I've Got a Gripe: Trader Joe's Packaging

I want to preface all of what I have to say with this: my wife and I love Trader Joe's and mostly everything that the store experience provides; from the [mostly] laid-back staff,

to the compact store layout, to the wide array of organic options, to the fact that most of the non-alcoholic products carry a non-intrusive brand on the label - Trader Joe's.

This allows for my wife and I to rummage through our grocery list pretty quickly without any delays in comparing brands, prices, and nutritional facts - most often the Trader Joe's brand is the only brand available. I love that I don't have to expense any additional effort to even start thinking about other brands. So basically, I am 90-95% satisfied with my entire experience with Trader Joe's. So what's that extra 5% reside, you say? Well, it comes down to one thing: PACKAGING.

I hate their packaging - not everything that's packaged, but there are a few key consumer products that have developed well-established standards over the decades.  Apparently, Mr. Trader Joe and his associates have never kept up to date with this. In my book, style and color never matter; my approach is all about convenience and functionality. 

Also, let me clarify, that these engineering mishaps are not universal. They do, however, fill up a good chunk of the snacking realm, which is the area in which thought into packaging should be considered with the highest degree of scrutiny. Snacks are not often finished in one or two sittings; unless designed for single-use bars or chips, these packages should at least have some form of flap or seal to allow the user to avoid worrying about stale food.

Maybe now is a good time to go into specifics. The first and biggest offence on my list goes to the 'bird seed' crackers, or commonly referred to by the packages as 'Crispbread'.

CRISPBREAD

This crispbread, whether gluten free or just the plain ol' 'Seeds and Grains' (gluten full), is delightful with cream cheese, hummus, or dips/spreads. Hopefully, you can eat all 10 of these bad boys in one sitting because to being able to open the plastic seal - behind the waste of the useless, white twist tie sitting on top - requires a surgeon-like precision to avoid splitting the micron-thick plastic membrane surrounding the crackers. Sure, we may be avoiding our impending doom of compounding plastic in the ocean or reducing the overall price of this product by a few pennies, but Jesus Christ does this just add more frustration. I either have to throw these crackers out in a week due to staleness, or simply repackage the remainder in a slider bag, wasting even more plastic in the process. 

SALSA, HUMMUS, AND ANYTHING THAT HAS A CELLOPHANE SEAL

I seriously love Trader Joe's snack game, but when it comes to finishing up on that crispbread package and I've overcome my first brain aneurism, I secretly pray to the snack gods that the dips have already been christened. If not, there's some more micron-thick membranes to peel off; this time I would love for that membrane to come cleanly off, but why should I ever feel obliged to mention these guys in here if that were to actually happen? For those who already deal with these products, you may also feel the same pain; whomever had the task of sealing these tops did a more-than-fantastic job at it - the only problem is that it's basically impossible for me to rip off in one attempt.  There should be a threshold on the pressure applied to these seals, making it a high priority to stop just short of resorting to a knife to cleanly peel this sucker off. Also, securing enough room to fit a single finger and thumb to for any possible peeling mechanism would be great.  If you really want a decent standard, look no further than the genius design of the aluminum can.

ANYTHING IN A CHIP BAG

This may be the biggest influence on me doing this post. To anyone that opens up a bag of chips, the common sense solution is to pinch at the middle of the bag at the top and pull apart.  Somehow, when any of the Trader Joes' bags are manufactured, the ways of yore are neglected, so now the top of the bag is sealed so tight to prevent a full-grown gorilla from getting inside.  In replacement of this simple old light seal, there's a perforated edge, which encourages the consumer to rip cut down the side of the bag like a terrorist. Since when do we ever open up a chip bag on the side unless by pure accident? Why can't we just have a pull-off tab like we do for all the other smaller snack bags? We all could just  end up surrendering to the cause and prying out our scissors, but my old-man-temper flares up when I see so much wasted effort to try and make a new thing just like the old thing, but that new thing now requires so much wasted time and effort to make it operate just like the old thing(looking at you electric cars, vegan products, canola oil, tap-to-pay, password requirements, etc.).

Truly great design should make people immediately scoff and forget about the old way of doing things. Trader Joe's should really take that into account when the product experience doesn't completely rely on the look and taste, but also the physical interaction the end-user has with the packaging. I'm a firm believer in the look and taste, but much of that belief is tempered when thinking about how long I intend to keep the products in my house; those same items may easily become stale in a few days if the package has opened to the point where it doesn't seal properly, or if I have to think about taking all the product out and just placing in a ziplock bag. If I have to continually re-pack at that point, why not just rid ourselves of all store packaging and go full 1800's bulk-dispensing-from-a-barrel style? Okay, I'm being a little facetious there, but I think all we need is a simple re-look at the 'sealing' function of all these products and hold back a setting or two so that I don't have to prep myself out with a few pectoral exercises before opening these up the traditional, easy way.