Originally published at: Check out this deceptive packaging for Scotch Super Glue | Boing Boing
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Saw another version of this trickery earlier today:
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Pretty sure I’ve bought name-brand “superglue” in a bottle that is just a tiny tube surrounded by a non-removable bottle shell (that prevents you from squeezing out all the glue), so this is actually better than usual. (Not that I get more than a couple uses out of any sort of superglue container before the top gets permanently affixed to it, whatever I do…)
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Hurray plastic waste
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I had some Loctite super glue gel that was along the same lines, but had separate “squeezers” on the sides that gave better control. I’d still classify it as unnecessary and dumb, but not quite AS dumb as this.
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I’ve found a similar situation here in Mexico, where Kellogg’s is packaging cereals such as Corn Pops in a box that it substantially larger than the bag of cereal contained inside.
ETA: And I don’t mean a half-full bag. I mean a small bag that’s also kind of half-full.
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.14 oz on the pkg is a clue that there were shenanigans.
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I would have thought it was potato chip packagers that were high on super glue, but it seems to be the other way around: somehow the super glue package designers are high on potato chips.
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This package is sold by weight, not volume sir. You need to go to window 4. Thank you!
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A friend of mine ran a hardware shop back in the 90’s.
He bought an entire pallet of (brand unknown) superglue at a terrifically low price - thousands of packs.
Sold them from his shelves for something like 1.99 for a three-pack.
Made a tidy profit. Not until six or so months later did one customer come back with a complaint - the tubes were utterly empty. Maybe some error at the factory, who knows. He returned the customer’s money, obviously.
But, having checked the remaining stock - all empty - and expecting a raft of dissatisfied customers, not one other person bothered to return or complain.
This was the same friend who sold dozens of diaries with no February and builders tape-measures that started at 6 foot.
He’s since sold the shop.
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If you are looking for super glue that gives you more and fills the package, I’d suggest a brand called “Stick fast”; they have three different thickness levels for your gluing pleasure and the bottles are translucent so you can clearly see how much is left in there. They also sell an curing accelerator for it as well.
(it’s obstinately sold as a polish/sealer/finish for, of all things, pen turning. Who knew?)
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I am a big fan of CA glue. This company, in my opinion, is a great source for all things CA glue.
If you have never used an accelerator with CA glue you have no idea what you’re missing.
I have nothing to do with this company other than knowing they have a great product and great customer service.
Oh, and keep your glue in the fridge for longer life.
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I’m not sure I’d equate the two. The glue packaging is clearly intended only to confuse and trick customers, but the USB drive (assuming it works) does what it says it does. It gives you a storage device that can be plugged into a USB drive. If they just gave you the SD card, it wouldn’t actually solve the same problem.
In many ways, I think that would be a great USB drive to get, because it could fairly easily be modified into a general-purpose SD card adapter.
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I personally always buy the smallest super glue containers I can get, because I never use much at a time and they always end up drying out. I guess that would save me from falling for this trick. Still pretty sleazy, though.
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And this is the point where I go from thinking fraud to thinking this would be a really fun store that I would love to shop in.
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Call it “The Island of Misfit Tools”
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It was about the size of a Woolworths but with the mentality of Open All Hours.
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I imagine if you drop it, it might dislodge the SD card and render the drive inoperable if you don’t know to pry off the shell
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This feels marginally similar to the trick of selling a 14oz “pint” of ice cream without changing the external form factor by raising the unseen bottom of the container.
These packaging decisions only make sense within our perverse capitalistic incentive set. Most people don’t go to work for a company expecting to suspend their ethical or moral core in making a product, but when someone’s personal economic stability is at risk it becomes much easier.
It probably only takes a slightly weaker spring and a millimeter more of travel distance on the neck of a hand soap bottle pump to meet your quarterly earnings projection.
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