I believe most of you have cursed the hard plastic packages many electronics come in. The see-through plastic does provide a nice overview of the product on the shelf, but at the same time requires Rambo violence to open. Many scars and mental health problems have arisen after trying to break open the package to a USB memory or Xbox controller and it is due time that someone tries to remedy these irritating “clamshell” packages.
Amazon announces its “frustration-free” initiative back in November. A project that is expected to take years to finished, but has the project has already started to bear fruit.
“Small items, such as memory cards, are also good candidates for Frustration-Free Packaging. Typically encased in oversized plastic clamshells to deter shoplifting, memory cards are then placed inside larger cardboard boxes for shipment to customers. Working with Transcend, Amazon has eliminated the hard-to-open clamshell and the need for an additional box. Instead, the cards will now ship inside recyclable cardboard envelopes which use less material. Amazon is working to shrink the envelope size even further.”
Sony has officially announced that it will follow Amazon and take a serious stand against these kind of packages. Sony’s campaign is actually very straight forward and has been named “Death to the Clamshell”. It has even posted a pretty funny video that, although exaggerated, shows how frustrating these packages can be.
It’s not a day too soon and we can only hope that more companies and stores will follow the same good example.
