4 ms·

I think the crux of this particular problem is that there was no thought to how to possibly redesign the product to be less wasteful. The argument had been play

I think the crux of this particular problem is that there was no thought to how to possibly redesign the product to be less wasteful. The argument had been played, "these are bad, and can't be fixed." So, instead of looking at the usage scenarios -- disabled people, parents with young kids who want them to have easier access to a healthier snack, etc -- they went straight to, "oh, they must be lazy." Here, I can see an easier solution than mason jars being two hemispherical plastic halves shrink wrapped together with a perforated area that's easy to tear, like is found on drink containers. Make it out of a bioplastic and you have something that's accessible and environmentally friendly. To pre-answer, no, getting the produce person to help you isn't a real good option. It's doubtful that you're going to want the orange right then, and having a peeled orange in even a produce bag is going to be more problematic than a harder container. So, a harder container that's relatively sealed will help keep it a few days until the person's ready to eat it.

mcguire 11y ago
I rather suspect that Whole Foods used the rectangular plastic boxes because they have a billion of them on hand for their other packaged products. They may even be bioplastic, knowing them. Which means that these were pretty much optimal to start with.
logfromblammo 11y ago
The requirement to find someone and ask for help is a barrier in itself. Also, it depends a lot on the store or chain. If you enter a Wal-Mart hoping to leave with an orange you didn't peel yourself, you're going to get frustrated. If you try the same in Publix, you're going to have a much better experience. But you will pay more on average shopping at the latter, as they very obviously prioritize more highly their employee training, employee wages, and customer service. Last time I was in Wal-Mart, I had a hard enough time just buying a video game locked up behind glass. No one was on duty in the department. Hey, no problem. I picked up the phone behind the desk and started dialing the internal numbers printed on the sticker for the manager's office, customer service, the checkouts, anywhere, hoping to ask someone to come back and help a customer. Nobody picked up, from any extension I tried, after any number of rings. If I were shopping for myself, I would have left (or having learned from previous experience, never entered the store in the first place). But I was already helping someone else shop, so eventually someone finally showed up to do nothing more than turn a key and operate the sale terminal. I imagine that there are an awful lot of people who, like me, would prefer to not ask anyone for help with anything. I have occasionally been asked by my fellow customers in a store of smaller stature to help them reach something, and I can tell that it makes them uncomfortable to need to do that when everyone else can just grab anything at will. When I'm in a situation where I am forced by store policy to get the assistance of a store employee in order to make a purchase, and there is no employee there to assist customers, I can easily extrapolate that out to people who need more help than other customers.

mcguire 11y ago

I rather suspect that Whole Foods used the rectangular plastic boxes because they have a billion of them on hand for their other packaged products. They may even be bioplastic, knowing them. Which means that these were pretty much optimal to start with.

logfromblammo 11y ago

The requirement to find someone and ask for help is a barrier in itself. Also, it depends a lot on the store or chain. If you enter a Wal-Mart hoping to leave with an orange you didn't peel yourself, you're going to get frustrated. If you try the same in Publix, you're going to have a much better experience. But you will pay more on average shopping at the latter, as they very obviously prioritize more highly their employee training, employee wages, and customer service. Last time I was in Wal-Mart, I had a hard enough time just buying a video game locked up behind glass. No one was on duty in the department. Hey, no problem. I picked up the phone behind the desk and started dialing the internal numbers printed on the sticker for the manager's office, customer service, the checkouts, anywhere, hoping to ask someone to come back and help a customer. Nobody picked up, from any extension I tried, after any number of rings. If I were shopping for myself, I would have left (or having learned from previous experience, never entered the store in the first place). But I was already helping someone else shop, so eventually someone finally showed up to do nothing more than turn a key and operate the sale terminal. I imagine that there are an awful lot of people who, like me, would prefer to not ask anyone for help with anything. I have occasionally been asked by my fellow customers in a store of smaller stature to help them reach something, and I can tell that it makes them uncomfortable to need to do that when everyone else can just grab anything at will. When I'm in a situation where I am forced by store policy to get the assistance of a store employee in order to make a purchase, and there is no employee there to assist customers, I can easily extrapolate that out to people who need more help than other customers.