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Amazon Launches "Frustration-Free Packaging"

Posted by kdawson on from the save-the-earth-and-keep-more-of-your-fingers dept.

mallumax notes Amazon's new Frustration-Free Packaging initiative. Over several years the retailer hopes to convince many of its suppliers to offer consumer-friendlier packaging. It's starting with just 19 products from Mattel, Fisher-Price, Microsoft, and Transcend. Until this program spreads to more products, better get one of these (ThinkGeek and Slashdot share a corporate overlord). From Amazon's announcement: "The Frustration-Free Package is recyclable and comes without excess packaging materials such as hard plastic clamshell casings, plastic bindings, and wire ties. It's designed to be opened without the use of a box cutter or knife and will protect your product just as well as traditional packaging. Products with Frustration-Free Packaging can frequently be shipped in their own boxes, without an additional shipping box. Amazon works directly with manufacturers to box products in Frustration-Free Packages right off the assembly lines, which reduces the overall amount of packing materials used."

11 of 353 comments (clear)

  1. lawsuits... by eeyoredragon · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Why is it people are sued for their coffee being too hot... but people haven't sued the crap out of corporations for packages that quite frankly maim their customers?

    1. Re:lawsuits... by eeyoredragon · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You can dance around it all you like... but it doesn't change the end result. People every day are injured in some way by this "two plastic bubbles melted together" method of packaging. Because it practically requires bladed weapons to open.

      I have instructions on jars that tell me to twist open a cap... I'd say the whole twist cap thing is pretty self explanatory, yet people feel the need to put instructions on how to open jars.

      You know why there's no instructions on how to open a solid lump of plastic? Because it being able to be opened isn't on their mind at all... not that it isn't their "main concern". They'd put it in a solid lead bubble with a cytotoxic theft deterrent system, but sadly that costs them more money.

    2. Re:lawsuits... by fiannaFailMan · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The package doesn't maim the customer, the customer maims themself(sic). There is a proper way to open a package, sometimes it's not all that clear, but it is possible to open a package without causing bodily harm. It's not all that apparent, but quite a bit of thought goes into designing a package; sadly, the end-user isn't always the main concern.

      That's the defence that Detroit used to fight the safety features that they were dragged kicking and screaming into introducing by Ralph Nader. Initially they blamed the victims instead of taking responsibility for producing dangerous products.

      I'm sorry, but packaging should protect the product AND be possible to access safely. If there's no obvious way to use it and avoid injury, the designer is at fault.

      There is no way that I have discovered to get into a clamshell without running the risk of serious injury either from the metal blade that I have to use to cut it, or the plastic blade that is formed when using scissors and always ends up pointing into the path of my oncoming hand.

      Whoever invented plastic clamshells should be sentenced to an eternity of sitting in a dark room opening one of his creations after another.

      --
      Drill baby drill - on Mars
    3. Re:lawsuits... by fm6 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That woman who sued over hot coffee was not simply whining about scalding her hands. She went to the hospital with 3rd degree burns. Probably the coffee had been reheated in a microwave. One hazard of heating liquids this way is that you can make them superhot without causing them to boil.

      Anyway, we both know that people's hatred for blister packs has nothing to do with the risk of personal injury. (I have several scars on my hands from cutting vegetables or slicing bagels. Not one from opening a blister pack.) It's the extreme frustration you experience while you try to cut away enough plastic to get at the contents. Unfortunately "frustation" aint tortable.

    4. Re:lawsuits... by Rary · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You expect hot coffee to be well, hot... If you pour hot coffee over yourself, you can expect to be burnt.

      The point of the Liebeck case wasn't that the coffee was hot -- she expected that much -- but that it was significantly hotter than coffee is supposed to be. Coffee served at industry standard temperature can sit on bare skin for quite a while without causing more than a mild burn (redness and tenderness), whereas coffee served at the temperature that Ms. Liebeck's coffee was served at can cause third degree burns (requiring skin graft surgery) in as little as 2 seconds.

      In other words, coffee is dangerous, but this coffee was significantly more dangerous, therefore she should have been warned.

      To put it in perspective: everyone has spilled coffee on themselves at some point in their lives (I've done it, and I don't even drink coffee). Yet her coffee spill resulted in $11,000 in medical bills. Can you not see the difference between this and a normal coffee spill?

      --

      "You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war." -- Albert Einstein

    5. Re:lawsuits... by Creepy+Crawler · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I work at Starbucks. In fact, I worked there this morning from 5am to noon. I've worked there for a few years, so I know what Im doing there.

      Our coffee is between 190F-200F. We only hold it for 30 minutes, and it's warmed during that time. Also, when telling customers how to brew coffee, we recommend 190-200F, unlike green tea, coffee needs very hot water to unlock the flavor. However, we steam lattes only to 180 before giving dire warnings to customers who want hotter. Ill usually say "Grande SCALDING mocha" or something to warn the drinker.

      Ill say this: only a moron puts a boiling cup of X liquid between their legs. Everybody knows coffee is SUPPOSED to be hot. Now, however, lid deign does indeed suck, and fair to sue over. Especially how many lids crack at Sbux. During rush (7-9 am), I perhaps, deal with around 10 defective lids. They could easily cause insta-burning spill.

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  2. Re:Best packaging innovation ever by Dun+Malg · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Given that they're the exact opposite of retail B&M store packaging (easy to open and steal, likely shippable in it's own box and thus largely unlabeled) I'd say we're not going to see the disappearance of the hand-slashing blister pack. The "features" of a retail package exist because the necessities of retail in-person sales demand them. These necessities aren't going to disappear because Amazon's mail order business isn't bound by those necessities.

    --
    If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
  3. Re:I'll be happy if... by NonSequor · · Score: 5, Funny

    I can't help it! I'm a discrete math major. I'm like 5 layers away from the soldering iron!

    --
    My only political goal is to see to it that no political party achieves its goals.
  4. Re:They could also call this by sking · · Score: 5, Funny

    And I always figured that this packaging would end when someone hijacked a plane with it.

    --
    The AntiJoey
  5. Re:Best packaging innovation ever by taustin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't think you realize how cheap those blister packs are, or the economy of scale in packaging everything a given manufacturer makes in the same kind of packaging (even if not the same size). Different kinds of packaging require different kinds of very expensive machines to handle, and that means different assembly lines that can't be easily converted to a product that uses the other kind of packaging. And so on.

    Plus, at the retail end, anything the requires a key to sell requires, if not a manager, at least a senior employeed who has been vetted more throughly than the average cahsier.

  6. Re:Frustration? Try tamper free by Valdrax · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I've never injured myself with the tool used to open hard plastic clamshell packaging before.

    I have, however, had my fingers or hands cut open numerous times by the cut, torn, or ripped edge of the plastic itself when the packaging finally gave way to my cutting implement. I tell you, Boy Scout training on knife safety when cutting wood or animal skins does Jack to teach you about how to open nightmare packaging.

    Happens with scissors, knifes, box cutters, or whatever. It's the plastic that scratches me up. I'll admit to being a klutz, but that style of packaging is just an irritating menace.

    --
    If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").