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threemonkeysPersonal confession time. I really dislike labels. I don't mean the categories that get applied to people or things in order to stigmatise them. I mean ordinary sticky labels that get put on stuff. Really, I'm talking about price stickers on retail items here. But it isn't just them. All those extra "special offer" or "gift inside" type advertising stickers also bug me. And don't even get me started on the censorship category stickers on DVDs - I have a special hatred of them.
I don't know why I dislike them so much. I thing perhaps they offend my aesthetic sensibilities because they sully the original design of the object in question. A manufacturer takes the trouble to design something and then some retailer comes along and slaps a sticky label on it which changes the appearance of that object. But then I also object to these labels on very ugly objects.
Which brings me to the real problem. Obviously the solution is that whenever I buy an object, I peel off the label as soon as I can. But some labels just don't come off, or when they do they leave behind a nasty glue residue that is even harder to remove. Yes I know that there is an anti theft/fraud element to this, but some labels get around that by pre-made cuts. In any case, barcodes and computerised systems make the threat from swapping labels so much less. For that matter they tend to eliminate the need altogether - it is the case in most supermarkets. None of which explains that the "special", "sale" and the like labels are usually the hardest of all to remove.
What brought this rant on. Well, not for the first time, no matter how careful I have been, the removal of a sale sticker has actually resulted in damage to the item I have bought. It just bugs me.
I don't know why I dislike them so much. I thing perhaps they offend my aesthetic sensibilities because they sully the original design of the object in question. A manufacturer takes the trouble to design something and then some retailer comes along and slaps a sticky label on it which changes the appearance of that object. But then I also object to these labels on very ugly objects.
Which brings me to the real problem. Obviously the solution is that whenever I buy an object, I peel off the label as soon as I can. But some labels just don't come off, or when they do they leave behind a nasty glue residue that is even harder to remove. Yes I know that there is an anti theft/fraud element to this, but some labels get around that by pre-made cuts. In any case, barcodes and computerised systems make the threat from swapping labels so much less. For that matter they tend to eliminate the need altogether - it is the case in most supermarkets. None of which explains that the "special", "sale" and the like labels are usually the hardest of all to remove.
What brought this rant on. Well, not for the first time, no matter how careful I have been, the removal of a sale sticker has actually resulted in damage to the item I have bought. It just bugs me.