As I opened up my pantry this morning, I was reminded of some of the more annoying developments of the last few years. Downsized packaging, impossible to open packaging, and over packaging have taken over the store shelves.
Let's tackle downsized packaging first. This is not really a new development but it seems to have taken off exponentially in the last 3 or 4 years.
Nineteen years ago, when my oldest son was a newborn baby and I was buying disposable diapers, they cost about $10 a package for 48 diapers (the smallest sized diapers). As the weeks went along and I was buying the same brand, same size bag, I noticed a change. Instead of 48 diapers for $10, all of a sudden, the manufacturer decided to cut costs by putting 44 diapers in the package and charge the same price. I was pretty annoyed by that. It seemed sneaky and unfair. Unless you check the number on the package you almost wouldn't notice the change. Even though my son grew larger and required larger sized diapers which always had fewer in the package, I kept watch on those small diapers as the package evolved into 40 diapers, then 36 diapers all for $10 a package. I am not sure how low the count has gone but it was interesting watching this spiral.
Then there is the case of the Wheat Chex. Over the years, I have been a frequent purchaser of Wheat Chex, that is until Celiac Disease came to our house and made it impractical for me to buy them. I did notice however the ridiculous size of their current box. It is 14 ounces and looks to be about the size of a box of crackers. It is still over $3.00 for a box but it is tiny. You probably have to buy 2 of them to have enough to last a week. Most of the other Chex varieties have normal cereal sized boxes. This marketing ploy may be a failure; this box looks so much smaller than the average cereal box that I cannot believe consumers wouldn't notice that change!
One of the most annoying aspects of downsized packages is that when 1 or 2 ounces is removed from a package of food, it may affect a recipe you are making. Many recipes call for 1 lb of ricotta cheese. Now the small package of ricotta cheese is 15 ounces instead of 16! I really don't want to have to buy the 30 ounce container for that extra ounce! Coffee cans have gotten a teensy bit smaller. They used to hold 13 ounces, now most of them hold 10 our 11 ounces. Edy's ice cream used to be a 1/2 gallon until they seriously downsized to a much smaller container.
We as consumers are on to these manufacturer tactics. We buy items by unit price (if we are smart!) so downsizing only works on people that are not paying attention.
We can vote with our wallets on the downsized packaging. If you are unhappy they downsized your favorite can of coffee, then buy another brand that didn't downsize and send an email to the manufacturer of your regular brand telling them what you did.
Now I turn to the packaging that is almost impossible to open. I don't know if it is just a side effect of me getting older or something else. It seems that jars are sealed tighter, water bottle tops are getting smaller and more difficult to open, and forget about those stupid clam shell packages. It is nearly impossible to open those without needing a large bandaid afterwards. You need a machete to get it open and then once open, you have to try to tear the plastic apart. So frustrating! How about the inner bags of cereal, cracker, and cookie boxes. You need scissors to pull those apart. Are we all getting so germophobic that we feel everything needs to be hermetically sealed or we will be contaminated? I understand the clam shell idea...it is to prevent shoplifting. Well, even if someone steals something in a clam shell, it is questionable as to whether they will ever really get to use what they stole...they may not be able to get the package open!
I am not sure what we can do about the difficult to open containers other than to arm ourselves with tools needed to assist us: jar openers, grippers, scissors, exacto knives.
The last corner in this trio of annoyances is the over packaging. There are some products that when shipped to your house, arrive in multiple layers of packaging. There is the outer box, that when opened, is surrounded by a moat of packaging peanuts, then another box, when opened is filled with a sheet of inflatable plastic bubbles. Then finally you get to the item you ordered, and it is encased in a tiny clam shell package. OMG! The outer box can be 2o times larger than the package the item is in! What a waste of materials, shipping costs, and your time!
To help cut down on this waste, if we purchase as much as we can locally, and cut down on the shipping of things, that will eliminate some of it. But in case we do need to have something shipped, we can at least reuse the materials it was shipped in. Try to buy food items that have less packaging and that will send a message.
This is not an earth shattering issue, I realize, but then again, the things that annoy us and make us grumpy rarely are! It is the every day inconveniences, things that make no sense, or the things that feel like someone is saying, GOTCHA, that can ruin our mood!
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