Over-packaging?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by jegenes, May 17, 2020.

  1. jegenes
    jegenes Member
    Is it just me, or does some of Shapeways' packing seem excessive? I'm in New Zealand, so I expect to pay a bit more for shipping. However, I'm ordering very small plastic parts (1" X 2") and they come shipped in a 6" X 8" X 6" box, crammed full of bubble wrap and plastic. Sometimes its even hard to find the part amongst all the packaging material. Is there a way I can request just shipping in a padded envelope? These are not fragile parts, and in this day and age boxing up a piece of plastic the size of a USB thumb drive and putting it in a big vox full of bubble wrap seems excessive and wasteful. thanks.
    --je
     
    starbuckshollow likes this.
  2. jegenes
    jegenes Member
    Hi. Thanks for the answer. As far as paying an inspector to determine packaging? Wouldn't that be a bit over the top? I mean, how difficult is it to package something and ship it off? I ran my own business for years and shipped all manner of items, big and small, fragile and non--fragile. Each one required a decision on packaging, but it didn't need a special "inspector" to determine that. So, if it took an extra minute or two to decide to place my items in an envelope instead of a box? Yep, I'd pay for it. And since I live in New Zealand, where a single 1" X 2" X 1/2" plastic piece costs me $4.75, but shipping costs more than $18.00? Yep, I'd pay to reduce the shipping size. And the upshot is, for me: it's not so much about saving money on shipping. It's more about the idea that the company seems to have no feel for their own carbon footprint, nor the amount of waste-vs-product that they produce [HINT: the waste FAR exceeds the product].
     
  3. barkingdigger
    barkingdigger Well-Known Member
    If SW stocked a range of smaller boxes that would complicate their own supply chain, require more storage space, and add to the overall cost of their shipping regime because it would be less efficient than having only a few sizes ("small/medium/large") to worry about. This seems unimportant until you scale it up to hundreds or thousands of items a day - then even the slightest inefficiency becomes big enough to measure.

    Of course you are already on a hiding to nothing since everything you order has to cross half the globe from NYC or Eindhoven to reach NZ - package size is mostly irrelevant compared to the cost of 12hrs in a cargo jet!
     
    catslady123 likes this.
  4. jegenes
    jegenes Member
    I agree with you, Semper Vaporo and thanks for the the observations. I like SW. They have good service, their parts seem better made than other 3D printers I've used, although they're certainly more expensive. That's okay. And Barkingdigger, package size is certainly NOT irrelevant when shipping to NZ, I can tell you. A box, no matter how small, costs many times more than a padded envelope. And the idea of them having to scale up with various sizes of shipping boxes/envelopes isn't really that big a deal. If it were, Amazon would have been out of business a long time ago. So would Ali Express, Alibaba, Wish, and half the stores in eBay. In this time of turmoil and devastation, I know my complaint is insignificant, but I thought I'd raise it, if only to see if SW might consider their carbon footprint. Thanks for your input. best, --je