Have you ever successfully opened a box of mac & cheese by the "push to open" tab?

I haven’t opened one of those boxes in 20 years or more, when I used to make that for the kids when they were much younger. But it always worked then. The trick for me was to align my thumbnail with the curved perforation, and to push “my thumbnail” against the line. That was what tore through the packaging.

LOL. I’ve pretty much never opened a box or a bag or a package of anything using the method provided by the manufacturer. I either end up tearing them open with my bare hands and teeth like a wild animal or, if I can find either handy, and have the patience, a knife or a pair of scissors. I find almost all package opening “systems” both unusable and frustrating.

A box of similar size, definitely. I wouldn’t say Mac and Cheese for sure.

Never! But then I have a hard time with all kinds of openers. The ones I hate those so-called relocking thingies on packages of sliced cheese.

I’m not exaggerating in stating that I must have attempted to open hundreds of these boxes, and failed on every attempt. I tried carefully placing my thumbnail on the perforation and all I end up with is a box that crushes under my thumb, and I have to start hacking away at the box.

While this is clearly an extreme version of a first-world problem, I’m beginning to wonder if there isn’t some kind of joke or experiment that is going on here. In the decades that these boxes have been available, you would think that at least one of the engineers responsible for the box design would have actually tried opening a box.

It took me a while to get it, it’s a matter of pushing on the perforation with the thumbnail just so. It works about 3 out of 5 times.

^ I’m unconvinced that there isn’t some kind of magic involved.

I think of it as the , “smash with a knife to open” tab. Works for me!

I don’t bother to try any more. I just grab the box and rip the top off. Then the envelope of cheese comes right, out the top. Perfect.

I’m with you @hominid for some reason they don’t want us to open the packages or they would make them so you could open. It takes more than simply printing “Easy open package!” on the outside; they actually have to make it easy to open.

I take a knife and poke a hole where the perforated line is to get it started, then I use my thumb to push. That is if I notice there is a push to open place on the box. It wouldn’t be unlike me to open the box a different way in my haste and lack of caring about opening the thing the prescribed way.

My husband gets annoyed at how I tear open bags and boxes of food.

My success varies with how long my nails are when I try it. If I’ve trimmed my nails recently, I have near-zero chances of opening much of anything, but my nails tend to be stiff and sharp enough that once they grow out for a few days, I can almost go through the cardboard without the perforations.

My guess would be that you have nails that are either short and/or dull.