Small changes you would like manufactures to make

[SamBeckett]

I dont mean thing like less salt / sugar / fat in foods or a complete rethink of a design just little things that would make them better / easier to use.
For me it is ;
Cheese I wish it was produced in square blocks so that one or two slices would be enough to fill a round of bread instead of about eight narrow slices. Some supermarkets sell their own in larger blocks but they tend to be the size of a house brick and not strong enough taste for my liking .

Clam shell packing , just NO , stop using it its to bloody hard to open and we don't need more plastic in this world .

Resealable packing , not the zip-lock type but the ones that have sticky tags that are meant to keep to keep the pack closed - they just don't work , yes I know I can decant stuff into containers or buy them clippy things but they could also put more sticky stuff on the tag.

What would you like to see changed ?

"Remove artificial sweeteners from non diet versions of drinks." Omg yes! Several threads on the subject on mn, too many favourite drinks wrecked by the sugar tax (and to the best of my knowledge I don't believe it's made a difference to obesity rates? Or diabetes? I'm sure if it HAD they'd be shouting it from the rooftops!) as a Scot I'm particularly annoyed that they messed with irn bru! I don't have it very often myself as I generally avoid caffeine but sometimes it hits the spot - or used to!

"Making toilet cubicles wider or redesigning sanitary bins so that i can actually have a wee without sitting awkwardly or touching the bin!" With my OCD this drives me nuts - also the lack of LIDS on public loos.

"And put hooks up so I don't have to put my bag / coat on the grubby floor" yep - again with the ocd I end up either hanging bag round my neck so it dangles in front of me or in my bloody teeth!

Also hate when the handwashing facilities are shit! Hot water, soap and clean towels or working hand dryers please!

Disgracetotheychromosome - related to usb nonsense is the clearly purely profit motivated palava with phone charger connections! Just make them universal! I don't know many people that actually buy eg only apple charger cables at the exorbitant prices!

"get yourself a cheese slice. Changed my life. You slice the face of the cheese then." I thought I'd misread that comment, we just use the slicing part of the cheese grater. See pic for type of grater I have showing the "slicing" side.

"I completely agree about food portions.

There's only 3yo DD and I at home." Yep - I felt your pain when my dd was little and barely eating 1/3 portion too.

"Perhaps controversial but I wonder if getting rid of things like the meat and bread ailses and instead having a meat, fish, bakery and deli" unfortunately what's happening is supermarkets are actively getting rid of these specialist counters - not only a pain with portion size but also means supermarket shoppers are losing access to specialist staff who used to work on these counters who could advise on their produce.

I don’t get the pockets request at all!

Handbags are for carrying things around in!

Pockets can ruin the look of a garment.

I have my phone in my pocket all the time; I don't want to be carrying round a bag in my house! Also getting 2 small kids in the car I like to have a pocket to shove the car keys as putting car seats in can be fiddly. Same with house keys if I'm going out to the bins etc. WE DEMAND POCKETS!

*I don’t get the pockets request at all!

Handbags are for carrying things around in!

Pockets can ruin the look of a garment.*

I hate handbags with a passion - the crossbody ones divide and conquer my large boobs and highlight them and handle bags mean you always have to have one hand free to hold them.

Rucksacks are the way forward. But you do need to keep your purse/phone in your pocket if in a crowded place.

So much of this seems to be actually reverting to how things were in the 70's & 80's - drinks (milk, OJ, fizzy pop) were delivered in glass bottles, which you then washed & returned, mostly getting a deposit back.
We used to go, with my DM & DGP to shops that just had huge bins of dried goods and you just took your own containers & filled up as much as you wanted/needed - absolutely no need for any plastic at all.
Meat was bought from the butchers & wrapped in paper, and groceries were bought & carried in paper bags.
Soap bars instead of liquid soap etc.
We as a society have got lazy, convenience wind, and it seems to be a combination of both parts of a couple now having to work so less time to go to different shops (so then they aren't bunched together on the high street anymore, it's an effort), supermarkets undercutting prices due to mass buying, cost of housing needing everyone to work so much (often during the hours the shops were open so no chance to get there).
We can do as we can individually, however it is a big cultural shift from consumers as well as manufacturers & shops to have the max impact.

@graphista - caused no end of arguments in my house as dd is paranoid about food poisoning and as a typical teen won't listen to mum! Drives me bonkers when she throws perfectly good food out because it has today's date as a best before date (I do keep trying to get this through to her!)
I know so many people who were like this until they moved out & had to buy their own food!!!!

Why are you all throwing so much food away? Keep it in the fridge for the next evening meal.

Milk tastes fine after a few days, if it doesn't then your fridge isn't cold enough.

Bread frozen is perfect for sandwiches
Make them frozen in the morning and they are the right temperature for lunch. Easier to spread the butter too.

"I know so many people who were like this until they moved out & had to buy their own food!!!!"

Doesn't surprise me!

She pays housekeeping which also covers food but yea still very much a kid in some ways - drives me nuts!! Cos 9/10 she may not want to use it but I would!

"Why are you all throwing so much food away? Keep it in the fridge for the next evening meal." Not everyone has the space to do this - my kitchen is TINY so my fridge freezer has to be too. I've limited storage all round and quite honestly why should those of us in small families/living alone be reduced to eating the exact same meal 2-3 days in a row etc? Do we not deserve to be able to eat what we'd like and have a varied healthy diet?

I've limited storage all round and quite honestly why should those of us in small families/living alone be reduced to eating the exact same meal 2-3 days in a row etc? Do we not deserve to be able to eat what we'd like and have a varied healthy diet?

I used to eat the same thing 2-3 days in a row when I lived alone. It didn't kill me! I'm fact it was healthier than buying crap food. You can alternate and have something on Monday and then on Wednesday. We quite often make double and have it a day or 2 later so we don't have to cook again.

Strategic meal planning helps. What are you buying that 2 of you don't eat a whole portion of? Stuff like carrots, have Sunday with a roast, Monday chopped in a salad and Tuesday grated into a spag bol.

Plenty of people live as a 2 without throwing food away.

Smaller packs of feta and massive dishes of the Nocellara olives- the green buttery ones. Please

But also lengths! I'm a teeny 5'2" and a "standard" length for trousers in some shops/styles but a "short" in others - and skirts don't even come in a variety of lengths! Maddening!
I'm 5' or kust under and the "petite" sections annoy me because often
a) they are all quite formal/workwear selections....because of course short people dont need or want casual clothes, pjs, sportswear etc
B) they say they are designed for 5'3" and under but essentially they mean they're for someone of 5'3"....which is only 1" shorter than the average woman!

Ocado really need to stop using carrier bags.
It really pisses me off.

Dd and I have very different tastes in food.

I'm veggie, she isn't, I like a lot of veggies, there's only a smelt range she likes, she doesn't eat potatoes or chocolate at all (they irritate her gums and stomach), we don't like the same cheeses, milk, bread, cereal, condiments, juice... I could go on.

It's not purely down to preference either, quite a few of the things that one eats and the other doesn't is due to health issues. Her disability make certain foods irritants or difficult to digest, I have a bad stomach so can't have very acidic or spicy foods, plus I'm on medication which means I can't have certain foods.

Then add in that dd works shifts and it gets really tricky.

"the "petite" sections annoy me because often
a) they are all quite formal/workwear selections....because of course short people dont need or want casual clothes, pjs, sportswear etc
B) they say they are designed for 5'3" and under but essentially they mean they're for someone of 5'3"....which is only 1" shorter than the average woman!" Totally agree! Drives me nuts! No! That isn't "petite" that's only slightly shorter than normal! Jeans are participate difficult as they're so hard to take up! The fabric is hard to work with and the style/proportions can end up looking so wrong. Also I've found that apparently short arses seemingly aren't allowed to be over a size 14 either! I'm a size 16-18 not ideal but not huge either certainly not by national averages, I've already lost 2 stone and I'm continuing losing (not easy with health issues - meds that slow metabolism and inc appetite, housebound and physically disabled meaning limited physical activity) but it takes time.

On plastic bags I must admit I find them useful BUT when living in Europe years ago they already had replaced the actual plastic with plastic like cellulose etc which was completely biodegradable but looked/felt/acted like plastic

This was nearly 20 years ago why are we STILL using actual plastic?

Knickers that are cut to fit actual 3D arses. Mine end up really low at the front, the gusset way back, just so my arse is covered, if the designers had ever seen a real life human woman it would help.

Crisp packets filled more than a third

Swimsuits that don’t cup and display your entire pubic mound and labia.

Boycott non recyclable plastic.

We got on just fine before, if we dint have access to it, we adapt. There must be s say of using recycleable plastic for everything that really needs it.

But I am not all that clued up so fully prepared for someone to give me a genuine lesson on why we must use unrecycleable plastics in some cases.

Knickers that are cut to fit actual 3D arses.

That actually made me laugh!

But yea you're right.

I also struggle with trousers that fit over hips but too big on waist - because WOMEN HAVE CURVES! We're not straight up and down like men!

Companies trying to trick people into thinking their food doesn’t have that many calories in, by typing tiny font above the nutritional information that ‘a portion’ is actually one fifth of the packet, a thimble of cereal, a single peanut.

Why cant fuller bust clothes also be a thing?

I dont wanna look like britney's hit me baby one more time, in my white shirt while at work. I want buttons that dont gape over my bosom.

@IamtheOA I recently bought a shirt that has extra buttons over the bust going in the opposite direction, they’re really fiddly to do up but no gaps! I’m a H cup so it was a revelation.

Stop coating cardboard tags and the like with plastic film.

Stop making jeans stink of mothballs.

Drinks manufacturers: Clearly mark drinks as artificial sweetener free, I would then buy your product!

For waterproof coats with effective hoods try Scandinavian brand Didriksons.

Plastic recycling appears to be a myth.

"Companies trying to trick people into thinking their food doesn’t have that many calories in, by typing tiny font above the nutritional information that ‘a portion’ is actually one fifth of the packet, a thimble of cereal, a single peanut." Yep - very misleading. This was a major topic of consternation at ww meetings as it made it hard to work out points, because even in the ww books/online/app the points were based on the manufacturers "portion size" - it's often referenced by the dietitian's on "eat well for less" too, I well remember Greg and Chris' incredulous reactions to the nonsense of single serve smoothies being labelled this way - so you buy a (quite small) bottle of smoothie, perhaps for s work lunch, note the cals etc on the label thinking not "too" bad only for the small print to say that one of those bottles = three "servings" - like a mouthful was a serving!

"Stop coating cardboard tags and the like with plastic film." Yep!

"Drinks manufacturers: Clearly mark drinks as artificial sweetener free, I would then buy your product!" I think the burgeoning backlash over the sugar tax and loss of sales as a result will very soon result in this.

I'm usually flamed for saying so but I genuinely believe we are yet to learn the harmful effects of artificial sweeteners, just as we did with trans fats etc. I don't believe anything so chemical can possibly as good for us as is stated, and that the claims that they are will be shown to have been - as with so many things before - subject to biased testing/reporting. I get the "tinfoil hat" comments when I say this but I really believe it.