Why are things so difficult to open? Out of our own frustrations with package designs that are anything but user friendly, the editors and testing staff of Consumer Reports magazine, the national product testing and research center, based in Yonkers, N.Y., put that very question to its millions of subscribers. The response was overwhelming. People sounded off about the package designs they loved and loathed, and nominated candidates to the hall of shame. From there, our in-house experts shopped the stores for our readers' picks, looked for even worse examples (as well as better executions of similar designs), and examined everything in our laboratories.

The result: Consumer Reports' Oyster Awards, our choices for the hardest to open packages.