Amazon forcing manufacturers into less frustrating, more efficient packaging
Amazon is launching a new campaign to make packaging less of a pain in the ass, specifically targeting hard plastic clamshells and tie wires. Items that are to be shipped by Amazon will get new packaging that's easier to open and less wasteful.
One of the first products to launch with Frustration-Free Packaging is the Fisher-Price Imaginext Adventures Pirate Ship, which is now delivered in an easy-to-open, recyclable cardboard box. The new packaging eliminates 36 inches of plastic-coated wire ties, 1,576.5 square inches of printed corrugated package inserts and 36.1 square inches of printed folding carton materials. Also eliminated are 175.25 square inches of PVC blisters, 3.5 square inches of ABS molded styrene and two molded plastic fasteners.I am fine with this.Small items, such as memory cards, are also good candidates for Frustration-Free Packaging. Typically encased in oversized plastic clamshells to deter shoplifting, memory cards are then placed inside larger cardboard boxes for shipment to customers. Working with Transcend, Amazon has eliminated the hard-to-open clamshell and the need for an additional box. Instead, the cards will now ship inside recyclable cardboard envelopes which use less material. Amazon is working to shrink the envelope size even further.
Frustration-free packaging press release [phx.corporate-ir.net via Technologizer]
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This brings to mind an amusing Amazon review I wrote about a spindle of Maxell DVD-R discs, which are literally impossible to open without causing serious physical harm to one's self and others in general vicinity. The packaging is apparently designed to withstand re-entry through the earth's atmosphere. My review has gotten quite a few comments who have been similarly frustrated into searching Google for "how to open Maxell dvd spindle."
I wrote the review in April 2007. Maxell still uses the same packaging. My review is here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R178WZBLUSBI96
my sig other got a Kindle for her birthday, and the unboxing was effortless.
The question now is, will it withstand shipping? Looking at that pirate ship video, it doesn't look very well padded or anything.
Ah-ha! I will now do all my on-line shoplifting at Amazon!
Good. Now maybe Amazon will stop shipping single titles in 8x14x5 boxes with scads of those air pillows tucked around it.
Are they actually cutting back on packaging at the manufacturer level, or are they just repackaging everything? If it's the latter, that doesn't save the environment at all.
The article makes it sound like Manufacturers are packaging things going to Amazon differently. Although it doesn't sound like this is entirely about the environment either. It's really just common sense. Packaging for stores is intended to make a product look good so you'll buy it, but also to deter shoplifting. Neither of these things are concerns for online sales, so packaging should be efficient, protective, and easy to open.
This is awesome.
The main reason this is awesome is because now more products will fit through the letterbox, rather than getting a card through the letterbox telling me that unless I can arrange a time during office hours for the delivery, it will be sent back... except, I'm never at home during office hours!
Fortunately, the dear Royal Mail offers some other alternatives instead. It offers to let me pick it up from the depot during office hours instead.
Or it allows me, for 50p extra, to have it delivered to the nearest post office, where I can pick it up during office hours.
If it weren't for the insanity of getting packages delivered, I would do most of my non-grocery shopping over the net.