Some of the oldies, I've kept intact, but any I bought as users came right out. I don't remember where I found the following, but I thought it was pretty good.
"Think about it: Have you ever met a single person who didn't launch into a five-minute "Tourette's tirade" when asked to comment on the subject of clamshell packaging? You know, the annoying, seemingly indestructible material that protects, say, a flash drive better than the army protects Fort Knox and is responsible for thousands of emergency room visits every year?
Yet, even though almost everyone on the planet hates them with a passion usually reserved for ex-spouses, and the folks at Amazon.com get so many complaints about them they actually have a guy who specializes in handling only clamshell complainers, it certainly seems most companies just don't care.
And, even if they did, the manufacturers of the packaging apparently share the same ambivalence, as only a handful of companies have changed the way they ship and package their products since clamshells were introduced more than a decade ago.
Yet the hospital visits keep climbing.
After nearly severing my carotid artery trying to open a new Bluetooth ear piece, I decided to try and find out why this scourge of the consumer electronics world just won't go away. After all, no matter how many benefits this type of packaging might provide to a company, they can't outweigh the cries of the huddled, bleeding masses ... can they?
Here are the top three reasons we'll never get rid of clamshell packaging:
1. It prevents shoplifting. Most of the devices these oversized packages hold would easily fit in your pocket, but the plastic makes it too big and bulky to hide. Stores argue it's either that or they'd have to hire more security guards, which would cost more than the packaging. Translation: money.
2. Easy to showcase the product. The clear plastic exterior means you can see exactly what you're buying. And that makes the sale much more likely to happen than if you were looking at a picture on a box. Translation: money.
3. Cost. At this point, because all these companies have all these manufacturers running all these machines in all these factories, you'd have better luck finding a Packers fan in Pittsburgh than you would getting these giant packaging plants to outfit all their factories with new equipment. Which would also mean more training. Translation: money.
Now, the top three ways to make clamshell packaging go away overnight:
1. Wrap each paycheck for each CEO of each company using clamshell packaging in a clamshell package.
2. Offer a $1 million reward to the first guy who designs an unlocking zip strip that would make opening these bastards a snap. Once the fun of tormenting us is gone, I'm sure we'd see user-friendly packaging in no time.
3. As a last resort, put all the food we send to Third World countries in clamshell packaging. Half the population would die of starvation before they could open the package, and the heads of these corporations would be brought up on charges of genocide.
I guess until it's proved that these plastic coverings cause cancer, we're probably stuck with them. And, even if that were proved, we'd probably still be stuck with them, as change of any kind always means money. No one wants to spend it, but everyone wants to make it."
