ARE THEY SELLING THE PRODUCT OR THE PACKAGE?

So many packages are designed to be very hard to open correctly. They seem to not want you to actually use the product. So are the manufacturers making a product for you to use, or a package to keep it in permanently?

HERE ARE THE CASES

1. LIDS NEED THE STRENGTH OF HERCULES TO BE OPENED:
   • Screw top lids are screwed on so tight that you need a tool to unscrew the lid.
   • The friction ridges on the cap are sharp enough to hurt your fingers.
   • After unscrewing the lid, there is a peel-away seal on the contents:

      You break two fingernails trying to get the seal off.

      Either the seal needs a tool to open it, or the seal shreds and must be taken off in pieces.

      The seal may have a tab that lifts up so you can remove the seal. But the tab tears off without removing the seal.

   • The pull-tab breaks off when trying to open a pull-tab lid. Then you need a clean chisel and a hammer.
   • You need a pry bar to bend up the pull-tab enough to open it.
   • The can lid is too thick and breaks the can opener.
   • You cut yourself on the lid the can opener opened.
   • Opening the container destroys the lid, so you can't put it back on the container to keep the contents fresh.
   • Sometimes the cap requires extra steps, so you must find a child who can figure out how to open the child-proof cap.
   • If everything else goes right, the lid becomes cross-threaded when you try to close it, and damages the threads.
2. SHRINK WRAP FORMED AROUND CANS SOLD TOGETHER REQUIRES STRENGTH AND TOOLS TO REMOVE IT:
   • Older shrink-wraps had perforations to make splitting the shrink wrap easy makes opening easy.
   • New shrink wraps do not tear but stretch, making it very hard to remove them with fingers.
   • Scissors or knives and strength are needed to get the cans out of the shrink wrap.
3. MEDICINE BOTTLES HAVE THEIR OWN FRUSTRATIONS:
   • Child-proof caps are very hard for elderly people to open. They need to find a child to help them.
   • Alternative caps with screw tops get cross-threaded when the user tries to close them.
   • Bottles with necks much narrower than the body of the bottle can release many pills at one time when tilted.
   • Shake the bottle gently once and nothing comes out. Do that again and 16 pills come out.
   • Many of the bottles containing pills can have a static charge. This makes the pills stick to the sides of the bottle and come out in a rush.
   • The cap prefers to cross-thread, rather than going on right. Then the child-proof cap prevents you from getting it off the bottle to put it on right.
   • Too many bottles do not have enough surface area to contain all of the text the government requires to be printed on the label.
     So the pharmacist sticks a flap printed on both sides onto one side of the bottle.

      When the user picks up that bottle, the flap catches on other bottles in the medicine chest, and then all of the bottles fall out of the chest.

4. PLASTIC BAGS FULL OF FOOD WILL NOT OPEN THE WAY THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO:
   • Plastic bags containing cereal or chips refuse to open in the intended way.

      The bag may suddenly open, tearing the bag beyond the ends of the top.

      The bag may refuse to open at all, requiring the user to get scissors.

   • When the bag unintentionally tears, it tears down the bag (dumping the product on the floor), not across the bag.
   • When the user squeezes the bag to break up the product inside it, the bag tears and lets out crumbs.
5. PLASTIC BAGS WITH PULL-TABS WILL NOT OPEN THE WAY THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO:
   • In many cases, the pull tab is missing or the cut that separates the tab from the bag is missing.
   • When the pull tab is pulled, it does not follow the intended path, spilling the contents of the bag.
   • When the contains a zip closure to reseal it, the pull tab tears through the zip seal.
   • When the plastic packet contains a sauce, pulling the tab squirts the sauce all over the area.
6. CARDBOARD BOXES FULL OF FUNGIBLE PRODUCT NEVER OPEN RIGHT:
   • They never use the right amount of glue on the box, or in the right place. It either opens by itself in the store, or the cardboard must be torn to open the box.
   • If the box has a tab and slot to reclose the box, opening the box tears the tab or the slot so it won't close properly.
   • Cereal boxes are now sold so tall that they do not fit in kitchen cabinets of older kitchens.
   • If the contents in the bag inside the box are a bit wider than the box, the tab on the top will not stay in the slot.
   • When all else works, the seam down the side of the box opens up due to not enough glue.
7. THE BOX HAS MANY TABS THAT MUST BE OPENED IN SEQUENCE TO OPEN THE BOX:
   • The tabs often interlock at different angles.
   • Often the tab is sealed by a paper or plastic glued circle.
   • The tabs must be opened in exactly the right order to open the box.
   • Sometimes a tab is under a label, and you have to find it to open the box.
8. BLISTER-PACK CARDS WITH PRODUCTS IN THEM ARE VERY HARD TO OPEN:
   • These used to be easy to open. Then thieves stealing the contents forced sellers to use tougher blisters.
   • The new versions cannot be torn open, Tools are required (often scissors).
   • A blister pack of scissors needs another pair of scissors to open it.
   • Cutting open the blister can damage the product or cut the person opening it.
   • The blister usually cannot be recycled.
9. THE INDESTRUCTIBLE MAILING LABEL KEEPS YOU FROM OPENING THE BOX:
   • They make the mailing label out of that untearable paper.
   • The mailing label is placed where it holds the box shut. You have to tear the box to open it.
10. CONTAINERS CONTAIN SO MUCH PACKING THAT YOU CAN'T FIND THE PRODUCT:
    • The box is crammed with so much packing (wrappers, foam cushions, and loose fill) that finding the product is hard.
    • Sometimes the product is in several pieces which must be assembled, and you have to make sure you found all of them.
11. THE INSTRUCTIONS ARE UNINTELLIGIBLE, ARE WRITTEN IN SCRAMBLISH, REQUIRE A PHONE FOR A QR CODE, ARE ONLINE, OR ANY COMBO OF THE ABOVE:
    • The instructions are written in pseudo-English (Scramblish).
    • The instructions are so tiny you can't read them.
    • There or four languages are there in sequence for each instruction, so you have to hunt for the next instruction.
    • The instructions are pictures or drawings (with no text) of how it should look after each step, but not how to get the parts to stay in that position.
    • All they give you is a URL, a QR code, or some other code requiring a phone or a computer.

       Very handy if you are in a remote fishing cabin with no computer and no cell service.

    • The website also has any of the difficulties mentioned above.
12. SHOPPING BAGS DO EVERYTHING TO MAKE PUTTING PRODUCTS INSIDE THEM DIFFICULT:
    • Strong static cling keeps you from separating the two sides of the bag to open it.
    • The bottom of the bag is not able to take objects as wide as the bag is.
    • The bag is one of a set that hangs on hooks and must be torn off from the set. It tears off wrong and is destroyed.
    • Two or three bags tear off together.
    • The bag was mismanufactured, with only one loop handle or a hole in the side.
    • Putting a large object in the bag causes the side to split and everything to fall out of the bag.
    • One of the handles tears off a large paper bag.
13. OTHER PRODUCTS THAT CANNOT BE USED UNDER CERTAIN CONDITIONS - CARS:
    • Most cars are not designed to be driven in snowy or icy weather.

       The proper way to do this is to have a torque converter and a transmission that leaves out the lower gears. There are several ways to achieve this:

         - The two-speed automatics in the 1950s and '60s had the correct gear as first gear.

         - Second Gear Start, a control that tells the transmission to leave out first gear.

         - The D2 position on older cars does the same thing.

         - A position on the gearshift that gives nothing but second gear. But not all cars with a 2 on the gearshift do this.

         - A Manumatic Transmission (allows either automatic or manual shifting) that does NOT shift for you in manual (Sport Mode shifts by itself - unwanted).

         - A "Snow" or "Winter" position or button (reduces engine torque and leaves out lower gears).

         - Some cars have an ECO mode that can do this (but hybrid or electric ECO modes do something different).

       The more powerful a car is, the less likely it can be driven safely on snow or ice without one of these methods.

       Most manufacturers consider providing for winter driving to be a "luxury". The executives don't have to drive on icy roads (They get to stay home).

    • Most cars cannot be properly operated while you are wearing gloves.

       - Touch screens do not work through gloves.

       - Some car safety systems think your hands are not on the wheel because you are wearing gloves.

       - The fingertips of winter gloves are too big to push only one button in a cluster on many cars.

       - Gloves don't fit between the seat belt and the holder on many cars.

       - Gloves don't fit behind the interior door handle on many cars.

    • Too many cars have menus that you should not be navigating while driving, but demand that you do so.

       - Menus to select what is displayed to the driver

       - Menus for controlling the temperature inside the vehicle

       - Menus reporting something wrong with the car

       - Menus to control anticollision warnings

       - Menus to operate sound systems and navigation devices

      These should not be operated wbile the vehicle is moving, but the car often demands it. The driving display is gone until you respond.

    • Car controls are hard to use or have no pointer to show your setting.

       - Newer cars have knobs that do not show position with a pointer, but just count clicks.

       - The position you need is not present (I often want both windshield vent and dashboard vent).

       - The symbols are often not intuitive except to the person who designed the control.

       - Controls the driver needs to operate when alone in the car are out of reach of the driver.

    • Sunroofs are now on most cars, and they still cqause all kinds of troubles.

       - Sooner or later, that sunroof is going to leak. Sunlight makes the seals dry out and fail.

       - Often the driver leaves the car without noticing an open sunroof and returns to wet belongings on the seats.

       - The power sunroof fails just when you need to close it quickly.

       - Thieves get in through sunroofs.

14. OTHER PRODUCTS THAT CANNOT BE USED UNDER CERTAIN CONDITIONS - ACCESSIBILITY:
    • Stores are designed for people are not handicapped, and for those using power wheelchairs:

       - They put the entrance and the exit at two different points in the parking lot.
        This makes handicapped people walk or move manual wheelchairs quite far to their car.

       - They put curbs and drop-off spaces in the way of people with walkers.

       - They put the car pickup and new mother spaces closer to the store than the handicap spaces.

       - They put the handicap parking around the corner of the building where a ramp did not spoil the look of the architecture.

       - They let delivery people park in the handicap spaces to load or unload.

    • Most shopping centers do not remove snow and ice sufficiently to be handicap-accessible:

       - They forget that not every handicapped person uses a wheelchair. Some use canes, walkers, or other devices.

       - They forget that the person getting a wheelchair from a car or from the store also needs walking safety.

       - Sodium Chloride will not melt ice below 14 F. Calcium Chloride and Magnesium Chloride work at much lower temperatures.

       - If the ice can't be removed, put sand on it.

       - They never put up windbreaks in parking lots, so an ice cold winter wind blasts through the parking lot, from end to end, freezing everyone.

    • The new Post Office vandal-proof outdoor mailboxes are NOT handicap-accessible. You have to get out of the car and walk to the box.