Wrap rage

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An example of wrap rage with a plastic light bulb package.

Wrap rage, also called package rage, is the common name for heightened levels of anger and frustration resulting from the inability to open hard-to-remove packaging, particularly plastic blister packs and clamshells. Consumers suffer thousands of injuries per year, such as cut fingers and sprained wrists, from tools used to open packages and from the packaging itself. Some companies are now coming up with solutions to improve frustrating and potentially dangerous packaging.

[edit] Origins

Packaging sometimes must be made difficult to open. For example, regulations dictate that some over-the-counter drugs have tamper resistance to deter unauthorized opening prior to the intended customer and be in child-resistant packaging. Other packages are intentionally made difficult to open to reduce package pilferage and shoplifting.

Hard plastic clamshells also protect the products while they are being shipped.^[1] In addition, using transparent plastic allows consumers to view products directly before purchasing them.^[2]

The term wrap rage itself came about as a result of media attention to the phenomenon. Although other variants such as packaging rage have been used as early as 1998, Word Spy identifies the earliest use of wrap rage as coming from The Daily Telegraph in 2003.^[3][4] The American Dialect Society identified the term as one of the most useful of 2007.^[5]

[edit] Frustration and injuries

In 2006, Consumer Reports magazine recognized the wrap rage phenomenon when it created the Oyster Awards for the products with the hardest-to-open packaging.^[2][6] A story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about wrap rage^[7] was featured on The Colbert Report when host Stephen Colbert tried to use a knife to remove a new calculator from its plastic packaging, to no avail.^[8]

A survey in Yours, a magazine aimed at people over 50, found that 99% of the 2,000 respondents said packaging had become harder to open over the last 10 years, 97% said there was "too much excess packaging", and 60% said they had bought a product designed to more easily open packaging.^[9] In a survey conducted at the Cox School of Business, almost 80 percent of households "expressed anger, frustration or outright rage" with plastic packaging.^[10] Consumers also tend to use words such as "hate" and "difficult" when describing these products.^[11]

Consumers sometimes use potentially unsafe tools such as razor blades, boxcutters, and ice picks in their attempts to open packages.^[1] In the Yours survey, 71% of respondents said they had been injured while trying to open food packaging. The most common injury respondents had from trying to open packaging was "a cut finger, followed by cut hand, sprained wrist, bruised hand and strained shoulder muscle."^[9] According to a British study, over 60,000 people receive hospital treatment each year due to injuries from opening food packaging.^[4] The Consumer Product Safety Commission estimated that attempts to open packaging caused about 6,500 emergency room visits in the U.S. in 2004.^[12] A 2009 study conducted by the Institute for Good Medicine found that 17 percent of adults over the age of 21 were either injured at least once or know of someone who was injured while opening a holiday or birthday gift.^[13]

[edit] Solutions

Packages featuring innovations such as easy-open tabs have been made partially in response to wrap rage.

The thick plastic of clamshell packaging makes it difficult to open such packages with ordinary household scissors. More sturdy shears, however, can cut clamshell plastic easily. Medical "trauma shears" are an inexpensive option. Tin snips also make short work of packaging plastic, and the higher mechanical advantage of "compound" metal snips make it possible to cut such packages open even if one has little hand strength.

Companies are increasingly streamlining their products' packaging to reduce wrap rage.^[14] Forces driving the efforts to improve packaging include pressure from consumers and retailers such as Wal-Mart for more eco-friendly packaging, and baby boomers who find it increasingly difficult to open packaging as they age.^[15]

Among the packaging innovations are user-friendly clamshell packages, twist-to-open casing, bags with interlocking seals, and elimination of twist ties used to hold products in place.^[16] Packaging such as the Enviroshell and Natralock use plastic to cover the product itself and paperboard for the rest of the package. This avoids the problem of potentially injury-inducing plastic shards that can form with traditional clamshells, while at the same time using recyclable materials and reducing shipping costs.^[17] In 2008, Amazon.com instituted a "Frustration-Free Packaging" program, providing easy-to-open versions of products from companies such as Mattel and Microsoft, and allowing customers to rate the ease of opening some products' packaging.^[18][19]

Some products have also been invented for the specific purpose of combating wrap rage.^[17] Products such as the Open It! and the battery-operated ZipIt use specialized blades in order to easily cut through plastic clamshells.^[20][21]

[edit] See also

• Air rage
• Computer rage
• Road rage
• Tamper resistance

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Packaging Problems Table
• Avoid 'Wrap Rage' This Holiday Season, Family Health and Wellness, Institute for Good Medicine.