I was pondering this problem mentioning what I might like for Christmas - a pair of decent earbuds or headphones for my iPod. When I'm at the fitness center, the earbuds I have do not stay in my ears. The previous headphones would not stay on my ears and they eventually fell apart. The original earbuds fell out of my ears.
I said to forget buying something like this as a present. One can't try them on, but one must buy them all sealed in a dangerous-to-open plastic box. Why are they in a plastic box? To deter shoplifters.
So, is the loss of merchandise to shoplifters greater or less than the loss of potential sales? Probably the shoplifting loss is less than the lost sales. Enough people put up with the packaging to buy the sealed up stuff.
This shopper will buy tools and standard products like batteries in these god-awful packages, but if it is a more personal product, like earphones, I will have to be desperate.
