Okay.  I’m cranky.  I make no apologies; I reckon there are quite a few of you that are as fed up as I am with that rotten plastic packaging that you can’t fight your way into.  I’m not talking about the bubble wrap – with the little pillows you can pop.  That’s great stuff.  Not only is it fun, but it’s the next best thing to sucky bags when it comes to packing things to post.  Anyway, you all know what I’m talking about: that hard plastic cover that is over just about everything you buy, from batteries to tweezers.  There’s the bit of cardboard, at least four times the size of the item you’re purchasing, and over the item is the dratted plastic, hermetically sealing the desired item so that you have no chance of getting it out without going out to the garage and getting a box-cutter with a new blade.

If the inconvenience and irritation weren’t enough, we also have the privilege of paying for all this nonsense.  Oh, I know.  The plastic bubble is lighter, and it allows the item to be viewed, and it doesn’t have to be printed, as cardboard or paper would.  But all of that begs the question, why can’t we have some soft plastic wrap that we can open with our fingers, even if we are nail-biters?  And why does a small item have to have such huge packaging?  Of course I know the answer to that.  (It was a rhetorical question.)  I’m not just a pretty face — I can work out that it’s all about Product Placement.  The bigger and bolder your product is, and the more room it takes up on the shelf, the more attention it attracts, hence the more you sell.   And the smaller the item for sale, the bigger the packaging.