What's with all the packaging!?

OK, racing fans...I have had this gestating ready to burst onto the scene, and now it is released to the world.

Packaging:

Buy anything in the United States. Go do it right now, or look at the last thing you purchased. You can't see the thing you purchased. There's too much packaging for you to see it.

Packaging has become a way for companies to deceive you. Easy example: gummy bears. Go to the candy counter and check this out. Some of the box packages for gummy bears (same for worms and other candies too, but let's stick with the gummy bear example for the sake of specificity) have a big box and a clear window where you can see the sealed "clean" contents...the bears through the window.

Here's the deception. The only place in the box that has any "contents" is the window where you can see the product. The rest of the box, which is usually at least another 50% of the size of the box is completely devoid of content.

That's right. It's frickin' empty.

It's like a poorly performed magic trick from a kid who just wants to "fool" you, stick out his tongue and wail, "nah nah, nah nah nah," at you.

Tell me. Do the companies that package their products this way think about how this impacts their image and their potential for future sales?

When I've been ripped off this way, I avoid buying the company's products ever again. I don't need to get ripped off again. Certainly not in the same way. I can see how this method can fool customers initially, especially in venues where the customer doesn't get to inspect the package before the buy the candy...I've had this happen to me in movie theaters...back in the days when I might buy candy at the theater rather than beforehand, which I don't do these days due to too many incidences of this type of thievery...and that's what it is. It is outright deception. It's just too little money for an individual to pursue a lawsuit based on it.

Depending on the type of product, packaging is also an indicator of something else that seems embedded in our culture. Call it germophobia or even a desire to get things in their "virgin" state.

This happens not only with food, but with other items as well. Think of some of the smaller things you might buy. Let's say a single small pack of stick style gum at the grocery store. You'll get the package of gum which has a seal, many layers of paper, the stick of gum, the aluminum-like wrap around it and the paper around that, and the paper that separates each individually sealed piece.

But that's just the product itself.

You'll also get a receipt, which is often-times about 3 inches by 11 inches or more. Plus it will be put into a large paper or plastic (your choice where you still have the choice, but that's another rant) bag, which itself is several times the size, weight and volume of the product that you just purchased. And you'll often get a bunch of coupons that target your possible future purchases.

And what happens to most of this packaging most of the time? OK, you're ahead of me on this one. Trash-ola. Of course. And whether it actually is biodegradable or not is not what I'm pissed about, rather it's just the volume.

Let's look at the positive side though, right? You must need the receipt, right? Sure. If you need to prove that you purchased a pack of gum.

Incidental.

And you could request a receipt if you really needed it. Hell, you could write your own receipt for something that inexpensive and in most cases this would be acceptable proof.

Also, the receipt doesn't have to be so frickin' big, does it? No. It doesn't.

So, then the bag must serve a purpose, right? Again...no. The product is already packaged. What purpose would the bag serve. If it was just raw sticks of gum, perhaps you might put them into something, but it's not needed for such a heavily packaged item.

And why are so many items packaged at all or so much? There seems to be an obsession with getting something that is "new."

For so many things...what is new?

Certainly I don't want used food, but I don't think that will surprise most people. The way food is packaged, might lead one to conclude that it is packaged so much to insure that you are the first person to touch this food item. Rarely is that going to be the case. Most food comes from something living, so by its very nature it not only was touched by something else, it was something else. It has been transformed by the many things and people that have touched it.

There's room here for another rant about the germophobia here in the U.S., but let's focus and save that for another time.

So many rants, so little time.

Hell, these days the clerk may just ask you, "Do you need any help to your car with that?" To which I would be tempted to answer, "Yes, since you put so much damn packaging around it!"