Death to the clamshell!

All consumers will be pleased to know that progress is being made in ridding the world of those horrible, impossible-to-open packages made of steel-reinforced plastic.

The end may be near for the seemingly impenetrable plastic clamshell package.

Costco Wholesale Corp. will begin rolling out to its membership warehouses this fall more product packaging that combines plastic and stiff cardboard.

With these hybrids, consumers can still see the product through the plastic bubble, but the edges are cardboard. And while consumers still will need scissors to cut and separate the sealed cardboard halves, the process will involve cutting a flat piece of cardboard rather than piercing welded plastic ridges and a molded case.

I was thinking this was off-topic, but it really is a channel marketing issue. In any case, it has always amazed me that marketers would show so little interest in an issue that angers so many of their end customers.