Do you ever order something online and it arrives in a ridiculously large box and you’re like… seriously, who packed this? Well last weekend I ordered a gallon of paint, a set of paint brushes and an outlet cover online.
The gallon of paint came in it’s own special box with zero wiggle room. But the paint brushes and outlet cover came in such a large box, I actually got out the tape measure just to see if I was imagining things.
The box was 28″x 9″x 6″.
The actual product was 14″ x 6″ x 1″. Now I don’t pretend to know the ins and outs of shipping from a large warehouse, but I have to believe a much smaller box could have been used to save the company some money in shipping costs.
I just don’t get it. Especially when the store is charging the exact same price online {and often times less} as they are in their physical stores. You’d think they’d want to ship items in the most economical way possible. Especially since the company is shipping said items at no additional cost to it’s customers.
All that empty space, it makes me a little crazy. And that’s all I have to say about that.
Hey, it’s Friday! I hope you have a great weekend,
Peace Out,
~Mavis
jessica says
The boxing sizes kill me.. from what I understand it is based on a shipping algorithm that allows them to properly load a truck to not have spaces where things can slide? So they needed that size space filled.. Viola! So wierd!
Cindy R says
My husband ordered 4 items from Walmart which were a deodorant, body wash, face wipes, and moisturizer. Each item arrived in it’s own big box via UPS. Walmart is a mile away. I offered to go shopping to get what he needed but he didn’t wanr me exposed to germs—besides he was getting free shipping. I was so annoyed as each box started to show up by the front door. All I could think off was what in the world is wrong with Walmart because I have a few shares of stock in their company and all I could see was a huge waste of manpower and overhead costs in their operation.
Amy R Burton says
YES!! Been driving me crazy too! I actually worked last Christmas for USPS delivering packages and you should have seen the ones on Amazon Sunday. Definitely no algorithms there, just clumsy me trying to figure out how to load more than 120 half filled packages everyday. I’m 5′ 2″, so you would have laughed watching me carry this silly out of balance stuff up a 150′ driveway to a porch. Yep, I said “carry,” because we weren’t allowed to drive our trucks up in NE Ohio because of “safety reasons!” Think about that one 🙂
Carole says
I look at it this way, I got the box and the stuff free shipping. I use the boxes in the yard since I HATE landscape cloth. Free box, free landscape “cloth”. No weeds, cardboard works way better than that crappy petroleum based product and my plants and garden never looked better. WIN, WIN
GC says
I bet you win at a lot of things Carole, that’s a great attitude to have! 🙂
Deborah says
Oh yes! You aren’t alone and Home Depot isn’t the only one doing this. Amazon does it a lot. We get packages like this a lot! It’s crazy!
emma says
My daughter ordered a ruler of amazon and it came in a box 100 times bigger than the ruler. we couldn’t believe it.
Lori B says
Yes! I’ve even had things arrived all beat up because they banged around inside the box. It is really irritating!
Nancy from mass says
I’ve been saying the same thing. I ordered a guitar capo and tuner. It came in a box that could’ve fit a fan with about 20 packages of air around these two items. The cats were happy though!
Erica says
One time, I was in the market for a new broom and I decided to order from Amazon so that I could see reviews and I was just really curious what kind of box they would send it in. Amazingly, it was a very efficient box, perfectly sized. I’ve had so many other things packed so poorly. Huge boxes for small things, bottle of liquid sent in an envelope so that the liquid was squeezed out by the time it got to me (I asked for a replacement for that one and they sent the second one the same way!), an enormous coffin of a box with all my subscribe and save items together including two giant boxes of diapers, etc.
GC says
I work in the shipping business, and sometimes even -we- run out of appropriately sized boxes. I’ve just assumed all along when they send these ridiculous packages that it is because they are all out of any boxes that would fit!
Linda Practical Parsimony says
I order six items, four pair of pants all the same size and color, a jacket and one more garment. Each came separately over two weeks. I was annoyed. And, the pants did not even fit. They were each in a plastic bag, so box size was not an issue. It was infuriating.
DMAZ says
Your items are coming from different locations (probably stores) so there is no way that they can come together. The websites say that.
Sharon L Wegmeyer says
Nope you are not the only one! Like the song refrain: “happens all the time” . Sigh!!!
DMAZ says
I work at at department store that also has an online website, pick up in store etc. The corp. is basically using the
stores as a “warehouse stores” for the online website. Employees who gather the items for the online orders are timed, so they have to hurry, and that includes the packing of the merchandise too. There are different options to
use, vinyl mailing bags are the most common, but there are also boxes, but if it is a weird sized item, it may go in a box way too big, although there is bubble wrap available to use. Items for an item may come from several different
locations, so you may receive many different boxes.
I would just let this issue go, as the companies have a special agreement with UPS, and the size of the box is really
don’t going to make any financial difference, it’s the volume of shipping that affects the cost.
If you want to be concerned about something, it’s retail employees (with minimal wages) who are being exposed
to potential danger by the shoppers who refuse to wear masks, go clothes shopping when they are sick, insist on trying on clothes in the store (not allowed) have no shame undressing in front of employees and customers. We
are not the brave Doctors and nurses, but we are vunerable.
Kathy Schick says
Good point!
Lori N says
Wow! That must be incredibly stressful! Thank you for presenting the other side. It’s easy to forget there are people just trying to make a living, fulfilling our orders during this pandemic. Be safe.
DMAZ says
I think you live in a privlidged bubble, and thats all I have to say about it.
Linda T says
Wow, I thought I was having a bad day. Hope yours is better tomorrow.
Kathy says
Agree
Lori says
Hi Mavis,
I know getting these big boxes in the mail is ridiculous. I have read online that the reason behind doing this is so the small package don’t get lost or misplaced during deliver. I don’t know if it’s true or not. I once got a box from amazon that could fit 4 gallons of milk in it. What I order that came in that box Was a package of metal straws.
Lynda says
I just got a 2021 calendar from Amazon. In a huge box with tons of paper… I had NO IDEA what it was because I only order small things.. and one book doesn’t take up a lot of room! The box was about24” x 24” and about 8” deep.. mostly full of paper!
Christy says
All of the carriers are charging more for larger boxes to encourage condensing. It kills me with some of the larger, lightweight items i sell on ebay that need a large box.
C Cannon says
I receive boxes oversized from most places except Amazon..they are pretty good. However, I really don’t mind because I break them down, remove the tape and lay them on parts of the vegetable garden that has finished for the year after I cleaned up the area, wet it and cover the cardboard with grass clippings, and then leaves after they fall. It keeps the worms happy, and me happy because by the time spring planting rolls around I can pull back a space and puts the plants in. It all breaks down. No landfills needed.
HollyG says
Mine was the other end of the spectrum. Someone decided to ship my box of passion flower tea in a padded envelope. The bags were fine, but the box was just smashed.
MEM says
I think the one that stands out to me is when I ordered two collectible pins from ShopDisney – these pins are about one inch square – they came in two separate boxes about 12 inches high and 18 inches wide. Underneath the air pillows was a tiny pin at the bottom of each box. The pin was not secured so it could have been rattling around in the box. Wrapping it in bubble wrap and placing inside of a padded envelope would have worked better – pin traders send them to me like that all the time. That takes more time for the shipper to do, however.
Fifitr says
I think some of it has to do with ‘rationalizing’ the number of box sizes you use as a company selling stuff. Buying small quantities of lots of sizes of boxes is much more expensive than buying large quantities of two or three, as you usually get a discount for multiples which increases as you buy more units. If you’re a major company you can probably make a big saving by having fewer box sizes in larger quantities, giving packers less choice and therefore speeding up their work. If I ship something in the UK cost is determined by weight AND size, so I tend to make sure my packaging is as neat as possible. But if I were working for a big company and having to pack something every minute I’d just be stuffing it into the first box to hand that could take it. I don’t think those guys get the leisure of thinking ‘I’m sure I had a smaller box somewhere that this would fit in…. ah no, not quite big enough, I’d better go look for another….’ By the time they’ve done with that process half a dozen items would be stacking up to be packed and some supervisor would be questioning their productivity.
dlstid says
This is the reason. So many things are happening at once in a distribution center and space is at a premium. think about the volume of boxes that Amazon goes through every day. Think about how much storage they need just for bales of shipping boxes and the time it takes to move those boxes from the storage area to the packing stations. They probably have at least one person, if not more, that does nothing but make sure each outbound station is stocked with boxes. There is only so much time and space to manage boxes.
There are so many things that have to happen, perfectly choreographed to get your item on the shelf, on the website, picked from the shelf, moved to the packing station, packed, out the door and on the correct truck. As consumers we just want our item delivered as fast as possible. We don’t realize what it takes to get it to us.
LaToya says
This happened earlier this week (but happens all. the. time) I bought a GLASS cutting board with napkins and a GLASS spreader from NFL.com. It comes as a set in its own box … which was thrown into a GIGANTIC box with NO packaging. So, naturally the cutting board was broken and the spreader was in about 72 little glass pieces. I actually bought 2 of them – curious to see how that one and the replacement one are sent.
Lame. And Frustrating.