I thought you guys might get a smile out of this...

Comments

• Mike Cook Posts: 829

  2012-04-10 14:01 edited 2012-04-10 14:01

  Yup same thing happened to one of my parts orders!
  
  I ordered a 6mm.1 x 1 meter chunk of all tread from http://www.mcmaster.com/ and they shipped it in a 8” x8” x 48” box.
• pedward Posts: 1,642

  2012-04-10 14:41 edited 2012-04-10 14:41

  Mike Cook wrote: »

  Yup same thing happened to one of my parts orders!
  
  I ordered a 6mm.1 x 1 meter chunk of all tread from http://www.mcmaster.com/ and they shipped it in a 8” x8” x 48” box.

  
  McMaster typically ships in cardboard tubes with plastic end caps, that has been my experience. Perhaps the tube is more expensive than the box, and that's why they ship bar stock in tubes, because the material is more valuable.
• whicker Posts: 749

  2012-04-12 18:15 edited 2012-04-12 18:15

  As things become more and more automated, stuff like this is going to become increasingly common.
  
  It may seem wasteful, but as far as efficiency is concerned this box is probably sized to the point where it runs optimally with all machinery involved from its creation to shipping from the distributor. Paradoxically, a smaller box might be more expensive (error prone) to run through a prefeeder, a diecutter / folder / gluer, the automated pick system, and/or the automated truck loader.
  
  Remember, the customer is deciding that they don't want to pay much if anything for shipping, and that they would rather pay less for an identical item no matter what goes on behind the scenes. The customer also gets angry if the product inside the box is damaged. Tiny boxes seem to fall down into the gaps of larger items and get ground up during shipping.
• ElectricAye Posts: 4,561

  2012-04-12 18:42 edited 2012-04-12 18:42

  You guys are missing the point. This is Big Box Envy mitigation. While all the construction guys next door are getting truck loads of rebar and palettes of heavy machinery, jack hammers and welding equipment, most electronics guys just get weenie boxes full of teenie weenie parts. So this is an attempt to boost morale, put a little swag into whatchagot. So stop whining and just remember: when you pick up the box, get some of your nerd friends to help you lift it, or get a heavy duty dolly and break a sweat. Make it look like it weighs a ton.
• mindrobots Posts: 6,506

  2012-04-12 19:29 edited 2012-04-12 19:29

  ...and insist all your suppliers use corn starch based packing peanuts (so you can disolve them and flush them).....once you start throwing out bags full of foam peanuts, the swag quickly fades to red-faced shame.......or so I've heard.
• Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514

  2012-04-12 19:42 edited 2012-04-12 19:42

  'Looks like a typical NewEgg shipment. I once got a hard drive from them, loose in a much larger box, with some ineffective padding just thrown in -- for looks, apparently. But, yeah, McMaster-Carr does the same thing.
  
  -Phil
• pedward Posts: 1,642

  2012-04-12 22:27 edited 2012-04-12 22:27

  The name of this image file is "WTF-hdds.jpg". We had $6,400 worth of HDDs shipped from Newegg in a similar manner. HDDs are shipped in a foam clamshell, except they didn't include the other half and only put a layer of packing tape over the HDDs to keep them in the foam. This shipment was sent upside down without an orientation sticker or fragile stickers.
  
  We did the 5 hour SMART test on 32 Seagate 2TB HDDs, even after that we had 2 infant mortalities at 30 days. Unfortunately that was 3 months after receiving the shipment (you know how long it takes to test 32 drives?). We got a bunch of pushback from Newegg until I emailed this picture to the rep...
  
  

  

  

  WTF-hdds.jpg

  400 x 305 - 22K

  WTF-hdds.jpg 22.4K
• codeviper Posts: 208

  2012-04-12 22:39 edited 2012-04-12 22:39

  yay i box Id put a PC in it!
  wait i already did that and wrote "LINUX BOX" on it.