Packaging can often be woeful don't you think? Packaging is by far at its best when it's made of paper or cardboard, like the box a TV would come in for instance. There it's just a large carboard box with polystyrene and maybe some plastic bags to keep the TV safe and scratch free. Cereal boxes are generally easy too, although when you accidentally rip the tab in an overzealous desire to get at the cereal, it can be a pain in the ass. No, these are fine. The type of packaging I really hate is the sealed plastic packaging that is becoming increasingly more common these days.
We've all come across it for one reason or another, as it can be used to package anything from a beard trimmer to your favourite action figure or electric toothbrush. It has a nasty ridge all round the side of the box where the two halfs are sealed permanently together, with no obvious way of yanking them apart. Just try and do it; you'll fail and likely hurt your hands in the process. Then you're going to have to either get a pair of scissors or your trusty swiss army knife like me, and cut the plastic in whatever akward and dumb way takes your fancy. Again, the risk of injury slightly rises when scissors or knives are involved in slicing up this idiotic packaging.
Imagine you've bought for yourself a new playstation controller, and it comes in that packaging. In the resulting struggle cutting this box to pieces you end up either stabbing your hand with the scissors or getting cuts off of the newly exposed sharp edges of the box. Playing playstation isn't going to be very comfortable now is it?
Imagine life as an arthritic person, or as an old and infirm person. Those boxes are a mountain and a half to climb. And if you're that poor old lady on the Salvation Army appeal that has no living friends or family, it gets worse. You'll have no one to help you open that dreadful packaging, and so you'd better hope the Salvation Army does come and find you or that box is staying shut.
Aye I know what you're going to say, that these boxes allow for the security of the product inside, and I appreciate that. But isn't that what CCTV is for? Or store security guards if it's a big shop? I'm not going to pretend I know for sure, but I bet the instances of shop lifting haven't been drastically reduced because of this packaging. Half these goons will run out the door if the item is security tagged or not.
Other packaging can suck a bit as well. The mozzarella I buy from the co-op every week has a resealable packet which is really good actually. What's dumb about it is the fact that the "cut here" line is on or below the seal almost every time. I mean an occasional misprint is fine, but all the time is a fail of monumental proportions. Also, why haven't ringpulls on tin cans become universal? It's such a useful innovation and saves messing around with tin openers, and if you'd seen the last one I was using you'd understand my frustration. It cut sideways round the tin, not round the lid. Ridiculous.
Lastly, I'll moan about the kind of plastic packaging that you get for pasta and rice and things like that. I admit my complaints here are due to me being clumsy at opening them rather than them being wholly crap, but I still reckon they shouldn't tear so easily. I always struggle to rip open the seal at the top, and then out of nowhere the whole bag bursts and pasta goes everywhere. Again cutting a hole with scissors at the corner of the bag is maybe the best bet for me. I just can't be bothered with bloody goddamn scissors all the time.
*The title of today's post is an obscure reference to Metal Gear Solid 2. It'll take too long to explain the context but it beats the original title of Packaging Pandemonium!
Sunday 6 February 2011
Wednesday 2 February 2011
Underserved
Shops and places to go and eat can be a pain in the arse sometimes. On the most part I'm fine with them as are many people. However things can happen there that really wind me up, all of them completely trivial and not worth getting wound up about. But this is me we're talking about so I'll get stuck in with the ranting. Not much of a unifying theme or concept in this blog today, just an excuse to moan about individual shop related bugbears.
I was in Kentucky Fried Chicken today having some lunch. As usual, I walked past it on my way to Baguette Express and thought I'd rather treat myself to something more substantial. Usually by the time I've finished my KFC I feel slightly queasy and ask myself for the zillionth time why I bother eating there. Kentucky Fried Dog as my friend calls it, and he's probably not wrong. Well, the thing that annoys me whenever I go to KFC is the barbecue sauce, or usually the lack thereof. Why is it that I occasionally get it, yet a lot of other times I don't. Is it an extra that I should consider myself lucky to get, or is it something I should always be getting but rarely do? If there was any consistency I would know. I'm not asked, for instance, if I'd like some barbecue sauce, I just occasionally get it. It has nothing to do with ordering a large meal as opposed to a medium, because I did that last time and got absolutely no barbecue sauce. Next time I am definitely asking them what the deal is with the barbecue sauce. Ketchup is perfectly nice and all, but barbecue sauce polishes up an otherwise mediocre dining experience.
You are no doubt sick of the words barbecue sauce, so I promise I won't mention barbecue sauce again. What I will talk about now is closing times. I mentioned Baguette Express earlier. The ones in Edinburgh are a good 20p more expensive than my old local one in St Andrews. My other friend calls it the Edinburgh Tax, and he's definitely not wrong there. Anyhow, I could still reasonably expect the place to be open around about half 5, which was really quite good. However, at some point recently an executive decision was made not to do that anymore, and the other day I appeared just before 5 only to be told it was closed. I thought to myself, "Ok, maybe I made a mistake, and that it only stays open later on certain days." The next logical step then would be to look at the opening and closing times on the window, which I duly did. Lo and behold, they'd scratched off all the closing times, and neglected to stick on some new ones. How am I supposed to know when I can still come to Baguette Express if there are no opening times? I guess I'll have to personally ask a staff member, and no doubt appear like I care too much about it. What I won't do is ask that girl that's always there now, the one who clearly hates me and never hears anything I say to her.
The problem with the Baguette Express was that the opening times weren't clear, but to those in the know they were probably set in stone. However with my local Scotmid (read Co-op), I'm positive it shuts at midnight. Now supposing you were in my position and you wanted some toast around about 11.40pm but sadly you had no bread left. With the shop less than 5 minutes around the corner, you'd easily be able to get some bread in time. So, I imagine you've predicted the end of this story, and it goes something along the lines of me getting there by quarter to 12 and finding it all in shutters. Aye exactly. That is the single most irritating thing they can do. They close at 12, not quarter to. If it had been 5 to then I'd accept that, in fact I wouldn't even have attempted it. I really wish they couldn't get away with saying, "Oh there probably won't be another customer between now and then, let's close early." Now, I know in real terms I should have given myself half an hour at least to buy the bread, but the point is I shouldn't have to give myself that long.
I hate that shop anyway. About a third of the staff seem pleasant enough, but the rest appear so miserable. This appears to be case with not just the other two places I've mentioned in this blog, but pretty close to everywhere now. I know these jobs are shit and I should walk a mile in their shoes, but I've done shop work before and even when I feel crap I still put on a professional veneer. However instead of even pretending they enjoy their life, they'd rather soak themselves in their own bitterness and frustration until it becomes the very essence of their being. And of course the customer has to put up with it.
Maybe that last point was inordinately harsh, but I still want to make it. Maybe this whole post was ridiculous but if I can't have a whinge here, where can I? Since it's mostly friends reading this, you know it's pretty much everywhere else.
I was in Kentucky Fried Chicken today having some lunch. As usual, I walked past it on my way to Baguette Express and thought I'd rather treat myself to something more substantial. Usually by the time I've finished my KFC I feel slightly queasy and ask myself for the zillionth time why I bother eating there. Kentucky Fried Dog as my friend calls it, and he's probably not wrong. Well, the thing that annoys me whenever I go to KFC is the barbecue sauce, or usually the lack thereof. Why is it that I occasionally get it, yet a lot of other times I don't. Is it an extra that I should consider myself lucky to get, or is it something I should always be getting but rarely do? If there was any consistency I would know. I'm not asked, for instance, if I'd like some barbecue sauce, I just occasionally get it. It has nothing to do with ordering a large meal as opposed to a medium, because I did that last time and got absolutely no barbecue sauce. Next time I am definitely asking them what the deal is with the barbecue sauce. Ketchup is perfectly nice and all, but barbecue sauce polishes up an otherwise mediocre dining experience.
You are no doubt sick of the words barbecue sauce, so I promise I won't mention barbecue sauce again. What I will talk about now is closing times. I mentioned Baguette Express earlier. The ones in Edinburgh are a good 20p more expensive than my old local one in St Andrews. My other friend calls it the Edinburgh Tax, and he's definitely not wrong there. Anyhow, I could still reasonably expect the place to be open around about half 5, which was really quite good. However, at some point recently an executive decision was made not to do that anymore, and the other day I appeared just before 5 only to be told it was closed. I thought to myself, "Ok, maybe I made a mistake, and that it only stays open later on certain days." The next logical step then would be to look at the opening and closing times on the window, which I duly did. Lo and behold, they'd scratched off all the closing times, and neglected to stick on some new ones. How am I supposed to know when I can still come to Baguette Express if there are no opening times? I guess I'll have to personally ask a staff member, and no doubt appear like I care too much about it. What I won't do is ask that girl that's always there now, the one who clearly hates me and never hears anything I say to her.
The problem with the Baguette Express was that the opening times weren't clear, but to those in the know they were probably set in stone. However with my local Scotmid (read Co-op), I'm positive it shuts at midnight. Now supposing you were in my position and you wanted some toast around about 11.40pm but sadly you had no bread left. With the shop less than 5 minutes around the corner, you'd easily be able to get some bread in time. So, I imagine you've predicted the end of this story, and it goes something along the lines of me getting there by quarter to 12 and finding it all in shutters. Aye exactly. That is the single most irritating thing they can do. They close at 12, not quarter to. If it had been 5 to then I'd accept that, in fact I wouldn't even have attempted it. I really wish they couldn't get away with saying, "Oh there probably won't be another customer between now and then, let's close early." Now, I know in real terms I should have given myself half an hour at least to buy the bread, but the point is I shouldn't have to give myself that long.
I hate that shop anyway. About a third of the staff seem pleasant enough, but the rest appear so miserable. This appears to be case with not just the other two places I've mentioned in this blog, but pretty close to everywhere now. I know these jobs are shit and I should walk a mile in their shoes, but I've done shop work before and even when I feel crap I still put on a professional veneer. However instead of even pretending they enjoy their life, they'd rather soak themselves in their own bitterness and frustration until it becomes the very essence of their being. And of course the customer has to put up with it.
Maybe that last point was inordinately harsh, but I still want to make it. Maybe this whole post was ridiculous but if I can't have a whinge here, where can I? Since it's mostly friends reading this, you know it's pretty much everywhere else.
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