Do Not Pry Open Until Christmas - washingtonpost.com

Do Not Pry Open Until Christmas - washingtonpost.com: "This year, Consumer Reports magazine gave an award for the worst plastic clamshell packaging to a warehouse-store version of a Uniden cordless phone set: It took 9 minutes 22 seconds to unwrap completely and nearly caused injury to the person opening it. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, injuries from plastic packaging resulted in 6,400 visits to emergency rooms in 2004.

Uniden is trying to come up with easier-to-open packaging, but spokesman Rex Holloway said many retailers don't want change. 'We're kind of caught between a rock and a hard place,' he said.

On Amazon.com, one reviewer of the remote-controlled Roboreptile by Wow Wee singled out the toy's solitary confinement: 'Getting him out of the box was a major pain. Apparently they're concerned about packs of them escaping and running amok devouring Barbies in the stores at night or something.'

It's not just the difficulty that steams shoppers, it's the environmental impact of all that plastic. 'It's just so wasteful,' said Jessica McBride, 30, of Falls Church, who actively avoids buying anything that has too much plastic wrapping."