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Sony brings end to blister-pack packaging
Author: Joe MartinPublished: 22nd December 2008
Sony has decided to stop using blisterpack packaging and pledges to only use friendly alternatives.
The main reason that companies have used blister-pack or clamshell packaging in the past is because it is difficult to open, making shoplifting difficult a lot of the time. Unfortunately, it also means that products are hard to get out of their houses without a pair of pliers and a blowtorch.
According to Kotaku, Sony first embarked on the initiative a month ago with Best Buy and Walmart also pitching in to create a more convenient, but equally secure style of packaging. Sony has now announced that it has come up with a solutions and will be done with blister-pack boxes very shortly.
"I know consumers, including myself, get annoyed about how difficult they are to open. In fact, they typically can’t be opened without the use of a sharp device of some kind....we will have a new alternative to announce soon" reads the Sony Electronics Blog.
Oh, and if you weren't excited enough by that news then Sony has also created a new video for the campaign, which you can check out here. Yay!
Do you have any other gripes or groans about the modern retail experience, or are you in too much of a festive mood to whinge? Let us know in the forums.
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Comments (34)
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Good idea though. I hate that packaging. I once bought scissors that came packaged in the same way. Irony!
http://gizmodo.com/5088538/sony-microsoft-and-best-buy-join-in-the-fight-against-tough-packaging-clamshells-days-are-numbered
Mind you I suspect Sony don't want you to know that..
Brilliant.
IMO, blister packs should have burned a long, long time ago. Especially with this supposedly 'green' outlook so many companies like to push.
Yep, had that problem here, my friend bought one of the HDMI cables (or whatever itis) for the x-box, realising he bought the one for the x-box elite, we tried to return it, they wouldn't accept it as the packaging was in an "unacceptable condition". was like £30 or something too.
I really wish more companies would start using cardboard packaging. It looks nicer, it's easier to open and it's biodegradable.
Plus I don't see how a cardboard pack is easier to steel than a blister pack. They're the same size and weight and everything and you can still stick an RFID tag on it so it sets off the door alarms.
I'm not an apple fan boy or anything but I recently bought an iPhone and a couple of official accessories and they were an absolute joy to open. The packaging looked nice, felt nice and opened up quickly and simply as it was mainly made of card. It caused no injuries or frustration what so ever. Why can't all companies do the same?
Not only does it remove the theft element (apart from people wanting a spare DVD case) it means there's less shelf space to take up in the majority of cases, places like wallmart will love that.
You can't hear it.... it's the wrong aspect ratio... it's not widescreen... it's not HD... there's not even a HQ option. WTF? Personally I would feel like a tool if I uploaded something as crappy as that to youtube. Even if it was a pointless video of me filming my cat, I would have the self-respect enough to make sure it was watch-able.
Could they not find a HD camera or use some video editing software? Hmmmm wonder where would they get those types of things?
They didn't even come up with the "packing improvements are cool" thing. That was amazon.
I agree that putting DVD style boxes on the shelve or installing a touch screen will reduce/eliminate theft but it does also degrade the buying experience a little. It makes it difficult to have a good look at what your thinking of buying before you part with your cash. While this is less useful for optical media, when your buying tactile things like mice or gamepads etc, it's always better to have a close look and feel first.
If shops were going to completely stop stocking shelves and only have touch screens, then what's the point in having the shop? That's what online stores are for. I already buy 95%+ of all my purchases online as it's usually simpler, quicker and cheaper etc. And that includes groceries etc. As I mentioned before though, there are some things I do find it better to go and look at in person. Saying that though I do usually then leave the shop and buy the item online anyway. :D
Works fine though the aspect is still wrong.
True. I think the Game near us has empty blister packs for pads on the shelf and the full ones in the storeroom.
I hate blisterpacks. these should have gone the way of the Dodo a long time ago.
...And cut through some headphone cables, and Driver CD's that were hidden in the cardboard label in the package...
Good Riddance !!!
Or &fmt=22 for the 'real' HD. :)
On topic:
Finally companies realize how bad packaging has become.
But I still don't like the DVD boxes for my games, I want proper boxes! Made of cardboard!
I bet you don't like the small boxes they have now, either =P
"Wow, where did you get that?"
"From opening Buzz! Quiz TV"
I'll put that into my memoirs.
Just need to get rid of shrink-wrap now and I'll be happy.
Isn't that what I said? I want the old cardboard boxes back. The ones that were bigger than a normal hardcover book.
These things today's children only know hardly ever touch... sad world.
I don't see why it would at all. I don't really like the normal buying experience, 99% of the time I know exactly what I want, I go in there, find it, then pay for it. I don't see the point of looking at a wall full of games, it's easy to find what you're looking for if it's on the top 20 shelf, if not, you have to scour the other cramped shelves, only to find it's not there. Generally the only reason I wouldn't buy it online is if the price wasn't ridiculous in store and I was already in town getting something else.
If anything I think it would improve the buying experience, for people who know what they want it's really easy to see if it's in stock, for people who don't it would still be easy to have a good browse. It would be a lot like the web site but everything would be much bigger, less "web concious", lots of big images and stuff. Each game would have a big picture of the front and back of the box so you can read it, things like controllers would have ideally a rotatable 3D image. You can still have that browsing aspect of shop but on a terminal. After that, you send your order to the peons who run around getting your order for you (and best of all, all the games would be sealed so no scratched disks, though most games I have bought in-store have been sealed nowadays). While they're doing that there would be stuff like the shirts and other knick knacks they sell to browse through before you finally pay. It would be a lot like Argos, only a bit more efficient as they don't have such a catalogue of stuff, only games and related items.
Thing is though, most places don't have the room to have things like controllers out on display unless you go to a big store like Curries or PC World. If anything, this would be better, instead of having a controller in blister packing, the saved shelf space means you could actually have every peripheral you sell on one of those little tethers, so you can actually pick it up and feel it.
According to the Argos advert too, less need for shelf space would also mean they would have less overheads, display shelves are very space inefficient, getting rid of most of them allows you to stock a bigger range of products (though I wouldn't imagine in GAME's case they would really want to) and means you wouldn't need such a big store.
It wouldn't work for everything, bit if brick and mortar shops want to compete with the growing popularity of online shopping they're going to have to make some changes. The biggest change they can make is price, this is one way they can do it. Another way is to it is shopping experience, I think a hybrid of online functionality and traditional browsing (the problem with traditional browsing is 80% of the time they will browse and that's it) along with some (actually) good advice from helpful and informed staff would be great.
And hoorah for boxes!
B&M stores tend to sell a lot of spur of the moment purchases where you see something on the shelf as your passing (or while looking for something else) and end up buying it. With a touchscreen element they'd see a big drop in that.
It's also the reason shops tend to change their layout often - people become complacent and head to where they know things are and then head straight for the tills - they don't look at other items in the store. However, a quick layout change means people have to look for what they want and they will see other things which they otherwise wouldn't have and the store will (usually) sell more stuff.
About time they got rid of blister packaging, imposable to open, can cut the dickens out of you, and sometimes imposable to fit in the trash ... good riddance !
Online shops get quite a lot of sales like that too, there's been several times where I've just been browsing on play and seen a really good deal and decided to buy it. With the terminals you could increase this even more, you don't have to cater for people with poorer internet connections so you can have a very unintuitive layout (lots need for loading new pages, lots of the screen filled with something not completely relevant, but it would still be more functional than trying to find a game in a whole stack of them.
With the addition of a barcode reader you can also easily find out how much a game is worth to trade in too.