Retailer moves to end 'wrap rage'

PALM BEACH, Fla., Nov. 24 (UPI) -- One major retailer is giving a holiday gift to U.S. consumers in the form of what it calls "frustration-free packaging."

Responding to consumer rage over clamshell packaging, online seller Amazon.com has announced it is offering 19 best-selling products that won't need tools to open, The Palm Beach (Fla.) Post reported Monday.

The move by Amazon is undoubtedly music to the ears of West Palm resident Gary Cowles who said he destroyed his daughters' Disney princess figurines while attempting to extract them from their packaging.

"There were four casualties in the first package and a few more in the other two," Cowles told the Post. "Some had been decapitated; some now had to have prosthetic limbs."

The cry of wrap-rage has become so common that Consumer Reports magazine hands out Oyster Awards each year for products with the most difficult-to-open packaging, says the Post.

Amazon Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos says his firm hopes to someday offer an entire catalog of products in frustration-free packaging.