The exit door leads in, and other stories

by Henry Farrell on December 26, 2008

Happy Christmas to those of you who are so inclined; happy Festivus/religious or non religious holiday of your choice to those who aren’t. And in honour of those of you who have spent a large chunk of the day trying to open presents for the pleasure of impatient children, I present you with the iSlice, a ceramic blade purpose-designed to ‘open difficult plastic packages,’ such as those heat-sealed plastic packs ones that many toys and electronic devices come in. And what does the iSlice arrive in? Why a difficult-to-open heat-sealed plastic pack of course.

dsc_01421

{ 12 comments }

1

ck 12.26.08 at 12:57 am

Yep:
http://flickr.com/photos/arbitrarymarks/2271307823/

Seems like it’s a pretty standard joke on the part of the folks that make these products! (Course the one pictured isn’t in a heat-sealed pack, at least.)

2

DC 12.26.08 at 1:31 am

There’s something really fantastic about the advertising slogan “NO MORE SCISSORS!”

3

Dave 12.26.08 at 10:01 am

It is, of course, the LAST difficult-to-open package you’ll ever have, and thus worthy of commemoration…

4

sg 12.26.08 at 10:57 am

an interesting and inescapable fact I discovered after I went to Japan is that Japanese packaging is always easy to open. Why is that?

5

Bloix 12.26.08 at 4:20 pm

Packaging is hard to open to prevent shoplifting. Maybe shoplifting isn’t a problem in Japan?

6

purpleOnion 12.26.08 at 5:35 pm

To replace one cutting tool with a different cutting tool is an inno- vation in marketing, not in opening difficult to open blister packs.

7

dilbert dogbert 12.26.08 at 6:32 pm

Just read that Amazon just realized it is an online store and doesn’t need armored packaging for its products. Only a few available now but it is the wave of the future in online retail.

8

peter 12.27.08 at 12:19 am

So, “iSlice”: Another product from Apple?

9

a very public sociologist 12.27.08 at 12:49 pm

Re: iSlice, much better than the crappy novelty scissors(!) I got in my christmas crackers this year.

10

MattF 12.27.08 at 1:45 pm

Leatherman pocket sized multi-tools on sale here. Really, people– get yourselves a tool that works and does more than one thing.

11

KCinDC 12.28.08 at 6:49 am

MattF, my sister gave me a Leatherman for Christmas, and I cut myself trying to open the heat-sealed package it came in. The cut still hurts.

12

MattF 12.28.08 at 2:05 pm

Ouch.

Comments on this entry are closed.