Why my house is full of empty boxes

[MickinMD ★]

This box arrived today.  Carefully maneuvering it through my front door, it filled the recliner on which I set it:

Opening the box revealed a small box occupying about 10% of the big box - with no other packing - inside:

Inside the small box were the Wrangler Fisherman's Sandals ($19.96) that I've come to love and decided to buy a backup pair from Walmart.com ($40 at Amazon) while they were in stock:

I also ordered a set of dish towels at the same time so I'd get free shipping for an over $35 order.

I guess they'll come in another big box!

 

[jsharr ★]

Economy of scale most likely.  The WM DC only stocks a certain size of box.  On ground freight, it does not cost much to ship air.  

[Razors Edge ★]

Amazon is hit or miss on their box to item ratio.  Most often, it is pretty spot on, but sometimes it is packed to 100% capacity. Others, to like 10% capacity. Or the item is packed with padding but the padding is doing nothing to actually protect the item.  And of course, some items would be fine just having a shipping tag slapped onto it instead of putting into another box.

Tom

[MickinMD ★]

1 minute ago, jsharr said:

Economy of scale most likely.  The WM DC only stocks a certain size of box.  On ground freight, it does not cost much to ship air.  

The main thing I don't like about it is a very big box on my front porch, 25 feet from the street, invites thieves and there's a lot of pedestrian traffic: and sometimes they follow UPS, Fedex, and USPS trucks in cars according to my mailman. Just about everyone in my block has had a package stolen off their porches.  I had a huge box stolen with three "CleverCrates" occupying about 10% of it. The thieves ducked behind hedges on the opposite side of the road, opened the big box, and easily walked off with the much smaller contents.  My neighbor found the empty box - fortunately it was a purchase and the seller (Amazon 3rd-party) made good on it.

When I get a big package and it's not raining, my mailman and the usual UPS guy put them on the non-street side of my back porch and stick a note to my front door if I don't answer a knock. I answered the knock today - and it was Fedex who can't be bothered to walk around to my back porch.

[MickinMD ★]

12 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

Amazon is hit or miss on their box to item ratio.  Most often, it is pretty spot on, but sometimes it is packed to 100% capacity. Others, to like 10% capacity. Or the item is packed with padding but the padding is doing nothing to actually protect the item.  And of course, some items would be fine just having a shipping tag slapped onto it instead of putting into another box.

Tom

Agreed. Amazon's packing is usually pretty good unless it's a 3rd party sale when it can sometimes be huge.

My package, with sandals that would be hard to damage, could have been shipped in the little inside box that Walmart.com put inside the big box!

After all, they didn't put any packing inside the big box to keep the little box from bouncing around which probably exposed it to more bouncing than if it was shipped in the little box alone!

[shootingstar]

What a waste of paper to be in such a huge box.  (Other than the fact, it protected your sandals....kind of.)

[sheep_herder ★]

If we only lived in a perfect world!!! FeEx delivered our waterpik from Walmart in its original box.  They came into the gate and took the box to the back door.  I smiled thinking that they were probably escorted from gate to door and then door to gate by the bottle lamb and kid.  I am sure they wondered why the strange man did not give them a bottle.?

[Kzoo]

18 hours ago, shootingstar said:

What a waste of paper to be in such a huge box.  (Other than the fact, it protected your sandals....kind of.)

Made from recycled paper and if done correctly will again be recycled.

[Prophet Zacharia]

On 7/19/2018 at 11:43 AM, jsharr said:

On ground freight, it does not cost much to ship air.  

I would hope I am not being charged air freight fees on something being transported by ground. Shipping fees should be reserved for nautical delivery.

[jsharr ★]

Just now, Prophet Zacharia said:

I would hope I am not being charged air freight fees on something being transported by ground. Shipping fees should be reserved for nautical delivery.

Did you drink your breakfast today? 

[Kzoo]

28 minutes ago, jsharr said:

Did you drink your breakfast today? 

Most of it.  The rest he spilled.

[Tizeye]

On 7/19/2018 at 5:56 PM, MickinMD said:

The main thing I don't like about it is a very big box on my front porch, 25 feet from the street, invites thieves and there's a lot of pedestrian traffic: and sometimes they follow UPS, Fedex, and USPS trucks in cars according to my mailman. Just about everyone in my block has had a package stolen off their porches.  I had a huge box stolen with three "CleverCrates" occupying about 10% of it. The thieves ducked behind hedges on the opposite side of the road, opened the big box, and easily walked off with the much smaller contents.  My neighbor found the empty box - fortunately it was a purchase and the seller (Amazon 3rd-party) made good on it.

When I get a big package and it's not raining, my mailman and the usual UPS guy put them on the non-street side of my back porch and stick a note to my front door if I don't answer a knock. I answered the knock today - and it was Fedex who can't be bothered to walk around to my back porch.

With both UPS and FedEx, I signed up for their free customer program that 99% of time auto routes packages to their retail shops about a mile from my house. I get an email when package arrives and swing by on way home. The only time it won’t reroute is if shipper prohibits (Adorama does where B&H Photo allows, so guess who do business with). Newegg is even better as they allow you to identify a FedEx shop as part of the order process. The other exception is when the hand off to USPS for final leg. Amazon , Nespresso (Laser contract) and USPS are always To door. Sometimes with Amazon can ship to their store 4 miles away at the University and I think Walgreens is a new Amazon delivery source/alternative.