Open Thread Update: We Hate Adult-Proof Packaging

Last time we asked you for your adult proof packaging hassles and the winner is…

Medication bottles

Those child-resistent blister packs and the ones that need a push and turn lead the hit parade, according to Addie, Mary, Patricia, Brenda, Stan , and Harry (“I bought CVS brand lidocaine roll on for occasional back pain. It has a push down and turn top. I purchased it weeks ago and still can’t open it.”)

Fast Fixes

Several readers offered their toolkit suggestions (thanks for the suggestion, Bill, but a chainsaw is a little impractical).  Reader Kim hates the clamshells and likes a JarKey and needle nose pliers, but  Barbara uses kitchen shears and her mother’s Top-Off Jar & Bottle Screw Top Opener made by the Edlund Co. of Burlington VT.  “If you ever see one at a yard sale, be sure to take it home.,” she says – but you can pick up a ‘vintage’ one on eBay for upwards of $20(!!)  Patrick adds “a pair of cut-resistant gloves to try to protect your hands against the deadly sharp edges of plastic containers.” Check Dr Jeanne Powell’s comment for her fast fixes.

The easiest fix of all….

Make someone else do it.   Reader Ludmilla asks the security guard in her building, and reader Gail asks the cashier to “find someone who will open it for me before I buy it! The more trouble we make for them as consumers, the faster they will comply.”

If only, according to Suzanne:

I use some OTC allergy medication that is individually packed in foil and hard plastic bubbles. I have found that it is also impossible to open. I have called their customer service number to tell them and the response I got was,   “Lots of people have that same comment.”

Meanwhile, here are some tips from an organization that should know all about grip strength.

 

Odds and Ends

Reader Donna cites the long lighters to light candles. (I cannot depress the button while pulling the trigger.) and Patty ‘can’t even buy certain foods like jams any more bc I can’t get into them!” Wren adds “One of my jar opening rants is Talenti. delicious sorbet but the lids are impossible.”  Reader Claire, a cat-lover, mentions older adults with a cat “limited on what brand to buy because they can’t open the package.”  Karen singles out grocery store bottled water (‘My nemesis”) And thank you to reader Doris’s comment:

Hand soap dispenser. I had to look up on YouTube how to open it. A kind person did a video

I actually gave up and poured the whole thing into a different bottle yesterday.

Reader Mary Lou makes a very intelligent point about ageism…in the stationery aisle.

.. How about the fact that in the greeting card section of a store, the granddaughter and grandson birthday cards are usually on the bottom shelves, so you have to bend over or crouch down to read them. With my knees there’s no way i can crouch down to peruse those cards, and I bet I’m not the only one. And who else is going to buy grandchild birthday cards but us seniors with wonky knees and sometimes terrible vision?

…and a special mention to…

Hearing Aid Batteries

I now have rechargeable hearing aids because the batteries are tiny and hard to handle – and did you know they can expire?   Weird because, as Gayle points out “hearing aids are normally for older folks, who may have trouble with tiny things..” Reader Judith notes that the little wheel dispensers are now sealed in thicker plastic …”

And don’t get on Dot’s bad side:

Every time I open the hearing aid batteries I curse the company designers. Bless them for keeping those batteries safe — but who monitors the dead batteries that are just as likely to end up in children’s mouths. I have to get out the scissors (difficult to handle after my stroke), make two cuts, pry open the plastic to get out the battery, holding tight so it doesn’t fall where I can’t see it. I hope those packagers have a very special hell, one in which they spend eternity trying to open packages. 

…and the nuclear option…

All too true. I am avoiding products that were beyond the powers of my pipe wrench. Lids are now so skimpy that there is no edge to grab, so nothing for the lid opener to grab, and pinch-turn lids no longer work. Never again getting bottles of pink bismuth of any brand. And what used to be convenient to carry little pills in tearable little pockets are now no longer convenient at all unless you want to also carry scissors. I end up buying less stuff, however!

-Irene

That’s it for this time, but we’ll leave the comments open for your pet peeves….maybe someone will listen!!

And in case you missed it, here’s the ..

…ORIGINAL COLUMN:

Recently I had to purchase a new set of portable earphones.  I go through them pretty quickly, so I tend to buy the cheapest ones I can find at the store.  They run me….maybe…$4.99. I toss ’em in a drawer until I need them.

But when I need them?  You’d think they were the Koh-i-Noor the way they were packaged, tightly encased in an impenetrable, super durable thick plastic clamshell, probably used for the International Space Station.

Overpackaging 1, consumer 0.

YOU WERE RIGHT

Last year, several readers voiced their issues with products packaged, as one gal put it, to survive a trip to outer space.  I now keep a screwdriver, a pair of pliers, and a pair of tin snips in the kitchen because there’s no telling what tool I’ll need.

Ever try to open a pack of batteries?  It’s impossible. Or the medical or OTC items – even mouthwash – and require grip strength and the manual dexterity of a juggler to open (Push down and turn? Huh?)

Of course every package has helpful suggestions on how to open it, along with the directions,  which are printed in tiny typeface that requires an electron microscope to read.

I have my own helpful suggestions for those package designers.

The overpackaging winner and still champion

My special ire is reserved for the tech industry.  Every item from $5.99 “el cheapo” headphones to high-end cables is sheathed in impenetrable, hard, clear plastic, clamshells, sealed underneath several layers of thick cardboard.  Even my heavy duty tin snips can’t cut it.

I’m eyeing a portable hand saw for my kitchen to handle that….except I’m afraid of how hard it will be to open that.

I’m all for child-proof packaging that keeps little ones safe.  But manufacturers have nothing to fear from me about a set of headphones….so why the adult-proof packaging?

YOUR TURN

But that’s me.  How about you? What modern packaging could you live without? How do you open the un-openable?  Share your thoughts in the comments!

 

Virge Randall is Senior Planet’s Managing Editor. She is also a freelance culture reporter who seeks out hidden gems and unsung (or undersung) treasures for Straus Newspapers; she writes frequently on Old School New York City and performs at open mic readings throughout New York City.  Send  Open Thread suggestions to editor@seniorplanet.org.