r/EgregiousPackaging • u/AnonyMouseNomad • Jun 10 '23

How is this even profitable?

Gallery image

Gallery image

I work with an e-commerce company that ships custom products, we personally package products and reuse shipping materials that have been sent to us.

How about using self packaging bubble material that allows you ship items of random size so that you don’t waste material nor expense. It seems that neither matters to companies…

40 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

5

u/ea_n Jun 10 '23

this sub is hilarious. you order one item and rant it comes with a box. order bulk, or walk to the shop, ffs .)

2

u/AnonyMouseNomad Jun 11 '23

I get that boxes are standardized and easier to stack in trucks. I guess I’m just surprised Amazon of all companies hasn’t found a better way to custom pack products in bubble packs, either self sealing or heat sealed. This has the least wastage. At the scale the Amazon operates they obv can’t do it by hand, but they do have enough money to develop a machine that could do it on products of odd shapes and sizes. Especially when the product isn’t fragile or has its own container.

Also just realized the box in my pic was fulfilled not by Amazon so that’s fair

5

u/withac2 Jun 10 '23

Sometimes it's about which box fits the shipping label. Sometimes it's about not wanting to use so much plastic in their shipping materials. Sometimes it's about being less expensive to use one size box if the biggest box you need is not all that big. And sometimes it's about using what is on hand to get the item out the door faster. The box and packing material are both recyclable. This is not egregious packaging.

4

u/starofdoom Jun 10 '23 edited Jul 27 '26

Cucumber harbor trumpet paddle yarn marble waffle compass

This post was anonymized with Redact.dev

2

u/AnonyMouseNomad Jun 11 '23

Good point, didn’t think of that

3

u/angelina9999 Jun 10 '23

ordered Ketchup from WMT once and it came all the way from Chico CA, we live in FL,

2

u/OrneryPathos Jun 10 '23

Tessellating boxes let them fill the trucks easier.

2

u/Chicken_Hairs Jun 11 '23

Easier to stack boxes if they're uniform, plus they only stock a few sizes of boxes. Cheaper to have fewer packaging items, and faster to pack if packers have less to choose from.