Easy Open

Do you remember the days when your mother called you into the kitchen to help her open a jar?

Try to twist it, get a rag and try and twist it again, run the lid under hot water and try to twist it. Bang it with a hammer and some how it would finally come loose.

Then celebrate your success of Samson defeating the manufacture of food storage.

Well now I’m getting to that age of complaining about opening a package.

Since then there are all sorts of gadgets and gizmos to twist with torque or squeeze with the grip of the jars of life.

The packaging themselves have developed all sorts of techniques to be called “easy open”.

There are perforated boxes with pull strips, but the perforation is never deep enough and the whole lid will have to be torn apart.

There are fold up tabs that are suppose to fit in the slot on the other flap, but they tear apart or will not slide into the narrow slit.

There are pull up tabs on beer cans which are pretty well done except when the ring breaks off and you don’t have a church key.

There are power appliances (and hand held) to open cans without tabs, but they slid off if the rim is not tall enough and another can opener that cuts the lid on the side of the can must be used. If that doesn’t work you find a screwdriver.

There are twist off caps with a rip off ring and a second seal of plastic before the liquid will pour.

The favorites are the press down ‘child proof’ caps on medicine, chemicals, and anything you have to open when you are in the dark.

I fully understand the challenge of packaging professionals to fill all the space with instructions, ingredients, warnings, barcodes, coupons, and some image to attract your eye, but a half filled chip bag will still tear apart sending chips all over the floor after the struggle to separate the opening.

At a certain age attacking a package with a pair of scissors (or a chain saw) is the easiest way.

Don’t forget to recycle all that glass and tin and cardboard.