Shockingly inefficient packaging for memory stick!

[MVives]

Hey folks,

The 128 MB memory stick I ordered from Amazon ($46.33, free shipping) for my NX just arrived. The packaging for the stick itself is quite economical, only 3-1/4" by 3-3/4" by 1/4" thick. However, it came from Amazon in a 12x9x4" box. That means LESS THAN ONE PERCENT of the space in the box was used! What a waste. I will save the box to reuse for shipping gifts or something, just so that it doesn't go to waste.

What kind of shipping box do you receive when you order just a memory stick?

[OcellNuri]

I remember seeing a post from a guy that had ordered a screen protector from Best Buy, and got it in a box that was 4 feet tall. A few others chimed in with simmilar stories. It was great.

[sstrasser86]

yeah that is quite stupid by the bestbuy and such.....and a waste

[jedix]

I got the same ms from Amazon today. I also got the same size box. They could have attached the ms to the back of a postcard!

[profvisor]

Same here when I ordered one. I had a little rant about it to my spouse ;)

[n2ifp]

It's hard to fit in one's pockets, too much thievery I suppose.

[akfreas]

I bought one off ebay and got it in a small cardboard letter envelope.

[iebnn]

They have a minimum size box for the shipments.

[jedix]

They are supporting the paper industry!:p

[YTTAN]

iebnn is right about the minimum size for the shipment. It is easy for them to identify their customer goods.

[iebnn]

I'm sure they know that they waste box space with certain products. They do it for some reason though (probably cheaper just to have a couple different box sizes rather than 50 different box sizes)

[YTTAN]

That is logical too.

[freecia]

Perhaps the boxes are big so people won't make off with the item (The Costco Arguement. I got a smart media card and it came in a plastic casing bigger than a notebook computer).

You could always throw in a wishlist item, like a book, to make the shipment more worthwhile. Of course, just be sure to get something that is in stock and ships fast! I always have a random book or two I want to buy and don't want to buy three or four books to make the shipping "free". Or buy a gift for someone. (Maybe a book, cd, or movie your wife or kid wants. It's called bribery. They'll love it when you get amazon shipments!)

[iebnn]

You can't exactly make off with an item that is being shipped to someone right after being packaged.

[rob_squared]

I had the same thing happen. At first I had no clue what it was. I thought, "I didn't order anything this big."

Good for a laugh though.

[imadrin]

Perhaps it's too make you feel more accomplished and special when your $700 1 gb ms arrives to find it in a small box. my mother (who has trouble with programmable phones, i might add) thought that "i should have received a larger box for spending so much" when I got the NX, just imagine an ms for about the same which arrives in an envelope!

[Importluva]

Amazon's shipping methods are strange...and wasteful of money.

[jedix]

Originally posted by imadrin
Perhaps it's too make you feel more accomplished and special when your $700 1 gb ms arrives to find it in a small box. my mother (who has trouble with programmable phones, i might add) thought that "i should have received a larger box for spending so much" when I got the NX, just imagine an ms for about the same which arrives in an envelope!

I never thought about it that way...hmmm. but I rather them not waste money on a huge box, because the 1 gb ms would ship in a refrigerator box!!!:eek:

[Raybot]

I guess it needs to be in a big box if it were going to be sold individually as you've got to be able to give *something* to the customer that is of a regular shape and isn't likely to get damaged, etc. in post/transit/storage ... a typical parallel is the desktop CPU market, OEMs get trays of CPUs all lined up, the total volume taken up by the packaging is perhaps only 1.5 to 2 times the volume of the actual CPUs. However, you buy a boxed CPU and, depending on which one it is, the packaging may be an order of magnitude larger in volume than the CPU itself (this is WITHOUT HSF).

Having said that, all the MS's I've purchased (all 2 of them!) have come in clear rigid plastic 'heat seal' packaging, of the sort designed to hang from display rods, which seems to me to be quite a reasonable way of packaging them (but would make it quite difficult to send through the post due to the irregular shape) ...


- Raymond