Shoppers are Buying Damaged Goods Due to Faulty Packaging

Independence is part and parcel of shopping. From deciding how to dress ourselves to paying for our own purchases, shopping brings out the adult in all of us.

However, when you discover a fifth hole in your new shirt, it's like you're in grade school again. The shirt is like an exam that passes from the teacher's hand into your own. Once you have the exam, you can't return it for a re-grade. Who's to say you didn't change the answers? That's right, the salesperson is the teacher and you're the kid who made the hole in a shirt that you cannot return. It's your word against the salesperson's. Now both your wallet and you feel lighter, as you have regressed to your 50-pound toddler self. Despite online access to our favorite stores, the shopping experience has become less user-friendly over the years because of damage- causing packaging.
        
Tights, or pantyhose, are notorious for being damaged without consumers knowing before they make the purchase. These garments tend to be made of a thin sheer spandex or a crocheted knit. Yet delicately made tights are packaged as if to demonstrate how a fairly large baby is supposed to exit a birth canal. Unworn tights look like deflated balloons, are about the size of a birthing canal, and have a large rectangular piece of cardboard that, like a baby, is supposed to be extracted. At the corners of the cardboard, the tights' stitching is already stretched and in worse cases, is becoming undone. In the sock and hosiery world, the next best brand since Golden Toe, HUE, has made an effort to reduce the birthing mental image by using a large sticker to hold the tights together. Even then, when removing the sticky adhesive, the tights stretch and the material becomes pulled.

Though the delicate material of tights lends a certain expectation of them becoming ruined, some of the most-expensive clothing brands that are sold at well-reputed retail stores have become prey to those pesky plastic hangers. Hangers in retail-stores, with the exception of children-wear, are one-size-fits all, and yet they are more rigid than a model's diet plan. Consequently, when an x-small women's sweater is hung up on a hanger that perfectly accommodates a medium-sized men's polo, the sweater develops tears, stretches out, or both. The x-large men's sweater that is hung up, does not stretch out, but instead falls off the hanger, lands on the dirty floor, and is more likely than not to be trampled by passerby's feet.

You would think it's easy to pay the extra dollars to ensure you're receiving quality products, but even the fuzzy flannel shoe bag included in your purchase of $300 Juicy Couture shoes, does nothing to prevent the wear and tear that comes with shoe packaging. Say there is one last pair of leather loafers in your size, 9. The left shoe was on display and is in pristine condition. The other shoe, in the box, is packed with crumpled paper and has a plastic rod that runs from where someone's toe would be if they were a size 11, to the back heel. As expected, the left shoe fits well and the right shoe is, well, anything but right. The paper and rod packaging completely stretched out the shoe.

If clothing is manufactured in all different sizes, there is no reason why hangers shouldn't be as well. Though preventing holes in garments, without brands having to invest an arm and a leg for packaging isn't very practical, customers should at least be compensated for their loss. The GAP, for example, attempts to cushion your financial fall by selling damaged items for a marked down price. Buying a damaged item for a discount may be worth your while. No doubt, shopping has been made easier via online purchasing and store locators. Still, it is high time for companies to stop cutting the corners when it comes to their packaging.