I know it’s very trivial, but to me, among the most annoying packages in the world are the foil-wrapped, single-serve pieces of butter that are served in many restaurants, including very upscale, white-tablecloth eateries. I defy anyone to open one of these packages without getting butter on their hands. An obvious solution would be to package individual servings of butter in small squeeze pouches like you have for ketchup, mustard and the like. Just tear off the tops and squeeze out the butter. Even if they are frozen very hard, the heat of your hands on the pouches would soften the butter along the inside surface of the pouch, so the butter will squeeze out easily.

Another very annoying package also has its roots in the dairy industry—the pull-open gabletop carton, where you have to pull the flaps on one side apart to open the carton. Once the flaps are apart, you squeeze them, and they are supposed to open. Sometimes this even works, but you usually have to use a knife or some other implement to open the flaps, and this generally tears the surface of the paperboard, so it gets soggy from the product. This is not only unpleasant; it is also unsanitary. In this case, the industry has come up with a perfect answer—a screw cap. It’s just a wonder why anyone still uses the old pull-open cartons.

On the other side of the picture, one of the great packaging innovations, maybe the best of all time, is the screw-cap beer bottle. No more church key or broken teeth.

How about you people out there. There must be package you love or hate. Let me hear about them.

“I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning, I will be sober, and you will still be ugly.” Winston Churchill

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