I have had a serious disorder for several years. Only until today I didn’t know what it was called. I can now put a name to it: Wrap Rage. It is the sense of frustration and helplessness as I wrestle with yet another glitzy product wrapped in heavy-duty impenetrable plastic. Often I have to open the toolbox to gain access and it isn’t good enough. And on more than one occasion I have risked serious injury on those razor-sharp jagged plastic edges.
For too long manufacturers of tech gadgets have been helping themselves by adopting these outrageously inconvenient packaging methods with nary a thought for the hapless consumer. The term wrap rage isn’t new and was first mentioned by Consumer Reports in 2006. But it’s new to me and it nicely sums up my feelings. It is the subject of a new report in Which? magazine this month.
Apple has long been an examplary citizen in terms of packaging. Those easy-to-open cardboard boxes are both consumer friendly and environmentally correct. Yet after years of campaigning, other manufacturers persist with their unofortunate practices. I have said before that it is only a matter of time before some lacerated customer sues for a million, and it cannot come soon enough.
A strong remedy is in the hands of Apple itself. If the world’s biggest retailer of tech gadgets banned plastic packaging suppliers would soon get the message: Go back to cardboard or face exclusion from Apple Stores worldwide. Apple has the clout and should use it.