Blister packs. I have written to numerous manufacturers, not that they care, but as a sufferer of Rheumatoid with it settled in my hands, I have a real problem getting some of the packaging open.

I hate-hate-hate those safety seals, Flamey!

I despise the safety seals that claim to offer you an "easy-pull tab" and then you find it's 1/10th of an inch long. Now, who can grab that thing? And the seal itself is as thick as that tab, so it's tough poking through it with a paring knife.

grrrrrr

Sometimes I would like to get ahold of the person who designs these 'safety' seals and hit them with a wet noodle. LOL

My gripe isn't about a product, but something that has been happening here in our APT house. There is one laundry room for each floor with pay washers & dryers. The wash schedule is posted on the wall right by the machines, but so many times, I go to do my wash at my assigned time and the machines (1 washer 1 dryer) are in use. I printed up a sign that somply said, PLEASE HONOR THE ASSIGNED WASH TIMES. The sign was torn down. I'm not sure who the culprit is, but I'm going to take a chair and a book and sit in the laundry room, and explain (maybe nicely) the schedule. Jeesh, can't people read anymore?

I can barely get a lot of packaging open now, I don't know how I'll accomplish it down the road when I am older and arthritic. And it always seems that a new package of something needs to be opened when I'm in the finishing stages of cooking a meal and need it NOW.

Another annoyance is the way DH opens packages. He nearly always opens a bag of chips down the side. Yep, just rips it open lengthwise down the side. He often opens a box of cereal on the wrong end. I'm not sure how he doesn't even notice the box is upside down? It must be a guy thing, but he can sure butcher a package.

I hate the bottles that you have to push down on or squeeze and turn to open. They are almost impossible for me to open.

Dotmom, life would be so simple if all would just follow the rules. Sadly, some just think rules are for others. Hope you enjoy your book and catch the culprit..

Sealed for your protection... yeah right. How many times have I been trying to get into a package with a knife or scissor when it slipped and I almost lost a finger? I think the emergency rooms and bandaid makers are all inchahoots with the packaging companies. :-)

Dotmom, when you find the culprit.. I'd ask when his/her scheduled time is and tell them you'll be taking that. Maybe they will feel guilty and pretend they didn't understand the scheduling list. Besides that I think I'd be talking to the landlords about adding an additional washer and dryer.

Pink Bird I share your annoyance with all this packaging but the one you described is beyond ridiculous. Copy and paste your post into an email to the company. They need to know this stuff.

Linda

Resealable cheese! You cut on the dotted line...then the reseal strip is not on correctly and gaps open....so it can't be resealed without a BAG CLIP!

Packaging! Just annoys me to no end too. Plastic wrapping on packages these days is almost tough as leather... you HAVE to go get the scissors or a sharp knife to open them. Have any of you tried to open a new music CD recently?
Also since I'm on a roll, the allegedly "resealable" ziploc packaging on some foods, like bagged salad for instance. Sometimes I just give up after several minutes of trying to reseal them and get a chip-clip to close them.
I've wondered why they DON'T make the resealable packaging for cereal (the inner plastic bag, that is)
As for the "resealable" cheese, I just go ahead and get out a ziploc food storage bag for those.
I agree about some of the blister packs of OTC drugs. For instance, I recently bought some Benadryl and actually had to saw open each individual pill with a knife. It was too small to use scissors on.

I got some anti-histamine...all I can do is look at it longingly, cause I sure can't open it.

It makes me mad to go to a restaurant and get something served to me that I would throw away at home. Like a slice of tomato with the hard, white core in it.

I also hate opening packaging. And prescription bottles that you have to push down and turn to open. Both of my hands are messed up and I never can remember to tell the pharmacist when I get a prescription filled.

Yes, opening a CD is so frustrating! I thought it was just me.

I really hate things that have that very hard plastic clamshell covering on them that you can't even cut with scissors. I have no idea how you're supposed to open something like that.

The ziploc items Vicki7 mentioned drive me nutso!
Trying to break that 1st ziploc seal is ridiculous, especially if your hands are the tiniest bit wet.
Pull this way and that, sideways, diagonally and still it's sealed.
I think they've run it under a steam roller prior to putting it on the shelves.
Oh, and then it really never seals the same again :( nice.

Didn't you know they make these safety things so us senior citizens can't get into them? We could hurt ourselves.

I know, I know--you are all correct, and I struggle with horrible packaging as well. Why do they have to clamshell batteries, for example? And all that plastic just goes to the landfills, sadly.

But as far as food packaging is concerned, remember the Tylenol incident of the 1980's. There are a lot of nutty people out there, and I don't want them opening up something I might buy.

Marilyn--I hate being served those ugly tomato ends too! Maybe we need a little more fine dining in our lives!

Marilyn,i soooooooooo agree with you about the tomato at restaurants.I thought i was the only LUCKY one to get that hard center.

I told my pharmacist that i need the easy open tops,no kids here and i can't open the others,heck i can't even open a water bottle without my opener that DH got for me.

And those blister pkgs,what were they thinking when they came up with those and the cd pkg,it almost takes an act of congress to get some of them open.
Kathi

I don't like that packaging either and I have cut myself with a knife on more than one occasion trying to open something.

I really don't like the colour of ink that some magazines use. Use black ink for goodness sake. I can read black ink but I can't read it when it is gray or pale pink or pale blue. Someone hands me a magazine to read an article and I find myself looking at the pictures because the print is too pale! My sister keeps wanting to get me a subscription to a Canadian magazine and I told her to forget it because I can't read it.

I know I am getting older and my eyes aren't as sharp as they once were but can they make the print any smaller? I sometimes think it is my eyes then I take an older magazine I have saved and compare the print. In some cases the font is half the size as it was before. Forget about using a phone book anymore. Even using a magnifing glass doesn't help. LOLOL Our phonebook is 1/3 of the size it once was.

Grocery bags or store bags. They are charging for useage which I can understand and I usually do carry a tote in my purse or use those grocery totes but sometime I don't have them with me. If the stores are going to charge us a nickle for every bag at least make the quality of the bag better instead of worse. When I didn't have to pay for grocery bags I rarely ended up with bags that had holes in them and I could reuse the bag for cat and dog waste. Now I am finding the bags are a lot thinner, not made of the same type of plastic and every bag I bring home has a hole in it. I wouldn't toss money in the trash but I feel I am doing that every time I toss a holey bag away.

Anne

Packaging in general! Especially blister packs. I had to get the scissors out to take an allergy pill. I really hate having to cut out the article I purchased.

Joan you crack me up!

:)

Moni

Guess that is why they sell so many clothespins to keeps things shut.
Biggest proplem is things sealed so tight, that when you do cut the package you still cannot open them, especially those tiny computer parts that come in big packages.

My pet peeve is that all of the packaging is one time use. I'd like to go back to reusable packaging where we keep our old containers and return them like we used to do with soft drink bottles.

My pet peeve is medication that comes on those little cards where you have to "tear" through the untearable little notch and then punch the pill through the foil after peeling away the first layer of seal.

Nothing like struggling with an Imodium tablet this way when you are between bathroom visits and feeling the urge already.

I agree with every single one of you! Packages are so hard to open especilly those bubble things! The latest problem I've had is with little bottles of liquid glucose they make for diabetics having low blood sugar. Ir's great stuff and quickly gets your low blood surgar back up to normal.

I need to write to them and say that after you get the plastic covering off you don't NEED that extra cardboard protection.

Packaging in general, Benadryl in particular. I was treated for chigger bites recently, and the doctor told me to take 2 Benadryl a night, for 14 nights. Trying to get to the pills was an adventure in itself.

I have to agree with the bubble packs of medication. I start trying to get one of those open for allergies and by the time I get the damn pill out, I have a headache on top of it. Most of the time I just say forget it and deal with the allergies.

I had a new bottle of cough syrup..the man was here to check the furnace out for the on coming winter..I ask him to open it for me..sad isn't it.

I keep a small razor knife handy for breaking into medication blister packs.

Have you noticed the new, flimsy water bottles that have tiny little tops on them that unscrew? I can't get a good grip on those and I have small hands, I don't know how other people manage to do it, but I can't seem to open one because I get the part that comes off along with the part that stays on, so it won't turn or break the perforations. I was at a friend's and we were having to use bottled water while her kitchen was being renovated and I was struggling with those bottles.

Donnakt, you made me laugh because this happened to me one time. I was making ham salad and I cleaned out a mayo jar but needed more. I got out a new jar but was having a hard time opening the wide mouth jar due to having small hands plus arthy.. About that time the mailman was driving up my drive to bring something to me. I hopped to the door right quick and asked him to open it for me. We both got a chuckle out of it but I got my ham salad made..

I hear ya, Flamey.

I find it cruelly ironic when I'm painfully struggling to open my arthritis medication...OUCH & Grrrrr!

And how sad is it that these child proof caps can usually be opened by a kid...if you happen to have one handy. LOL

How about taking those accursed packages to the store manager, asking him/her to open them?

If s/he refuses ... tell her/him that you can't open it, if you have arthritis ... and that you want your money back.

Then ... insist.

Yell, if you have to.

They remember the sqeaky wheels ... and if enough wheels squeak, long enough ... they'll get back to the manufacturers.

Complaining only really helps if you do it in places where it can have some effect.

ole joyful

I thought about starting a "pet peeve" thread the other day 'cause I had a really good one. Darn if I can remember it now :-(

My pet peeve de jour though is those never-ending, insufferable political ads that will go on and on until the election, I guess. I am so, so tired of them.

Joyful, I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and hope you were just kidding with that post about yelling at an employee. *Totally* off base! You've been listening to that stupid mantra "the customer is always right" just a little too long methinks. If you were serious, then let's have us a discussion cuz you just hit on a pet peeve of mine! LOL

I'm proud to say I've intervened on more than one occasion when someone has been screaming at an employee who is not responsible for the problem. I've also gone to bat for employees put in that position. And I've also had my share of people taking their hostilities out on me because they can't balance a checkbook, read a sign or a variety of other excuses for the problem. When the employee does something wrong, they should be held accountable but that should be by their employer. Although your purchases contribute to paying their wages, you are not their employer and reprimanding them isn't your privilege.

You made an excellent point:
Complaining only really helps if you do it in places where it can have some effect.
Well said. So well, in fact that one bears restatement:
Complaining only really helps if you do it in places where it can have some effect.

So go to the manufacturer instead of a guy trying to earn a living. Or better yet, how about people taking some personal responsibility? Go ahead and return it if you want. Good suggestion. That's not a problem. But why in the world would you keep buying it then if it's so bad? I've said (essentially) this in another thread tonight but bears repeating here: If you don't buy it, they won't sell it, get it? If you buy it over and over, you're telling them you like it. Basic rules of retail. Dollars are data and communicate well.

And BTW, I'll lay you odds if you ask the cashier nicely to open it for you, most (if not all) of the time I'm sure they will. Most will have a box cutter on them or near them or have the dexterity to pop it open. And for that matter you can stand there and yell too - they'll probably still open it for you! And have a good laugh in the breakroom telling the others about you! :D

I don't like a lot of these packages, but I'm pragmatic. There IS a reason for them.

And sometimes, OJ, people just want to vent here, without making a federal case out of it. Around here, if you yell at a manager (especially over something out of his control, like packaging) you will be escorted to the door and banned from returning.

Asking someone to open something for you at the store might be practical some of the time, but not if you're buying it to stock your pantry. I don't want to have store everything in the fridge after opening it and exposing it to air.