Opinion: Will Clamshell Packaging Ever Change?

I hate this stuff…

You know it’s bad when they make special “clamshell openers” you can buy for $10 at Bed Bath and Beyond.

From David Fagan at AOL….

Think about it: Have you ever met a single person who didn’t launch into a five-minute 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?

Maybe you haven’t heard of “wrap rage,” but you’ve probably felt it when trying to open seemingly impenetrable clamshell packaging of toys and electronics.

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:

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