How to solve a problem that doesn't exist: Add packaging!
I was an avid music CD buyer, listener, and collector from shortly after they came out until my CD stereo component stopped working. I still listen on the boombox or in the car, but I don't tend to buy them. I don't tend to burn them, preferring liner notes and royalties and those traditional things. Most people jumped to the next wave, say iTunes or the like, but I'm slow to adapt to new technologies.
So, sometime maybe 10 years ago, the record industry perceived a problem with CDs. People were stealing them. People were copying them. People were pirating them. People were selling used copies as new, after shrink-wrapping them. (They were spoiled by the fact that vinyl records showed wear in cases that CDs do not, I suppose.) So they added this annoying sticker to the jewelbox that is impossible to remove, often splits into 17 pieces, getting under fingernails and into carpet, fragments of which adhere to the box, and the areas that don't stay on the box leave gummy, sludgy, sticky spots.
I just received a brand new CD in the mail as a gift. It's kind of like a practical joke, having to deal with the sticker and the static electricity.
It reminds me of my mom's medicine, and how I can't open it. She has arthritis and neuropathy, and has been given prescriptions that a normally-functioning pair of hands can't open. With a knife. And a can opener. And a blowtorch.
Oh no, someone might put poisoned razor blades in our children's foods! Let's make Lunchables, with individually wrapped everything, in a plastic tray, in a non-recyclable coated box, wrapped in cellophane.
Need a replacement cartridge for anything from your printer to your pen to your shaver? Here's the cartridge. Strapped to card with cable-ties. In a static resistant bag. Taped shut. Stapled through the tape. Inserted into a pair of form-fitting (and therefore useless) pieces of styrene. In another bag. In a box. Taped shut with security tape and factory seals. With a tab for opening, taped to yet another box that it's inside of. Taped closed. Oh, and those two pieces of cardboard that don't go with anything that came out of the box when you opened it? Keep those. They're part of the original packaging. You'll need them two years from now if you want their warranty to be honored.
I think people should come in bags. I guess, eventually, we do.
So, sometime maybe 10 years ago, the record industry perceived a problem with CDs. People were stealing them. People were copying them. People were pirating them. People were selling used copies as new, after shrink-wrapping them. (They were spoiled by the fact that vinyl records showed wear in cases that CDs do not, I suppose.) So they added this annoying sticker to the jewelbox that is impossible to remove, often splits into 17 pieces, getting under fingernails and into carpet, fragments of which adhere to the box, and the areas that don't stay on the box leave gummy, sludgy, sticky spots.
I just received a brand new CD in the mail as a gift. It's kind of like a practical joke, having to deal with the sticker and the static electricity.
It reminds me of my mom's medicine, and how I can't open it. She has arthritis and neuropathy, and has been given prescriptions that a normally-functioning pair of hands can't open. With a knife. And a can opener. And a blowtorch.
Oh no, someone might put poisoned razor blades in our children's foods! Let's make Lunchables, with individually wrapped everything, in a plastic tray, in a non-recyclable coated box, wrapped in cellophane.
Need a replacement cartridge for anything from your printer to your pen to your shaver? Here's the cartridge. Strapped to card with cable-ties. In a static resistant bag. Taped shut. Stapled through the tape. Inserted into a pair of form-fitting (and therefore useless) pieces of styrene. In another bag. In a box. Taped shut with security tape and factory seals. With a tab for opening, taped to yet another box that it's inside of. Taped closed. Oh, and those two pieces of cardboard that don't go with anything that came out of the box when you opened it? Keep those. They're part of the original packaging. You'll need them two years from now if you want their warranty to be honored.
I think people should come in bags. I guess, eventually, we do.