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The guy who made it so difficult to open your bag of potato chips

rheothing.com

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Re: The guy who made it so difficult to open your bag of potato chips

#81
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost no change after 25 weeks in a home compost pile: http://cockeyed.com/science/compost_chips/sunchips.php

Interesting. I'm skeptical of the marketing because 14 weeks doesn't seem like long enough. I'm also skeptical of this experiment though. Sunchips specifies 14 weeks in a hot and active compost. A new compost pile (like in the experiment) would not be very active compared to an old one, especially since he didn't add any worms to it but he did get the water and turning right. He also mentions that it was cold and rai…

A friend of mine teaches gardening to children and they tried it. After 4 months the bag was a bit thinner and worn but not drastically different. They figured that in a large communal compost it might only take 14 weeks to biodegrade as communal composts are considerably hotter then anything you could have at home.

Re: The guy who made it so difficult to open your bag of potato chips

#83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sharp scissors and a lot of patience. Never try to open one without them.

Of course, your scissors don't stay sharp for long because the plastic is hard enough to blunt them pretty quickly :/

Use a can opener around the sides of it. For most clam shells, the top will then just lift right off.

Re: The guy who made it so difficult to open your bag of potato chips

#84
post #24

I'm usually pretty disappointed, because on a failed opening attempt I end up crushing those chips, and then feel like I didn't really get my money's worth.

It's alright. Chips and cereal are sold by weight, not volume. Some settling (or crushing) of contents may have occurred during shipping and extraction.

I realize they are sold by weight, but I'll be honest, the full size merchandise is worth more to me. It is even worse on cereal, my wife saves the end of the box for me because i'll eat it. I prefer the full size, but throwing out the 'fluff' (crushed bits and powder at the end) seems like a waste.

Re: The guy who made it so difficult to open your bag of potato chips

#85
post #54
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And here i was, cursing the idiot at kettle who thought eating chips from the side of the bag was a good idea. Opening from the top allows for easy reach and easy reseal.

Well, you're doing it wrong. From the perspective of a right-hander: Hold the bag upright with the notch on the left, use your left hand to grasp the upper-left corner, while using your right thumb and index finger to begin tearing downward. As soon as you break into the actual cavity, begin tearing rightward. Invert appropriately for a left-hander. Or just do what I do and keep a pocket knife around. Shrug

So they replaced an easy and obvious way with one that requires careful coordination. And still ruins the bag for reseal. No thanks. Like the other guy said, "design of everyday things".

Re: The guy who made it so difficult to open your bag of potato chips

#86
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was just thinking about how Kettle Chips have a small but pronounced notch that you can grab and pull. I haven't had any angst opening a bag of chips in a long time.

And here i was, cursing the idiot at kettle who thought eating chips from the side of the bag was a good idea. Opening from the top allows for easy reach and easy reseal.

eating chips from the side of the bag

After you easily open the bag of chips, you pour them into a bowl and set on the table. Do you drink wine straight from the bottle or pour it into wine glasses?

Re: The guy who made it so difficult to open your bag of potato chips

#87
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clamshell packaging was made for retail shelves. To prevent shrinkage and increase product visibility, it was designed to be transparent while simultaneously difficult to open. The explosion of Amazon and other online retailers made the advantages of clamshell packaging moot. However if you are a manufacturer, it may not be economically feasible to produce two different types of packaging for different retailers so l…

why does clamshell pacaging prevent shop lifting? it's not like the packaging is tied to the shelf

If you're a young whippersnapper, you might not remember the horror that was the CD long box, designed to make compact discs harder to shoplift, back when people stole music that way.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longbox

Re: The guy who made it so difficult to open your bag of potato chips

#88
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost no change after 25 weeks in a home compost pile: http://cockeyed.com/science/compost_chips/sunchips.php

Interesting. I'm skeptical of the marketing because 14 weeks doesn't seem like long enough. I'm also skeptical of this experiment though. Sunchips specifies 14 weeks in a hot and active compost. A new compost pile (like in the experiment) would not be very active compared to an old one, especially since he didn't add any worms to it but he did get the water and turning right. He also mentions that it was cold and rai…

especially since he didn't add any worms to it but he did get the water and turning right

I've just started home composting (with a tumbler) and I thought that adding worms to hot compost was a bad idea, in that hot compost is too hot for worms to live.

Re: The guy who made it so difficult to open your bag of potato chips

#89
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And here i was, cursing the idiot at kettle who thought eating chips from the side of the bag was a good idea. Opening from the top allows for easy reach and easy reseal.

eating chips from the side of the bag After you easily open the bag of chips, you pour them into a bowl and set on the table. Do you drink wine straight from the bottle or pour it into wine glasses?

I know i don't entertain my guests like a housewife from the 50s.

Re: The guy who made it so difficult to open your bag of potato chips

#90
post #85
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, you're doing it wrong. From the perspective of a right-hander: Hold the bag upright with the notch on the left, use your left hand to grasp the upper-left corner, while using your right thumb and index finger to begin tearing downward. As soon as you break into the actual cavity, begin tearing rightward. Invert appropriately for a left-hander. Or just do what I do and keep a pocket knife around. Shrug

So they replaced an easy and obvious way with one that requires careful coordination. And still ruins the bag for reseal. No thanks. Like the other guy said, "design of everyday things".

I really don't understand the objections. It's quite easy and obvious to me, has been since I was a little kid and was first confronted with sealed bags and packets like that, and I have exceedingly poor coordination.
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