What Fresh Hell Is This...

[StormzyinaTCup]

Anyone else having trouble trying to get into a WHSmiths roll of wrapping paper?
I get that they are doing away with the plastic cellophane which is good but did anyone at design HQ actually test that the 'tear here' strip actually does tear😡. I have teeny weeny bits of black sticky paper all over the floor and I'm still not there yet. Maybe I have bought three dodgy rolls?

Yes, I bought that shitting gold and white glitter paper. Horrendous stuff.

This year I went for a really nice, thick, fully recyclable paper on huge 25m rolls from Amazon. I’m sick of thin, crappy supermarket paper that rips as soon as you fold it and can’t be recycled.

Next Wrapping Paper here! Exactly the same, 'peel here' just ripped, high frustration and ended up stabbing it with scissors making half the roll unusable.

I am very glad (and sad) to read this. I thought it was just me.

An absolute eff up and I wasted so much paper because, to get it to peel I had to dig into it which damaged the layers underneath.

I will add that I finally clicked a way Roy d it for the last roll and very carefully scored the sticky label down the edge of the paper. Ie cut it open very carefully.

That worked - but took six rolls to perfect the technique!

Agreed! I was impressed.

I this with Sainsbury’s wrapping paper as well. Ended up just losing the first couple of inches of the roll

Haven’t read all posts but Dunelm the same. 5 rolls bought. 4 were lined up perfectly and easy to tear etc the last one My Good God - I was armed and dangerous with a pair of scissors getting into that one !!

On another note the natural history museum paper Dunelm sell is bloody gorgeous and excellent quality. Saved the peacock one for bdays 👍

I have trouble with foil and cling film too!
Nightmare

cling film less so, for me but the foil... WHY do they put that hugely long sticky tab on that wraps around the roll multiple times and ruins the first few layers? Such waste, frustrating as fk and totally unnecessary.

Not got a photo but the rolls are secured with four (top, two in the middle and one at the bottom) wraps of "label" with a supposedly peelable system that presumably is supposed to peel off and release the paper.
However, the little corner that says "peel here" with a picture of a folded corner, does NOT peel. There is no second "layer" to start the peeling off, and when you try to peel it off it just pulls off in teeny tiny bits at a time, and the entire wrapped label is stuck completely to the paper.
By the time you peel off the label on all four bits, you have damaged the paper quite a lot of the way through all the layers, so that when you unwrap the roll, there are holes and tears all the way through.
I wasted about 1/3 of each roll trying to get them to an undamaged part.

If it is happening across the board from different shops (mine was WHSmith paper) then they are all using the same defective technology. Perhaps they are all made in the same factory which is not out of the question.

I would advise all those having issues to complain, I was given a partial refund, but it didn't make up for the age it took to wrap presents. I will never buy wrapping paper again that has these labels.

YA-all-BU for the boasting about all the wrapping you're doing!
I'm still at the vaguely thinking what I should get for people stage.
n.b. nothing to post so I still have time.

I got some wrapping paper from B&M, still in cellophane there! I await next year being hellish though. 😭

It's not a great photo but here's mine from my compaint email to WHSmiths....

Yes I had that tesco one. You had to use a roll of cello tape per gift or it wouldn’t stick. Bastarding stuff.
When the world combusts, there will be cockroaches wrapping their present in our old tesco paper. It will be all that’s survived on this planet.

Honestly, little bit of heat and they peel right off.

it is shitty design, but better for the planet …. Unless you have to waste loads of wrapping paper.

Oh no this sounds worse than when "peelable" packets of bacon don't peel.

Is it? Having to use a hair dryer would offset that a bit.

If it’s warm enough in your house you won’t need a hair dryer. Or you could put it on a radiator if you have one, or another existing heat source.

being environmentally friendly is a minefield. You could argue any wrap is bad, but plastic that can’t degrade is bad if it can be avoided. Some suggest wrapped plastic food is better as it prevents wastage. So it’s hard to know what’s for the best.

Very good point!

Ours were stored in a warm room until I needed them and they still wouldn't peel.

I got Extrenely Cross with my Wilko wrap. Lovely design but effing impossible to open as instructed.

i thought it was me - relieved to know I am not alone :D

This is a perfect illustration of why it's a crap way to package rolls of paper. Mine looked exactly like this.

We all saw the little 'Peel here' stickers and thought it would be that nice non-tacky adhesive that you get on all sorts of items to prevent damage to the surface it's stuck to. No, they were sealed with some advanced paper fusion technology. I was clawing at the bloody things.

Terrible Tesco paper here too, if I lived closer I would have taken it back to the shop. Infuriating.

Going against opinion here, but I've found it easy to peel the labels off. Yes you lose the first bit of wrap but can be used to wrap small stocking gifts.