Good butchers are unfortunately hard to come by around here. That’s why we resort to pre-packaged and pre-sliced products for both cold cuts and cheese. In principle, they’re a good idea, if you ignore the packaging waste.

It’s also clear that no one at the manufacturer is standing there, slicing the stuff by hand and then manually packaging it. A machine slices the product onto a conveyor belt, which is why the slices are always staggered. From the belt, it then falls into the tray and is subsequently sealed shut. As a consumer, you can then simply grab the top film at one or two of the four corners and peel it open.

The image example from Wilhelm Brandenburg is the first one I could find on the internet. But other manufacturers pull the same nonsense. My post is explicitly not about Wilhelm Brandenburg, as I don’t buy their products.

With these packages, I prefer to peel back the film only as far as I need to take out the product. That way, the film doesn’t curl up as much, and the remaining products are a bit better protected. At least, that’s my thinking. An idea that the packaging designers apparently don’t share. Otherwise, I can’t explain why the cold cuts or cheese are placed in the package in such a way that the bottom slice is right at the front by the opening.

I either have to fumble the bottom slice out, or I have to open the package completely just to get to the top slice. It drives me crazy! Someone didn’t think it through, or they simply don’t care. Someone probably spent months managing the “Automatic Slicing and Packaging” project with several colleagues, and not a single one of them had the idea that the top slice should be the first one in the package.

I suspect the problem is limited to one or a few manufacturers of such packaging machines, as there are also products that are packaged correctly. Still: Does no one at the machine manufacturer’s or the packaging company’s end notice that this is just plain crap?