Wasteful home deliveries

[pinkytoe]

I recently ordered five personal care items that I have used for years and haven't been able to find at the store - shampoo, deodorant, etc from an online vendor (Swanson's). I fully expected they would come in one box. Each item has been sent separately, delivered by truck with a printed invoice and plastic packaging inside of a box. It pains me to think of that multiplied thousands of time across the country. How in the world can this even be profitable for the business not to mention the environmental costs?

[iris lilies]

I’ll tell you who’s cleaning up on this post Covid world, and that is manufactures of boxes. Assuming they can get the materials and the labor to make them, it is a wonderful time to be the owner of a box manufacturing business.

[Rogar]

On my last trip to the local recycle center, with a bunch of cardboard among other things, I noticed they had a fancy new machine to compact Styrofoam packaging materials. It's probably a good time to be a packaging engineer.

[frugal-one]

oh no! I just ordered from Swanson….

[littlebittybobby]

Okay----There is an upside to this. All these cardboard boxes are VERY interesting to catts. Yup. Plus, after the catts inspect them, they can be used as fuel in the wood heater, along with the used catt litter wood pellets and the trees I cut down out back. Yup. Catts keeping warm is a good. Also, S-field has traffic that is Murder. Recently, a youngster was jailed for a road-rage shooting, and last summer, a middle-aged wummun was given a life sentence for a road-rage killing of another wummun. Bioth of these incidents happened on streets with retail businesses. I'd sure like to relate more gruesome anecdotes, but you get my drift. See? Anyway---this home delivery saves wear-n-tear on my 15 year old economy car(one of THE cheapest new cars you could buy in 2007) that I bought at the wreckin' yard over 5 years ago. Yup. This places the wear-n-tear on those nice AM general USPS van trucks and those nice brown UPS trucks and of course--those cool white fedex truccks. Hope that helpps you kids some. Thankk Mee.

[Tradd]

Many online retailers have multiple warehouses. They’re not going to have every item in each warehouse.

When you order from Amazon, they have a small logo that indicates if an item is coming from a nearby warehouse (more eco friendly). For those of you who live in the sticks, it’s more of an issue than those of us in big metro areas. I’m in the Chicago area, and there are at least 3-4 warehouses within an hour of where I live.

[Tradd]

I’ll tell you who’s cleaning up on this post Covid world, and that is manufactures of boxes. Assuming they can get the materials and the labor to make them, it is a wonderful time to be the owner of a box manufacturing business.

Amazon ships a lot of stuff in small envelopes or bigger plastic pouches. I like the paper packaging they use for smaller items. It’s fully recyclable, just like a paper bag.

[catherine]

Amazon ships a lot of stuff in small envelopes or bigger plastic pouches. I like the paper packaging they use for smaller items. It’s fully recyclable, just like a paper bag.

And Amazon does give you $1 if you agree to combine packages into one even if that means you wait a day or two longer for delivery of one of them.

[rosarugosa]

LBB: I was thinking along the same lines. My boys feel that you can never have too many boxes! They do ultimately end up in the recycling bin though (boxes not boys).
Catherine: I've never noticed that option. Is it a Prime thing or available to everyone?

[Tradd]

LBB: I was thinking along the same lines. My boys feel that you can never have too many boxes! They do ultimately end up in the recycling bin though (boxes not boys).
Catherine: I've never noticed that option. Is it a Prime thing or available to everyone?

I’m not really sure. It’s a $1 digit credit, I think.

[ToomuchStuff]

Does it come from Swanson's (as said they could have multiple warehouses), or are they drop shippers?

[Rogar]

Starting Jan. 1 here there will be a 10 cent charge for single use bags at retailers, state wide. And I didn't catch the start date, but Walmart will be eliminating paper and plastic bags all together, which should be interesting. The news updates said the few cities where the 10 cent charge is already in place have reduced plastic bag use by 70% or more. Not exactly having to do with home delivery, but a reasonable move to reduce package consumption. It will probably be a pain for cashiers who do bagging in big supermarkets.