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Comment by mynameishere | Hacker News Reader

I guess I'm confused. The video doesn't help:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html?node=1234279011

Why are they trying to pretend that traditional boxes are difficult to open? They aren't. Also, how exactly are they going to protect the product from shipping damage? It seems like packing foam or similar materials can't be used with the new boxes.

Do they not realize that...especially with toys, but lots of things...the packaging is part of the charm? To me, an item in a cardboard box is a factory reject or OEM. A child would likely reject a toy that didn't have the packaging of a store item.

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To me, an item in a cardboard box is a factory reject or OEM. A child would likely reject a toy that didn't have the packaging of a store item.

And that's an attitude worth changing in order to cut down on the ridiculous amount of packaging many products use (including non-recyclable plastics, etc). If it takes someone as big as Amazon to do it, bravo.

The whole glitzy packaging thing is a reasonably new invention anyway. When I was a kid things tended to come in cardboard boxes (though printed on). Playing with boxes was as fun as the toy often times!

There's exactly zero chance that store shelves will contain boxes similar to ones that Amazon is using here. Therefore, there will always be two kinds: 1) The displayable kind, and 2) The shipping kind.

Listen: I'm the last person in the whole world who cares what packaging looks like. But the fact is, lots of people do, and these boxes' success will be correspondingly limited.

This whole thread is insane though. They're really doing nothing more than 10,000,000 ebay sellers have been all along. Getting manufacturers to do it is just a way of shifting costs, as Walmart is doing with RFID tags (though the total costs probably go down some, which is good).

In the short term, sure. But the world changes a lot more than we think, over time. The Walmart shopping experience, as it is today, would be unfathomable to someone from even the 1970s.

Consider the success of "no frills" groceries over the last 10 years (a success that is increasing due to the credit crunch). Many who wouldn't leave their chosen brands for certain products are migrating to cheaper alternatives with incredibly dull packaging. It's a bit of a conceptual jump for toys to be the same, but I suspect it'll happen when we realize how superficial the 90s and 00s "were" (speaking from a, say, 2020s perspective).

Every parent on the earth would rather toys just came in a simple box with no screws, ties, plastic requiring a small army of tools and implements to open. Not to mention the fact that the kids can actually play with their toys immediately, rather than waiting ages for the packaging to be dismantled.

This will take off big time hopefully.

Getting manufacturers to do it is just a way of shifting costs

Probably costs less for them too.

It is definitely valid to say that packaging helps sell a product. Think about the experience of receiving a product from Apple and you see the value of packaging.

What is so interesting in this case is that it is a sign of how people's tastes are changing. These new, simple Amazon packages have more 'charm', not less. People are excited by the thought that they're being 'green'. The simple cardboard packaging speaks to the current love of simple, clean and even perhaps DIY design. Simple is charming right now, and Amazon must be keenly aware that this is a smart move both for their bottom line as well as their customer satisfaction ratings.

I have 3 kids. It is not charming to open a toy to them. Here's what happens...

Open outer box -> scissors required for massive plastic bits -> about 20 twisty wire things holding everything in place -> sometimes screws holding more stuff in place.

It's not fun for a kid to watch his parents struggling for ages to open a toy. That's not fun. They don't care about the box, it goes in the bin. Fantastic idea from Amazon, I've been waiting for this for ages.

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