Is opening containers getting harder for everyone? I'm not the Incrediible Hulk!

DDD

Well-Known Member
Yeah, I know that I'm not a spring chicken but good grief I sell heavy duty truck parts and am not a wimp. This morning AGAIN I reached for a new bottle of olive oil. It was sealed with a very strong metallic type material. I tried using muscles. Nope.
I tried using a knife to go around the cap base. Nope. Finally I used a knife to start the process from the base of the material. I took me about ten minutes and sure as heck the metallic type material cut my hand twice.

I'm all in favor of sealing the contents of perishables but more and more often even husband can't get the seals open. Like me he is older and not the Hulk but there is not a wimpy bone in his body. Matter of fact even the change in can designs make those a challenge too. Are we alone????? DDD
 

AnnieO

Shooting from the Hip
It's not you.

Honey, you say "like me he is older" - I'm not. Unless you consider 38 older??? But you're absolutely right, jars ARE getting harder to open.

When I use pliers and that doesn't work? Yeah.

I had to use vice grips to get the top off a plastic pop bottle a couple of days ago. I couldn't do it - husband couldn't - even Onyxx, sweet young thing, couldn't.
 

DaisyFace

Love me...Love me not
I've had trouble opening lids for years...I just don't have the gripping strength in my fingers.

I always keep a pair of scissors with a "lid opener" gripper handy. For larger jars, like pickes for example, I actually use a tool that's designed to remove your car's oil filter!

So no....not just you.
 

susiestar

Roll With It
I thought I was deteriorating faster than expected, so thank you for asking this. While it is good to prevent tampering, it is also good for consumers to be able to actually get to the product. I think manufacturers and designers forget this. A friend's husband designs packaging for SC Johnson and Sons and he has said that some of the newer ways to seal products are actually causing sales of product to go down. I hope this sends a strong enough message and companies will start using methods that can be opened to seal products. (FYI if you have seen the OFF citronella candle in the terra cotta pot with the big sun on the side, that is one he designed. I wish I wasn't allergic and could support him by purchasing this and other products he designed the packaging/container for. He also did a skintimate package and i couldn't use that either because the smell makes me really ill.)

Sorry we are all dealing with this PITA, but glad it isn't just me.
 

Nancy

Well-Known Member
I'm having a lot of trouble opening things. I know that I have lost a lot of gripping power in my hands over the years. I have cut myself with knives and scissors trying to open jars and packages. I'm always asking easy child or husband to open things for me.

Nancy
 

DDD

Well-Known Member
I don't know anything about packaging terms but the pull tab tops (with a grab on edge) surely keeps the product free of contamination. I can do those...although if the tab is too short I have to use a knife. At least they are doable! I'm glad to hear that I'm not alone with this problem. DDD
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Not just you dear.

I've been known to throw something I get so frustrated trying to open across the room. lol

I'm all for tamper proof........but some of these things are ridiculous.......and it helps a lot if the consumer can actually get the product open to USE it. ugh
 

AnnieO

Shooting from the Hip
Foil stuff glued to the top of a container (inside): Run the point of a knife around the edge.
Plastic shrink-wrapped around a lid: Hate these. I never can get the perforations to work. Scissors to clip a piece down, then peel.
Small lids (pop bottles, hot sauce): Regular pliers.
Larger lids (pickle jars, mayonnaise): Oil filter wrench or WIDE rubber band...
 

muttmeister

Well-Known Member
I'm stronger than the average bear and people give me their stuff to open but there's a lot of stuff that has new, "improved" tamper-proof packaging that is almost impossible for anybody to open, no matter how strong you are. I know they think they are doing this for our own good but some things are ridiculous.

Times have certainly changed. I am in the middle of spring cleaning and yesterday I ran across a wooden box that was used to send medications through the mail to my great-grandfather who was a frontier doctor. I'm sure it would have gotten on the train in St. Louis and ended up at the local station. It wouldn't have even been sealed - just a couple of nails. I thought at the time, if that were today it would have to have special packaging, special delivery, a ton of red tape, and several dozen people involved to be sure it got to where it was going all in one piece. Is this progress?
 

DDD

Well-Known Member
The olive oil bottle had heavy foil from the top down to where the bottle flaired. I'm not kidding the knife I used for the ?? shrink rapped foil ?? did not cut around in a circle. Then I put the point at the base with the blade flush with the glass. What did I get? Little tiny serrations that were sharp and did not peel away. I won't buy that again...I don't care that it was expensive EVOO. DDD
 

AnnieO

Shooting from the Hip
DDD - I found that Kroger brand Olive Oil, in a can, with grip tabs on the lid, is just as good but cheaper. And I use a LOT of olive oil... It's EVOO, too.

mutt - Nowadays, it would be in a small plastic bottle with cotton, sealed with plastic and foil, a childproof (HAHAHA) cap, more plastic shrunk around that, in a plastic clamshell , in a box with tamper-resistant tape, and you'd have to sign in triplicate for the delivery.
 

DaisyFace

Love me...Love me not
And yet...

One can still buy a loaf of bread sealed with only a twist-tie.

(Because nobody would EVER think to contaminate bread)
 
For larger jars, like pickes for example, I actually use a tool that's designed to remove your car's oil filter!
The technical name for that tool is a "strap wrench" (easy child son 2 told me. I couldn't change my own oil if you paid me.) A very handy tool to have around.

I remember from years ago adjustable jar openers that fit across the diameter of a jar lid rather than around the circumference like a strap wrench. My mother had one. Are those still sold today?
 

muttmeister

Well-Known Member
mutt - Nowadays, it would be in a small plastic bottle with cotton, sealed with plastic and foil, a childproof (HAHAHA) cap, more plastic shrunk around that, in a plastic clamshell , in a box with tamper-resistant tape, and you'd have to sign in triplicate for the delivery.

Actually, there would be a lot more red tape than that because the box is about 12"x12"x18" so he was probably getting a large volume of stuff including things like laudinum and other stuff that would be stolen in a heartbeat nowadays. Besides being a doctor, he also ran the only drug store in town so this was a fairly large shipment. Now it would probably come by armored truck. LOL
 

AnnieO

Shooting from the Hip
Actually, there would be a lot more red tape than that because the box is about 12"x12"x18" so he was probably getting a large volume of stuff including things like laudinum and other stuff that would be stolen in a heartbeat nowadays. Besides being a doctor, he also ran the only drug store in town so this was a fairly large shipment. Now it would probably come by armored truck. LOL

:rofl: Oh, I only meant per dose! I forgot about how to get it there too!
 

DDD

Well-Known Member
At least at our pharmacy you can get medications in a regular easy open container...by request! DDD
 

AnnieO

Shooting from the Hip
Walgreens has caps that are childproof, but if you turn them upside-down, they're easy open... LOL!
 
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