I happened upon this today’s on Amazon’s homepage (for some reason the story was a graphic image and not a webpage, so this link opens up a graphic).
Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging, a multi-year initiative designed to alleviate “wrap rage,” features recyclable boxes that are easy to open and free of excess materials such as hard plastic clamshell cases, plastic bindings, and wire ties. The product itself is exactly the same—we’ve just streamlined the packaging.
Now I don’t know about you, but I am truly a sufferer of “wrap rage“. Electronics and gadgets have always been pretty bad with all that crazy ‘impossible to open’ plastic packaging… but now that I’m the mother of 2 small children my wrap rage has risen to new levels. Have you ever tried to open a new children’s toy? It is truly ridiculous, and I kid you not when I say you almost need a degree just to get the toy out of the box. All these crazy wire ties that go through the toy, plastic tabby things stuck all over the place, twist ties that you can’t open with your fingers alone (need pliers) and more. My family and I have often wondered who the heck came up with all this packaging? Not only it is VERY annoying and sometimes dangerous in itself but it seems a huge waste… here is an example of how crazy the packaging is from the Amazon site.
Amazon is starting by offering 19 items as part of their Frustration-Free Packaging initiative and will be continually adding to the list. I have certainly bought many books and some DVDs from Amazon over the years, but i’ve rarely purchased anything else from them. This will now change… they’ve tapped into a HUGE annoyance of mine and provided a solution. And for that they have created a raving fan. 🙂
There is a really great business learning here as well – a brilliant example of tapping into a ‘problem’ and providing a ‘solution’. I actually find it kind of funny that Amazon is the one to lead this initiative, I would have expected this to come direct from the manufacturers themselves (wouldn’t it save them packaging costs anyhow?). But the fact that Amazon is leading the way here has a fun twist to it, go Jeff Bezos go! hehe…
And hey, while we are on the topic of Amazon… how about making the Kindle available to Canadians? I’ve been waiting for the Kindle to hit Canada but alas my patience is wearing out and I think i’m going to go for the Sony Reader instead.