September 9, 2010--Clamshell Casing
Every house here on the coast of Maine comes equipped with rain slickers, lobster pots, kayaks, Subarus, and oyster and clam knives. The latter to enable you to partake of some of the ocean's most delectable bivalves. That is, if you feel able to work those knives into the tough muscles that hold their shells together in a vice-like grip. And if you are willing to take the risk that the clam knife won't slip from the shallow slit between the two half shells and wind up severing the veins and tendons in your wrist.
From this you might rightly surmise that we tend either to have the fish store open our oysters or, more frewuently, order them in restaurants.
But these knives have other purposes. Among them to open what I have now come to learn are called clamshell casings. Those heavy plastic wrappings in which pretty much everything you get in hardware stores are encased.
In preparation for Hurricane Earl, which happily here turned out to be a rain event, we bought two battery-operated lamps and a economy pack of D batteries. These came sealed in virtually impenetrable plastic that was so difficult to open that if we had been hit by Earl and lost power it would have taken less time for the electric company to repair the damage than for us to pry them loose.
"What's the story with this?" Rona asked as she watched me get all sweated up while I struggled to free the first of the lamps. "Why do they have to package them this way? Not only is it a big waste of money but think about how, if you ever manage to get the stuff unpacked, the plastic, which looks like it's an eighth of an inch thick, will never degrade in the town dump."
"If I ever get this friggen thing lamp unsealed," I panted, "we'll be sure to recycle the plastic."
"Here, try one of your new Henkel knives. Using a screwdriver alone won't get the job done."
"I spent nearly a hundred dollars for that knife. I'm not going to ruin it on this. I'd rather sit in the dark for two days than do that."
"I understand. But try one of these." She handed me the clam knife.
"That's not a bad idea," I said, "But I think the oyster knife would be better. It has a sharper point."
Rona fished around in the drawer to find it. "You're right. This one looks like it was designed to poke through that plastic mess. But be careful, I don't want to have to call 911 if you slit your wrist."
The storm, as I mentioned, passed out to sea and so neither the lamps nor the batteries were needed. Then, the next day, as if on cue, there was an article in the business section of the New York Times (linked below) devoted to what in the packaging trade is referred to as "clamshell casing." From my recent experience, well named.
It appears that there is a movement against it. Not led by environmentalists but rather by on-line retailers such as Amazon.com. They are trying to pressure manufacturers to provide them with goods that come in "frustration-free packaging." But they are meeting heavy resistance. After two years of effort, of the nearly one million items Amazon sells, only about 600 now come wrapped in ways that do not require hack saws to free them.
The opposition is being led by even bigger retailers such as WalMart who claim they need the stuff they sell encased this way to deter theft. This I can understand. If a shoplifter wants to pocket four of my D batteries, he had better try to pry them out of their package or he will set off the anti-theft alarm when he races to leave the store. But packed as they currently are, he'd have to have already stolen a screwdriver and sit on the floor of the battery aisle for 10 minutes in order to cut off the plastic sheath.
Amazon, thus, has taken a different tack--how about one form of kryptonite packaging for K-Mart and another for on-line companies?
Philips Electronics has agreed to do just that for its line of oral heathcare products. Amazon showed them hundreds of customer complaints about their traditional packaging and Philips found a way to pack their electric toothbrushes in two ways--for the big-box stores and the Amazons.
They turned to AllpakTrojan, who packages their products, and they came up with a soultion.
To tell the truth, when I first read about AllpakTrojan, I thought they were referring to condoms, not toothbrushes; and wondered if things have come to pass that one needs one of my Henkels to unfurl them.
From this you might rightly surmise that we tend either to have the fish store open our oysters or, more frewuently, order them in restaurants.
But these knives have other purposes. Among them to open what I have now come to learn are called clamshell casings. Those heavy plastic wrappings in which pretty much everything you get in hardware stores are encased.
In preparation for Hurricane Earl, which happily here turned out to be a rain event, we bought two battery-operated lamps and a economy pack of D batteries. These came sealed in virtually impenetrable plastic that was so difficult to open that if we had been hit by Earl and lost power it would have taken less time for the electric company to repair the damage than for us to pry them loose.
"What's the story with this?" Rona asked as she watched me get all sweated up while I struggled to free the first of the lamps. "Why do they have to package them this way? Not only is it a big waste of money but think about how, if you ever manage to get the stuff unpacked, the plastic, which looks like it's an eighth of an inch thick, will never degrade in the town dump."
"If I ever get this friggen thing lamp unsealed," I panted, "we'll be sure to recycle the plastic."
"Here, try one of your new Henkel knives. Using a screwdriver alone won't get the job done."
"I spent nearly a hundred dollars for that knife. I'm not going to ruin it on this. I'd rather sit in the dark for two days than do that."
"I understand. But try one of these." She handed me the clam knife.
"That's not a bad idea," I said, "But I think the oyster knife would be better. It has a sharper point."
Rona fished around in the drawer to find it. "You're right. This one looks like it was designed to poke through that plastic mess. But be careful, I don't want to have to call 911 if you slit your wrist."
The storm, as I mentioned, passed out to sea and so neither the lamps nor the batteries were needed. Then, the next day, as if on cue, there was an article in the business section of the New York Times (linked below) devoted to what in the packaging trade is referred to as "clamshell casing." From my recent experience, well named.
It appears that there is a movement against it. Not led by environmentalists but rather by on-line retailers such as Amazon.com. They are trying to pressure manufacturers to provide them with goods that come in "frustration-free packaging." But they are meeting heavy resistance. After two years of effort, of the nearly one million items Amazon sells, only about 600 now come wrapped in ways that do not require hack saws to free them.
The opposition is being led by even bigger retailers such as WalMart who claim they need the stuff they sell encased this way to deter theft. This I can understand. If a shoplifter wants to pocket four of my D batteries, he had better try to pry them out of their package or he will set off the anti-theft alarm when he races to leave the store. But packed as they currently are, he'd have to have already stolen a screwdriver and sit on the floor of the battery aisle for 10 minutes in order to cut off the plastic sheath.
Amazon, thus, has taken a different tack--how about one form of kryptonite packaging for K-Mart and another for on-line companies?
Philips Electronics has agreed to do just that for its line of oral heathcare products. Amazon showed them hundreds of customer complaints about their traditional packaging and Philips found a way to pack their electric toothbrushes in two ways--for the big-box stores and the Amazons.
They turned to AllpakTrojan, who packages their products, and they came up with a soultion.
To tell the truth, when I first read about AllpakTrojan, I thought they were referring to condoms, not toothbrushes; and wondered if things have come to pass that one needs one of my Henkels to unfurl them.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
4:14 AM
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