I really hate the new kind of plastic packaging, the indestructible type that is heat-vacuum-shrunk around the purchased item; the type whose packaging design offers no means of opening it short of using a hacksaw. The plastic itself is so thick it is impossible to tear or pry apart. And I know that even if I am somehow able to slip a finger in-between the plastic joins, I run a very real risk of severing a digit or two on the wickedly sharp edges. Every time I cautiously approach one of these packages, I wonder how many finger-related law suits have been filed.
Since kitchen shears are no help at all, I decided to purchase an inexpensive pair of tin snips. But when I found the pair of industrial-grade snips I wanted at my local Lowes Home Center — you guessed it — they were tightly cocooned in an impenetrable spent-plutonium plastic diaper.
“Would you please open this package for me?” I asked the checkout person after purchasing the snips. “My fingers aren’t what they used to be and I’d like to keep them that way.”
The cashier slipped her own pair of tin snips from under the counter. Snip, snip. A couple of dangerous daring finger maneuvers, and the metal snips separated from the packaging. She made it look so easy. “There you go sir. Works like a champ.”
They must. She still had all of her fingers.
Tim, this story has been rolling around in my head for a week now and today I had to open a package of…tin snips. Muttering … plasti-krap-wrats. Wrats! My co-worker asks me ” crab rats? boss?” “Never mind” I said “pass me that saw”
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Hahahahahaha! Gawd, I really R E A L L Y don’t like those packages!
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It’s like really high curbs and Medicare forms – if you are over your 50s there are a lot of little obstacles that other people don’t get. I am continually P-Od about the plastic packaging. I mean, HEADPHONES??? Or SHOWERHEADS? Is there a pending terrorist action? Or are these things just rife with selling-for-meth opportunities? I honestly do not get it.
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I don’t either. I think our politicians must be HEAVILY invested in (as Dustin Hoffman was told in “the Graduate” movie): “PLASTIC!”
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I hope God has reserved a special place in the iNFERNAL FURNACE, for whoever invented those—-and the wraps on CD’s
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I bought a little gizmo that you slide along the side of a CD or DVD, and it slices it open without damaging the case. I got mine at MicroCenter, but you can find one on ebay. Here’s a link to one, and there are more at different prices… http://www.ebay.com/itm/4-EZ-CD-Opener-EZ-CD-Easily-Opens-Compact-Disc-Packaging-Free-Shipping-/250893528930?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a6a6b6f62
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Thanks! And this works on those THICK plastic packaging-thingies from Hell?
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This is more like it for the THICK thingies from hell…
http://www.ebay.com/itm/INSTASLIT-Plastic-Package-Opener-Insta-Slit-Packaging-Cutter-As-Seen-on-TV-/170837844093?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27c6baa07d
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I was so frustrated trying to pry open a package of bacon where it says: “tear here”that I yelled at my husband to find a “machete”!…Sometimes those plastic rings on quart cartons become problematic when the tab snaps off without opening the disk for pouring. I used an icepick on a carton of egg beaters, It was quie messy.
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lol. Yeah, those “tear here” dotted lines are frustrating on those supposedly “zip re-seal” bags. You have to end up snipping them with a pair of scissors, then, the snipped edge is so close to the “zipper” you can’t get enough finger leverage to pry the zipper apart. The worst, though, are those clever pull-tab cans of meat where the pull-tabs snap off without removing the lid. Maddening. GGRrrrrr.
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I just put in a new hand-held shower head. It was packed in the accursed sealed plastic package you refer to. It took me longer to get the thing out of the package than it did to assemble and install it. ARrrghhhhh!
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I have broken many items while in a “Opening Nuclear Packaging Rage”.
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Tim, I have found a handheld can opener (the really efficient kind) does a good job.
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We use a box cutter for those impossible bubble-wrapped packages. Although an inconvenience, it works perfect!
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OOoooooo. I darn near cut off a finger when a cutter slipped off that slick packaging! BE CAREFUL!
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O.M.Gosh! I agree!! I HATE those packages! tin snips sound like the way to go, thanks!
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Tim, let me tell you about the wonderful Christmas present I got this year. It’s called Openit and supposedly will open any of those clam shell plastic packages. It looks a little like a pair of snips bu it also has a retractable utility knife and a screwdriver in the handle. My daughter in law bought one for me, her Mom & herself and it’s great. I have the feeling that it’s one of those “As seen on TV products”.
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Thanks. I’ll look it up!
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