How to Pack a Punch

Like most of us - maybe more than most of us - I often have gripes about technology. This post reproduces a piece that I wrote many years ago for a now-defunct online magazine called Praxis. It complains about goods packaging (how it is often not good packaging) in a - hopefully - humorous way.

I thought it was just me until one day a few years ago I heard a full blown discussion about this on Connections, the PBS radio show hosted by Evan Dawson. Following up, I learnt that there is actually a Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act (in New York) which addresses some of the concerns voiced in my piece.

Almost ten years after the piece was written, I find some of the humor infantile, but I hope you enjoy it:

As an ardent devotee of the market economy, I am justifiably upset by any unnecessary obstacles that come between me and the products that I intend to consume.

For example, I don’t understand why a bag of potato chips needs to be sealed tightly enough to deter a burglar. Or why getting the wrapper off a rice crispy should require as many tactical moves as a chess match. Or why it sometimes takes longer to get inside a can of soup than it would to make chowder directly from the clam. Clearly, the packaging of food items needs to be made more consumer-friendly. If that is not possible, at least the nutrition labels on the food products should start listing the number of calories required for opening the container.

Another class of goods whose packaging requires some rethinking, in my opinion, is electronics (cell phones, adaptors, power banks, you get the idea). The typical electronics item, as Churchill said about Russia, is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. In other words, there is usually enough protection around the device to keep out a horde of barbarians.

A brute force method for extracting the product requires some kind of a power tool (provided we can get that out of the box it came in!). Using this direct technique, by the time the process is finished, although the electronic item will have been accessed, the scene will typically resemble a chainsaw massacre, and the gadget might have sustained some – hopefully only cosmetic - damage.

If a less violent and more methodical approach is taken, then the consumer has to beware of the cardboard corners, plastic edges, metal tacks, springs and other unpleasant surprises which will progressively appear as the layers of packaging are peeled back. However, this method is guaranteed to deliver the item of desire in pristine shape. The only downside is that the packet needs to be handled throughout like a parcel received by Batman from the Joker.

Not having packaging around an item does not automatically imply that it is ready for consumption, as anybody who has spent time removing security tags, adhesive information labels and price stickers knows. If the salesperson forgets to remove the ink tag before putting the garment in the shopping bag, it may mean choosing between Mission Impossible and a return trip to the clothing store. Likewise, sales labels are nowadays affixed with such determination that their removal requires the outbreak of an impromptu tug of war in the family. Even eventual success may only represent a Pyrrhic victory: once, by the time I got the price sticker off my expensive new Ray Bans, they had gone on sale.

I think we can try to look to Mother Nature for some pointers on packaging. The examples she provides tell us that not having any packaging or labeling is not a good idea. This has been particularly noted by anyone who has ended up (sic) picking the wrong kind of mushroom. She also informs us that making a very hard packing case may not be good design. This can be confirmed by people who have dawdled under a coconut tree for too long.

In my opinion, Nature's pinnacle of packaging evolution is the banana: In this case if the item is not ready for consumption, it is possible to tell from the cover. If the product has gone past its expiry date, that too is evident from the wrapping. A key is not required for opening the package [a monkey will do -:)]. Finally, there is even an incentive for disposing of the packaging appropriately, as anyone who has walked on a peel lying around on the ground is aware.