If you purchase, as I do, movies on DVD, you have undoubtedly done battle with the plastic strips labeled "Security Device Enclosed" that are now affixed to three sides of the package.  I have pondered the rationale behind this nuisance and cannot find an answer.  The DVD is in a package that is already encased in a sealed wrapper.  Any attempt to remove this package from the store without having it "swiped" through the deactivator at the register will set off an alarm.  Even if a thief could remove the wrapper and all three of the plastic strips without attracting attention (most unlikely), he or she would still set off the alarm.  What sane purpose do these strips serve?  And if there is a purpose, wouldn't just one strip do?

I suspect that the same genius who came up with this idea had something to do with bubble wrap.  By "bubble wrap," I refer to hard plastic containers that, if struck with a hammer, would cause the hammer to bounce.  Have you ever tried to rip open a package made of this stuff?  Arnold Schwarzenegger couldn't do it.  It's a challenge even with heavy-duty scissors.  The other day, when I had to put a new print cartridge in my printer, I had to break through the bubble wrap to get at the cartridge.  It took me almost as long to open the package as it did to install the cartridge and align it.  I think there's method to this madness:  If you happen to get the wrong cartridge and need to return it, the package is so mangled that the store will not accept a return.

And what about the cardboard containers that have, on the wrapper, a dotted line and the words "Press here"?  Why do the lines never line up with the thing that is supposed to open?  Is the opening even there?  As many times as I have tried to follow these directions, all I get is a dented box.  I usually end up just ripping the box open.

Once upon a time, I could open a bottle of pills just by turning the top.  Now that my eyesight is failing and my hands are arthritic, packagers use wrap-around seals with tiny tabs (or none at all) or require me to line up a tiny arrow with an even tinier dot.  While I realize that these devices are supposed to make the containers "childproof," the typical child can open these containers more easily than an old geezer like me can.  I have this vision of dying of a heart attack while attempting to open a bottle of pills designed to prevent heart attacks.  (This is no joking matter; such a tragedy was reported in the papers a few years ago.)

Technology has, no doubt, accomplished wonders in making it easy for manufacturers to use machines for mass packaging of products.  But the packaging industry seems intent upon making the process of getting the product out of the package as difficult as possible.   By the time I die, I expect that I will have spent several weeks of my life opening, or trying to figure out how to open, packages.