Why are salsa and pickle jars made so hard to open?

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I know it's to prevent food tampering but it's getting ridiculous. I've seen large, burly men struggle to open a jar of salsa. The only plus is that it strengthens your grip. Do they truly expect the average arthritic grandmother to have the grip strength of King Kong on steroids just to eat her favorite pickles?

There are jar openers such as that in the link below, but so many don't know about them nor are they readily available in stores.
http://about.pricegrabber.com/search_ge ... arthritis&

Use a cloth between your hands and the jar. I have trouble with them a lot too. But food safety is more important.

I always take a knife or something and hit the edge of the lid with it all the way around. It breaks the seal and makes it easier to open.

I don't know about the pickle jars, but the salsa jars are intentionally made that way, to send you a message that salsa from a jar is a crime.

its because of pressure in jar..u really cant do much about it

Holding it under a little warm water might
help, theres also small handles availabile
thats made for this problem - to start working
out would also do the trick And if you
have one of those tools used to change the
oil filter on cars hanging around, that will
do the trick just fine - or you can use your
belt around it to make more grip, that makes
it easier - plan b, give up and use a regular
can opener on it or a hammer. I think
most try to twist the lid open with their hands,
try to grab and hold the lid and twist the jar
instead, might be easier.

[img]http://www.enklereliv.no/assets/produktbilder/glassåpner_md.jpg[/img]

or just grap the jar and hang in can eventually your bodyweigth will hopefully do the trick

A soft leather glove is the very best thing to open jar lids. Most of the problem is getting a grip on the metal. Soft leather on metal just will NOT slip at all. All force is applied to opening. Old gf of mine complained about this. Gave her one of my driving gloves and she opened it right up. No prob.

It is air pressure. The pressure on the outside is forcing it closed in an attempt to get IN...

I have no problems opening them except when my hands are wet or greasy from something stupid

I rarely have problems opened closely shut jars. Lucky me, I guess.

However, not all grandmothers/grandfathers/people with not so good hand strength don't always have access to a website so it does suck to have to "help" people open up a stupid jar of pickles. On the other hand, it's nice to know that my food is safe, and fresh, but I always hit the bottom of the jar with my palm til it pops the lid "up" it makes a popping noise, I do it a few times and sometimes it helps loosen the pressure seal. I do feel bad for people that can't open up jars, though, it really sucks for them =\

I like Moop's idea. I do that all the time.