Yesterday I spent something like 15-20 minutes getting all the glue from the label off a small item I purchased from some cheapo discount store. I complained to my wife about stores using these kinds of labels when it's perfectly possible to make labels that peel off easily. She said they don't want to do that because the sticky labels deter thefts. If the labels peeled off easily, some people would peel them off and then claim to have come in with the item in their bag. The sticky labels are cheap theft deterrence from the store's point of view.

I bet she's right (and not for the first time).

Btw, I highly recommend Goo-Gone to remove those pesky labels.

UPDATE: This came in from DoL's own Josh Hall:

I learned this while working at the OU College Bookstore - they had to remove the labels before they returned the books to the publishers. Buy a small can of zippo lighter fluid (you can use other kinds but zippo is easy to find and easy to doll out in small doses). Put 2-3 drops on the sticker until it is saturated - you'll find it almost always comes right off. You might have to wipe away residual sticker residue with a paper towel with some zippo fluid on it. I hate keeping stickers on anything so I keep a can of zippo fluid under my kitchen sink and just remove things right when they come in the house. I mention all that because I have Goo-Gone too and in my opinion lighter fluid works better.