I’m looking for a word.
You know how you buy a lot of things, especially electronic gadgets, and they come in this hermetically-sealed hard, clear plastic packaging? That you can only get the contents out of by cutting, but it’s so tough you practically need a chainsaw?
What do you call that hideous packaging type?
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I believe the term is ‘clamshell’. It’s odious and according to a few things I’ve read, the manufacturers are finally getting the message that people hate them, no matter that they enhance in-store security.
There are supposed to be a couple of variations that are much easier to open coming down the pipe.
Sheer, unadulterated evil?
Here’s a few others that share your frustrations. Me?… When I was 10, I thought it was funny to gift wrap $10 worth of quarters individually in Duct Tape…. I guess the “Space Devil” had a better plan.
3M. We don’t make the product. We make the product practically impossible to open. I’ve come up the with a term: “Alcatraz packaging.”
The solution is pruning shears.
Yes, but what if you buy pruning shears and THEY’RE Alcatraz packed?
I have never had any trouble cutting into a clamshell plastic package using the serrated blade on my Spyderco Clipit, and after 20 years that thing is not factory sharp.
John Burgess nails it: Clamshell Packaging.
I usually resort to an X-Acto knife and a broad, clear, flat surface. And a lot of cursing. Oh, yeah, a box of Bandaids nearby.
I call it a secret plot by the Aspirin Manufacturers association.
I use kitchen shears. The kind that comes with knife sets, and is designed to snip through bones.
My genius wife did come up with a good observation on how to deal with these demonic packages:
Use a pair of hearty scissors to cut off the top and then cut deep into the left or right side. Then they’re much easier to just pry apart.
I use a slight modification of that to the same result. I cut a horseshoe opening. Of course, that doesn’t take care of that seconf piece of plastic that is designed in such a way taht it fits into an opening well, but is almost impossible to get back out.
In my glove compartment, I carry a knife. The kind you pull open and out pops the most deadly looking and razor sharp 6-inch blade you’ve ever seen. (Not a switchblade. They are illegal around here, and I wouldn’t want my guns confiscated.)
That’s my cut-open-the-clamsheel shiv. I buy a lot of old collector cameras and related gear on eBay, and have it shipped to my Mount Horeb, Wisconsin post office box. Not wanting to carry home all the boxes and the crap they stuff in there to protect my goodies, I snap open that blade to cut the boxes open quickly. I have seen the jaws drop on the faces of some of the villagers when they look at that knife.
And that puts a faint smile on my face. Every now and then.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
Tim,
That’s why we have guns.
TallDave,
Do we use the guns on the package, the retailers or against the people who design the package?
Tim:
Why limit yourself to just one of them?
What I don’t quite get is why stores like this kind of packaging. Yeah, I get the anti-theft bit, but since the customer has to essentially destroy the packaging to remove the item, doesn’t it give the store significant “returns” headaches?
I hate clamshell packaging with the burning hot hatred of 1,000 suns.
They make a tool now expressly for opening clamshell packaging. I saw it advertised somewhere. They make one for opening CD cases, too.
Linda
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