packaging at amazon.com

 amazon.com, as you may or may not have noticed or read about yet, is making an effort to reduce packaging & also to send products not packed in those evil clam-shell packages that helped coin the phrase "package rage".  they posed the question "At what point when opening a package do you call it 'Frustrating?'", and after about 18 other comments, added my two cents.  all the posters above me said the normal stuff you'd expect, about how it's easy to damage the product or your flesh while opening, or how they get impatient after a certain level of absurdity in the many levels of packaging.  so i didn't bother repeating that. stuff.  here was my contribution:

you know, sometimes opening a package that takes a minute or two to open is kinda nice, like the delayed gratification of opening a present. but the packages which are difficult to open with scissors (and are likely dulling your scissors while you're at it), this irritates me. one reason is, of course, the dangers others have described above. the other, and most irritating reason, to me: if the package can't be re-sealed, you usually aren't allowed to return such items. aside from being irritating, it's also infuriating to me how much packaging is used on everything. i wish everyone would stick to cardboard, and pad the products with newsprint and the cornstarch packing peanuts. if you want the customer to see the product, you can print an image on the outside of the packaging, or the store can set out a display (even if it's obnoxiously tethered, or behind glass).

retail stores could use specialized vending machines for small items like SD cards: use your credit card at the machine, or pay at the register w/ cash & swipe your receipt to dispense product. that would reduce costs by eliminating both the expense of packaging and the theft. as far as amazon is concerned, i am really ticked when i receive small items like a lens cap or SD card inside of a box. the product could have been mailed in a small, 4"x4" padded mailer for less than a dollar. or, maybe just an envelope, for less than 50 cents. netflix mails its discs without any protection, and if you get a scratched or damaged disc, they send you another. if amazon took a similar approach, expecting some small percentage of items to suffer damage in transit, and made the exchange process both free and easy (a la zappos.com), i would applaud.