendly pirate-ship packaging eliminates 90 centimetres of plastic-coated wire ties, as well as a small mountain of corrugated package inserts, printed folding carton materials, PVC blisters, ABS moulded styrene and moulded plastic fasteners.

Clamshell packaging was invented to show off items like electronics in clear plastic, and also to discourage shoplifters. To keep the items from disappearing inside shoppers' pockets, the packages were sealed on the hinges with a hard epoxy.

Buyers know from bitter experience how tough the epoxy is. While there are no comparable Canadian statistics, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission says some 6,000 Americans wind up in emergency rooms each year with injuries sustained when trying to open their purchases with scissors, paring knives, pliers and other sharp tools.

Many scarred but savvy consumers have opted to buy special tools with names like the Package Shark that are specifically designed to defeat clamshell packaging. But why should anyone have to spend $10 or more on a tool to open their purchases?

That's the sort of question marketers at Sony have asked themselves. At a sales meeting last spring, the electronics giant showed 1,200 employees a humorous video in which four consumers fought to open Sony products. One of them used his teeth, another went at it with a hacksaw. A third cut his finger.

Now Sony has started an ambitious project with the goal of putting clamshell packages on the endangered list.

"Sony is developing packaging prototypes that will be tested in the coming months at Best Buy and Wal-Mart locations in the U.S.," says Candice Hayman, spokeswoman for Sony Canada. "Once the results of the U.S. test have been gathered, Sony will determine a course of action regarding the future of clamshell packaging."

One of the Sony prototypes uses an adhesive that is easy to pry open but makes a loud Velcro-like noise, according to The New York Times. The sound is intended to stop "shrinkage," the retail term for theft, by deterring thieves. Microsoft recently launched a spiffy new package for the Explorer Mouse and the Explorer Mini Mouse. The packaging features "plastic zippers" similar to packaging found on food products. It also has blue arrows to guide buyers through the opening process.

Drawing on consumer feedback and product development research, the company decided to "build a special innovative tearaway strip to allow a very user-friendly way of opening the clamshell," says Charles Chang, product manager of PC hardware at Microsoft Canada.

In Canada, the Explorer Mouse is for sale at most major electronic retailers, including Future Shop and Best Buy.

Amazon has also simplified the packaging for memory cards, which are typically encased in oversized plastic clamshells and then placed inside larger cardboard boxes for shipment to customers. Working with Transcend, Amazon has eliminated the hard-to-open clamshell and the need for an additional box. Instead, the cards will now ship inside recyclable cardboard envelopes, which use less material.

Amazon's project will expand across its international sites, such as Amazon.ca, beginning in 2009. The collection of frustration-free products can be seen by going to http://www.amazon.com/packaging.

"It will take many years," says Bezos, "but our vision is to offer our entire catalogue of products in frustration-free packaging."

I actually thought about getting one of these.
especially made for clam shell packaging.

Those clam shells are a fuckin nightmare indeed

That looks kinda scary.

desperate times call for desperate measures, my friend.


that packaging was bullshit.

The first thing I thought when i saw that pic was

There was a "clamshell packaging" Opener in Bed bath and beyond. and the jerks put their product in clamshell packaging. WHAT THE HELL, MAN. It was the cruelest of all ironies.

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