Monday, May 25, 2009

Very Short Rant About Excess Packaging

I needed to buy a mattress pad and a set of sheets today since I've been using the old Wal-Mart cheapy ones I had in the RV for two years. Sears was having a Memorial Day sale, so off I went, charge card in hand. Yeah, I know - now owned by Citibank or something and horrendous interest rates. But, drastic needs call for drastic measures and I'd come to hate those sheets.

Found some plain white ones with a pretty good thread count as well as a good mattress pad. The clerk rang them up and I signed my "X" on the little machine as well as I could with a little plastic stylus. Then I watched in amazement as the receipts kept pouring out of the register - four of them for one sale! It turned out three of them were coupons for further purchases and only one was the actual receipt. But, look at the size of them.

Got home, flung the old sheets off the bed and down the stairs. I'm nothing if not thorough. Began opening packages. Bear in mind now that all I bought was one mattress pad, a flat and a fitted sheet, and two pillowcases. Someone must have thought they'd all run away or something because what I got as packaging was this assortment of plastic, cardboard, and paper.

Why??????????

2 comments:

Old Newsie said...

Onesheet, one undersheet, two pillow cases, one mattress pad
one set of wrapping to undersheet, one set of wrappings for undersheet, one set of wrappings for mattress pass, two setsof wrappings for pillow cases, three pieces of cardboard to separate packages, one box to hold all package, tape to seal box, labor to do packaging, pricing, shelf packing.cost of receipts, clerk cost to ring up purchase, make change, place purchase oin bag, cost of bag:

Total cost:

Handling 95%
Purchase: 5%

Who is making money?

Anonymous said...

Did you know that here in Switzerland, we have to right to ask the store to unpack a package and retain the packing material. I actually tried this once and after the fist fight, we both agreed that the law can sometimes be difficult to apply in all its grandeur.

The idea is good though.