From the Consumerist:
Anyone who was once a child or has been around a child during the holidays knows that toy packages are pure evil straight from hell. Now, according to a letter currently on the front page of Amazon, they've decided to dedicate themselves to removing this scourge from your lives.
Amazon says that they're beginning the crusade against "wrap rage" with the Fisher Price Imaginext Adventures Pirate Ship. Instead of a medieval torture device, the toy will now arrive in something called "a box."
It is no exaggeration to describe toy packages as "pure evil straight from hell." I've spent five minutes trying to extricate a toy train from its packaging, dog-cussing the Thomas the Train people the whole time.
The toy manufacturers, in cahoots with toy stores, have shifted their shoplifting costs to the consumers. The toy stores once had to worry about monitoring their customers, security cameras, etc. Not any more. They've instead deputized all of us into their anti-shoplifting security force.
Actually, it is not quite accurate to say the stores have shifted their shoplifting costs to the customers. We customers must bear at least some of the shoplifting costs no matter how the retailer fights it, or even if it chooses to tolerate some shoplifting. Without the packaging from hell, we would pay more for the toys. What I resent is the stores' assumption that five minutes of my time is worth saving 3% on the cost of the toy.
