“the proper choice of packing materials depends on what you are shipping. I have never had any item that was packed in peanuts damaged. Not so with bubble wrap or crumpled paper. Peanuts are ideal for light, fragile items, and essentially worthless for anything heavy.
On a volume basis, peanuts are cheaper than bubble wrap, and their use is less labor intensive.”
Exactly! When I started my business I did 100% of the packing and shipping myself. I know how to pack what we sell, I understand the time it takes to pack, and I know the economics of shipping materials. About half of what my business sells are “light, fragile items” and my people use packing peanuts every time. For some items we combine peanuts and bubble wrap. If I had to discontinue packing peanuts my costs would rise for sure. I suppose I need to plan on adding a “Blue State Handling Fee.”
What a lot of people assume is that since they throw away the carton and packing material when they get a shipment, that the stuff must not cost anything, and they think a handling charge is just a sneaky way to gouge the customer.
How wrong they are!
I despise packing peanuts-—I wouldn’t mind seeing the last of them..
Someone dumped a bunch of them in our neighborhood some years ago.
They were around for months-—even after clean-up. Nasty little buggers.
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