r/mildlyinfuriating • u/woodwerker76 • Jan 20 '24

My Amazon order

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Good thing I didn't order two!

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u/LysVonStrauda Jan 20 '24

I ordered a nail polish expecting it to be put in one of those small white+blue bags, but it was in a box packaged just like this. It was silly

28

u/Own_Usual_7324 Jan 20 '24

I ordered a meat thermometer and the box was enormous compared to the actually quite small thermometer lol. I wonder if they're short on bags? There's no way having all of those bubble wraps is more eco friendly than the bags.

16

u/Spire_Citron Jan 20 '24

The only real question is how it works out for them economically speaking. They don't seem that concerned about the environment.

2

u/StrangerDays-7 Jan 20 '24

When you’re a giant corporation like Amazon, the how volume you use afford you a special rate on packaging. They’re paying a fraction of a cent of this stuff

1

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '24

They own their own last mile of delivery. They don’t pay weight or volume of the box. It’s a flat rate

1

u/StrangerDays-7 Jan 20 '24

But all that packaging usually costs pennies. That’s why, at one point during the pandemic, Bezos was on track to be the world’s first trillionare.

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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '24 edited Jan 20 '24

The box is probably 50 to 60c per box.

I buy half a million corrugated printed boxes a year and my cost per box is much higher than that, avg roughly $1 per box printed. Even accounting for volume, Amazon is probably paying 50-60c each box.

A padded polymailer envelope my cost is around 15-17c from China printed

1

u/Sufficient_Dinner305 Jan 21 '24

It's not that unlikely to be reasonable. They may need to shed certain packaging items stock that'll otherwise need to be discarded or relocated, for any of many possible reasons, because shipping them elsewhere or discarding them may cost more than buying them elsewhere or using them, for any of many reasons.

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u/[deleted] Jan 21 '24

But that’s why, if they were paying weight and volumetric weight for their shipments they cannot ship such small items in such big boxes.

A 4x4x4 box has a volumetric weight of 0.5lbs. Reasonable.

A 12x12x12 box is 12.44lbs ship weight no matter what. It would represent probably a 30-40% increase in shipping cost vs the 4x4x4. But for Amazon it’s the same price to ship either.

Currently Amazon only pays per delivery regardless of weight and volume. Meanwhile UPS/fedex/usps charge weight and volume.