ok fellers, I know this may sound ridiculous to many, but I’ve had enough of this Fort Knox Packaging [bleep].

So, I had to go to Lowes today to pick up some items. One of those items was a clunky, mostly plastic, Lufkin L1016C tape measure to replace my 35+ year old, nice, slim, all steel, made in USA, Stanley 16-footer that was recently stolen. The packaging Lufkin designed for this tape measure is, by far, the most difficult to deal with of any of the packaging I have ever encountered in my life. I tried industrial shears, a shop knife, and diagonal cutters to extricate the tape measure from the packaging. I finally had to result to brute force to remove the tape from the packaging, which of course, destroyed the tape measure clip. Not only that, but once removed from the packaging, the clip had adhesive residue all over it from the back label of the packaging. Now go ahead and tell me how much you love spending your hard-earned cash to purchase a product only to find out that 1) Godzilla would scarcely have better luck separating the product from the packaging, 2) there’s label adhesive is all over it once you finally remove the item from the packaging, which must be removed, and 3) you then put your reading glasses on and take a closer look at the packaging only to see the small print in the bottom left corner: “Made in China.”

So, what happens when some old-timer deeply gashes himself with a knife or other tool and bleeds out as a direct result of the incredible forces required to remove his new Chinese tape measure from it’s ridiculous packaging? I'm willing to wager that the savings and increased profits Lufkin realized from moving production to China will be substantially impacted.

I cannot express the profound disappointment and frustration I experienced trying to remove something as simple as a Lufkin the tape measure from its infernal packaging. There is absolutely no reason in the world to design packaging that is so difficult to open. For F*cks Sake, it’s a $10.00 f*cking tape measure! Hell, I'd pay twice that for a proper American made all steel tape without any packaging at all.

Why can’t a guy just go the hardware store and purchase a proper steel, Made in America tape measure and immediately start using it? They don’t even sell tapes like that anymore – today, they’re all Tactical Chinese tape measures with 3 or more different types plastic that have “cool” designs molded in, finger grooves, auto-locking, double end hooks and all different colors. They’re all about 3” wide and weigh about as much as a cinder block and they’re all packaged to a ridiculous level. & that f*cking tactical plastic case won’t last 35 years, I’ll tell you that. This tape will be going back to Lowes and I’ll look on flea-bay for a proper vintage tape.

End rant.

Yup. Kid bought something and it was packaged beyond ridiculous.

Scissors aint got enough oomph.

Pocket knife....could get expensive

Think straight cut tin snips the cure

... as far as I can tell, the reason that the tape was so difficult to remove from the packaging is b/c the genius who designed Lufkin's packaging decided that it would be a good idea to put not only a little step on the packaging for the clip to slip over, but also to inject mold the packaging plastic into a hole that's located directly in the middle of the steel clip. There's simply no way to get a tool in there to cut away the plastic that's been molded through that hole, which essentially "welds" the tape measure to the packaging.

I've got a 4" scar on my arm from opening a blister wrapped POS. Knife slipped and cut the artery in my wrist. Almost bled out! Went to the fire station nearby and when I took my finger off the cut I shot blood on the firetruck.

I don't understand why any manufacturer thinks packaging like that is ok.

I love when you need a damn knife to open the packaging that a knife comes in. I think it's a sinister trick they are playing. They know you don't have a knife on you or you wouldn't be buying the knife. A beaver couldn't chew through some of these plastic contraptions that they put stuff in.

Younger brother works a HD, dept mgr...single most stolen item in the tool section...yep you guessed it TAPE MEASURE....after inventory a few years back, the details came back that almost exactly half of the tape measures that 'came in the through the back door", left without being paid for...

Funny, had the same running gun battle just last weekend with an overpriced pos ace hardware tape, but it being the only one on the rack smaller than an 80’s walkman, bought it for glovebox. The packaging however, same as yours, was surreal.

Hope jeff o never needs to buy a tape measure.

Maybe the solution is to just give the cheap chinese tape measures away for free? Loose leader so to speak.

Packaging sucks. If an item I buy has a plastic safety seal around the cap (think spices, vitamins and such), why the heck does it need some little foil/paper/plastic seal over the top of the bottle that requires the cap to be taken off, after removing the first safety wrap, then try to pull the liner good off, which tears in pieces, which then requires a knife to go around the rim to remove the rest of the dang thing before one can use the contents????

And, this makes sense too, open the little cardboard box on your toothpaste, remove or flip the lid, squirt some toothpaste right on your brush. I guess they're not concerned with toothpaste contamination, which goes directly into your mouth???

Seriously, a dremel tool with a cutoff wheel would make quick work of it.

Genius at work!

Two thoughts:
1) Some prick will be along to say that he wishes getting a package open is his biggest worry.
2) As is so often pointed out on the 'fire (especially in the optics forum), manufacturers always produce what the buyers want.

Pretty good for the third dumbest guy on the fire huh? Course I had to go to the emergency room first, but hey, who's counting?

Ha

I had to employ my Knipex channel pliers to get a Gatorade open. I keep that set in my nightstand.


I always ask, what the hell do old people do? Some stuff I have opened with tin snips.

Had to practically squat down with most of weight on a pickle jar, lol. I thought is was going to break before it finally let loose. Course then pickle juice all over myself and the floor.

First world problems but, for real.

Nice tribute. Lol

Then just put them in a locked case like they do for those incredibly expensive Commie, socially engineered, whiz-bang, tactical, 6-blade, lubricating stripped, jack-off Gillette razor blades.

My nemesis are cold cereal inner package. By the time i get them open the bag is torn clear to the bottom or the cereal is all over the counter.
I refuse to buy anything packaged in a molded package. I strive to watch my language and try not to use profanity. Those things make me sound like a CPO or a 60's DI!

I figured WTF, maybe someone would correct me!

After an attempt or two doesn't open my bag of Cheerios, the scissors come out.

That and the dang boxes with so much glue the tops tear before they separate into two part. I've been opening cereal boxes for over 5 decades, one might think they'd have that issue solved by now. But, as long as they can still use the tooling, they'll run it into the ground before they even attempt a fix.

fugginpackagingcompanies fugginupeveryfugginthing

Surgical scissors work great for this crap. I have a few sets around the house.

Also "Vintage" Stanley tape

Have you considered scissors?

Pahntr760: Thanks for the link. NOS like that is probably hard to find.

Use a can opener


https://i.ytimg.com/vi/F7HEJgCwpt8/maxresdefault.jpg

Hard-ish to find, but quickly becoming my preferred wat to acquire tools.

Way back in the '70s in marketing class the subject of the American proclivity for overpackaging was touched on. Pick your rationale but Americans seem to think you get more value the more the packaging. And of course there's shop lifting., a major cost these days Much easier to slip a Lufkin in your pants if you take it out of the package. (Not sure I'd want a Lufkin in my pants without sufficient drinks first.)

I have a pair of cheap aviation snips on the peg board that ghave gotten used on plastic armor packaging more than sheet metal.

Agreed. Unless you want to pay Snap-On or MAC money for tools, it's difficult if not impossible to find American made tools in any store. You pretty much have to find vintage American made tools somewhere online.

All too true. I am having a very hard time finding socket sets made in the USA that are not cost-prohibitive.

Otherwise, pliers, screwdrivers and such can still be found made in current production. ie; Channellock, Bondus and some others.

Good, vintage American socket sets come up on flea-bay on fairly regular. Keep your eye out & create and then save your search parameters, then you'll be notified one's posted for sale. I've found many hard-to-find items that way.

We still need that tool forum I suggested.

That would be one of two ways, I see it.

Good advice or a constant pizzing match. Lol

Cheap strap wrench. Brookstone back when they were good sold a pretty version with a hardwood handle. Looked at it, faced palmed for one of those "Doh!" Homer moments. But did buy one for my parents.

Just showed this to my 9 yr old granddaughter and she asked, Grandpa, is that guy not any smarter than the packaging?

Kids say the darndest things.

Interesting, a hunting forum where nobody carries a pocket knife.

Lol, good thing it wasn't a box of bullets.......

I suggest you get a Stanley "Fat Max" tape. They do cost about 20 bucks but they are made in the U.S. with "global materials" and are an excellent tape. The markings on them are very easier to see for us "middle aged" guys.

https://www.amazon.com/Stanley-Tool...atmax+tape&qid=1590142299&sr=8-1

Can't say as I remember any issues defeating the packaging it came in......

I never had a 25' tape measure I really like until last year when I found a Milwaukee tape measure on sale. It's all I'll buy now on sale or not.

Just bought a two pack of those about a month ago.

They had the plastic clip hole packaging as well. But I won that contest, thus proving that I was indeed smarter than the packaging...

This has become my second favorite pet peeve, my first being bad grammar, unless its me doing the bad grammar of course. I keep a pair of scissors in strategic places for that dumb Chit. I don't get it. I can see the reason for food items or toothpaste or medications but why do they think they need "people proof" packaging on items not meant for consumption? It's like they do it for kicks. I can just see the guy who designed it laffing his ass off. I want to punch him out and I don't even know him.

Come to think of it, I've never seen Ammo stupidly packaged like that.

They engineer retail packaging like that to make it harder and more time consuming for in store thieves.

Can't say as I blame them for that. You and I absorb the losses due to shoplifting...

Go to your Wifes knife blocks in the kitchen, mine has a couple pairs of heavy duty scissors, she uses them to cut/snip veggies from the garden, I use them for that "straight from hell" plastic clamped/melted packaging, slices that chit with ease.

Some of the craftsman tape measures at Lowe’s are made in good ole USA.

Prolly rebranded Stanley’s.

Just another example of the negative impact thievery has on everyone. Higher prices, Eyes-in-the-Sky everywhere, ink bombs and anti-theft devices on clothing (ever have to remove one of those when the store clerk fogets?), higher prices for everything, and of course, this.

My ex worked in a chain hardware store, and the amount of theft and fraud that goes on would astound you. Two solutions come to mind: end self-service and set up like an inner-city convenience store, or simply ask the service desk to open the package before you leave. The second would require surrendering your man-card of course.

I use a big pair of tin snips or game shears to open stuff; sometimes I have to make a pilot cut with my knife.

The time you spend here must be filled with anguish and rage.

Maybe as part explanation, I've seen tape measures sprinkled all over my local HD store. I'll guess that people decide they want to measure something while in the store and just go over to the tools section and grab a tape measure. I've seen the HD associates do this even. Once they measure the item, they just leave the tape measure where they put it. This doesn't explain how the tape measures then migrate to outside of the store, but at least its one data point.

This might also explain why they make the packaging so hard to extract the tape measure from: not to protect the product itself, but to protect the sku or chip that comes on the wrapping at least until its out of the store....

I hear ya re: packaging.. Ya risk slashing a wrist or finger amputation just trying to get these G$!#^!n things open...

A member here did, he couldn't get a box of Noslers open.

Oh hell................

Packaging is my #1 gripe...look in your garbage...90% of it is nothing but packaging .


And yeah, its always Ft. Knox style.

If the package says " Easy Opening"...get out your knife.


If to says " Easy Opening, Reclosable" get out your knife AND scissors...

On the other side of packaging, how about the resealable food packages that don't reseal? We don't fight them. We just keep a supply of old fashioned spring clothes pins in a kitchen drawer to close packages, bread loaves, etc.

They sell a lid remover to open them dam pickle (and other) jars, makes it easy.

Fed up with the plastic packaging. Doesn't matter if it's Lowe's or the auto parts store. I always ask someone behind the counter to open the dam thing after I paid for it. Put the item in my sack. Oh-you can keep the packaging.

A couple of thoughts:

As others have noted, the main reason seems to be to discourage theft, aka inventory slippage in bizspeak.

We are a retired couple who live modestly, not big consumers. Yet, the big trash can dedicated to recyclables like paper and plastic fills up at an astounding rate.

Finally, hell for a packaging engineer should be to spend eternity opening the stuff he has designed. No tools allowed. Right next to the cubicle for the owners and managers of telemarketing outfits.

Paul

wutz, gramer' meen !anyhowl

Designing packaging is an industry in China. We dont get it for free

Bought one Fat Max tape measure and found it folds like a cheap hooker. Much prefer my old Stanleys.

Vintage American wrenches and sockets can be found at pawn shops by the bucket. Build your own sets. Also yard sales. Couple years ago I bought a bucket of ratchets and extensions in 1/4", 3/8", and 1/2" for less than $20. Threw three away that had no warranty, Sears replaced 2, and ended up with a dozen and a half good vintage ratchets, plus many extensions. Still haven't made it to a pawn shop myself to complete some sets. And the best part, NO PACKAGING!

All steel. No metric scale.
You can thank me later. 😁

I've kept an old stag handled hunting knife on my work bench for decades. One early morning, with my first cup of coffee, I went to open a new aquarium air pump wrapped in that hard plastic. Working my knife and cutting into the hard plastic my knife slipped and I accidentally poked a can of spray paint sitting on the work bench.

I hit that can of white spray paint perfectly square and I was suddenly blinded in the face with spray paint hissing and spinning paint everywhere. Went to grab the can and get a finger over the knife hole and dropped it spraying myself again. Finally got ahold of it and threw it in the trash can still spraying and hissing.

Walked in the house to take a shower and wife says, "what happened to you?"

"Don't ask."

To this day my workbench and vise and garbage can all have white paint all over it.

Steel's good. However, with so many things being metric anymore, a metric scale is very useful. It is nice being able to read inches on both sides of the tape, though.

Damn right! I sliced a good pair of jeans and almost cut my leg open when the knife slipped a couple years ago. I generally use a heavy duty pair of shears now. It is mainly to reduce theft which wouldn't be a problem if there were some punishments for theft, but that isn't PC these days. F'ing losers should have a finger cut off for each offense.


Jerry

My beef is with prescription and other bottles. I'm all for keeping kids safe, but arthritis in the hands sure makes opening them difficult.

EMS scissors? (For cutting clothing, seat belts etc?

I have several recent and old gashes from that stuff. Even when it is an unneeded clamshell The staples get you...

Ask for non-child proof lids. Pharmacies have then on request.

Well, I was thinking, ‘Murica!

At least it wasn't a box of Nosler bullets, read on this site they are the worst.

Laffin, anyone try a box of Nosler bullets?...

Sympathize with your frustrations. Just want to complete some trivial task, and it's a 20-minute operation to open a package.

All those packages open in seconds using a utility knife with a hooked blade.

Bruce

Take the damaged F O O K E R back.

Hit a few garage sales or flea markets .....you might even find a good gas can.

Yeah, I guess that is what I should have said, not surgical.

There is a special place in hell for the person who invented the blister pack.

I am about to pull the trigger on some old school Stanley FatMax screwdrivers, 27 total, for $100 shipped. I guess one has to pay for the boutique of USA made nowadays, not just the quality.

Oh man! Don't even bring up those POS EPA mandated gas cans. I have a strong hatred for those. The EPA has ruined a whole helluva lot of things and has made things much more difficult (in general) and much more expensive. The bastids already ruined diesels and they're well on their way to ruining gas-engined vehicles as well.

Thank me later.

Click here.

I just have my wife open it for me.

Perhaps we should package CV-19 vaccines destined for China in like style packaging? Integration of a time triggered self destruct just for giggles?

I just give it to a neighborhood 6 year old...

if it says to keep it out of the reach of kids, that is the motivation for any kid around that age to be able to get into anything..

they package crap up like this to supposedly be a theft deterrent...

I've been known to purchase something at some of the stores that have stuff packaged like that, get rung up at the register, then take the item with my receipt over to the Customer service desk, hand it to them and tell them to have someone from that department to come up and open the darn thing and get it out of the packaging...

🤔🤦🏼‍♂️🤷🏼😆

Well GFY if this didn't play out right before my eyes.

Arrived yesterday in an Amazon box, a new wooden bat and squishy ball for the kid. The ball is attached to the hand end of the bat with some kind of miracle plastic! She grabs the scissors and goes at it. NoGo, after a bit she's pissed and hands it to me. Finally, brute strength and ignorance prevailed and I was successful! No blood this time.

I got a pair of scissors (shears?) from my local chink emporium (HB) for about 6 bucks. They are red with rubber inserts on the handle with blades about 3 1/2". They cut that plastic with ease also leather, light wire, etc. They lock closed and spring open, Been using mine for about 2 years and they remain sharp.