A Jackknife and Its Packaging
So, I purchased a small, cheap jackknife today that could theoretically be kept in a pocket. My other jackknives are nice, but a bit too large for casual around carrying. Now, this whole thing is scarcely worth mentioning, except that I found it a bit odd that in order to open all the many levels of packaging around the new jackknife, I found myself needing a jackknife.
This brings to the forefront the problem of too much packaging on today’s products. Seriously people, I don’t want to wade through four shells of hard plastic, and several cardboard backings and frontings, to get to the thing I just bought. Surely so much packaging must increase the price of the item, but here I am, willing to pay an extra dollar for an item that is without excessive packaging. You’d think they’d jump on the opportunity to sell me less for more.
(On a side note, it is possible that the additional packaging is desirable to the store owners. It is a convenient place to put bar codes and price tags and hanging-holes, and increases the physical size of items that might have otherwise fit in a pocket and been difficult to distinguish as unpurchased merchandise. It also makes it clear to consumers that the product in question has not been tampered with and is essentially the exact item that was sent from the manufacturer, and thus hopefully increasing the probability of sale. All these considerations aside, I still hate all that extra packaging.)
Tags: economics, jackknife, packaging
From "That which must be stomped upon"
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