In the less politically correct days of my youth we often heard "ethnic
jokes", one of which asked, "What do they print on the bottom of Coca
Cola bottles in Poland?" The answer was, "Open other end." (My dad was
born in Lodz 1n 1902, and I'm not offended by that joke at all.)

I had a good laugh at SWMBO's expense last weekend when I heard her
cursing our electric can opener while she was trying to open a can of
Ocean Spray Whole Berry cranberry sauce. She had it positioned with the
can's label right side up, but there was no rim around the end she was
trying to open, it was a deep drawn can shaped pretty much like a soft
drink can. My beloved was born without a mechanical gene and didn't
immediately associate the lack of a rim with why the can opener couldn't
do its thing.

I looked at the can and said, "They must have put the label on upside
down, turn it over and open the other (rimmed) end." That solved the
problem for her.

I took a look at the can after she'd emptied it and saw that the
unrimmed can end she was originally trying to open had printed on it in
faint letters the message "Open other end." And there was a little
drawing on the label showing how to use a flat knife run aound the
inside of the opened can to free the contents so the whole cylinder of
sauce would slide out intact. The drawing showed the can label "upside
down" so I know the placement of the end which fits a can opener was
intentional.

But, WHY?

I pinged Ocean Spray about why the can opened "on the bottom" and
received a canned response which appeared to be aimed at customer
complaints about no longer being able to remove BOTH ends of the can and
then "push" the cylinder of sauce out. There was a bunch of pap about
conserving resources by using less metal, the cans sitting more stable
on a pantry shelf, and there being one less joint to possibly spring a
leak, along with a repeat of the knife blade instructions. It didn't
really answer my question of why the upside down label.

Since we buy plenty of other foods in similarly designed cans and all of
those have the openable end adjacent to the top of the label, I don't
buy their answer.

I think there must be a valid technical reason why they packaged the
stuff that way, anyone know for sure why?

Thanks guys,

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
The speed of light is 1.8*10^12 furlongs per fortnight.

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