Christmas day is almost over. At my house the day was spent with with family and friends enjoying each others company and the taste of great food and drink. The kids got up early as usual and the morning was spent trying not to explode the house in presents, paper and packaging.
Amongst the fun, there was one thing I hated. Opening factory packaging. In particular that awful clamshell plastic packaging. That stuff is so universally hated that there is a term for it. Wrap Rage.
Consumer Reports has an award for bad packaging. Its called the "Oyster Award". Clamshell packaging is the hands down winner for hard-to-open packaging. CR reports it takes an average of 9 minutes and 22 seconds to open a clamshell packaged product.
Clamshell packaging is designed to protect products as they move through international supply chains. The plastic vinyl sheeting protects the product in transit and keeps the product safe in merchandising. Anybody who has ever tried to open a product wrapped in it also knows it helps against shoplifting because the stuff is almost impossible to get open. Having worked my way through several such pieces this Christmas day, I was so frustrated that I found myself cussing the brands that use this package type.
From a logistics point of view, clamshell packaging is cheap, its efficient and it (undeniably!) protects the merchandise. Contract Logistics operations often use this kind of quick packaging when items are merged at a distribution center to create a new SKU. Such a situation might be when a toothbrush that comes from one factory is joined with a tube of toothpaste from another plant at the distribution center. The new clamshell packed item is a new product SKU and is often found at a point of sale kiosk in a grocery or retail store. Thats a very efficient and common scenario.
From a consumer point of view though, clamshells are a disaster. Any product attribute that causes the customer to get mad when trying to open the package is bad. Even worse, this packaging causes people to get hurt. In 2004 over 6400 people were treated in emergency rooms in the United States because they were either cut by the plastic itself or by an improvised "opener" such as a knife, box cutter, scissors, etc. The clamshell can also make products completely inaccessible to both young children and senior citizens.
High visibility packaging like clamshells are also big business. US retail demand for high-visibility packaging, like clamshells and blister packs, are expected to be an $8.5 billion dollar industry by 2010, covering as many as 32 billion units. You can forget "green" as a concept though. These tough packages are also tough on the environment. Over 900 million pounds of plastic resin will be required to create the packaging to meet the 2010 volume projection.
Of course with any problem there will be entrepreneurial opportunities. Such is the case here as well. A number of specialty tools have been developed to help open clamshell packaging. Tools such as the Zibra "OpenIt!" , the KwikCut or OpenX tools allow consumers to slice open plastic clamshell packaging. While I'm very likely to buy one of the various tools available, I think its poor marketing to force the consumer to buy a special tool to get access to a product he paid good money for already.
For all the angst over Clamshell packaging, there are alternatives.
MeadWestvaco's Natralock is one example. Natralock packaging allows products to be sealed for safety and security, but is much easier to open. Costco is starting to use this packaging as a way to serve their customers. Food giant, Nestle is also investing heavily in new styles of packaging that are both recyclable and easy to open by younger consumers and the Elderly. Their view is that if these two groups can open a package, then the masses in the middle certainly can.
While there may be moves to replace clamshell packaging, I don't think we'll see it go away within the next 3-5 years. The packaging machinery is too widely deployed. When "low cost" is still a major driver in manufacturing and product sourcing, cheap packaging will go hand in hand. Maybe buying one of those tools isn't such a bad idea after all?!
In the meantime, I hope you and your families had a wonderful Holiday.
Eric
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I guess I must be missing something. I have never had any problem opening clamshell packaging. I have always simply cut two adjacent sides with a pair of dollar store kitchen scissors. Fast, neat, cheap, no hassle. I think the packaging is great. You see exactly what you're getting. You know no one has pawed over the item with their dirty sweaty hands. You know it is not a return that has been tampered with. The item is protected from shock during shipping. What's not to like about it? It would seem that it would not be too difficult to simply adapt to the new paradigm. But some people seem to have an infinite resistance to change I guess.
Posted by: Held | September 20, 2008 at 01:47 PM