Thursday, August 03, 2006

What's in the parcel?

From the 21st, the Royal Mail are changing how UK post is priced - turns out that size matters as well as weight. So the shape and size of letters and packaging is in my mind.

I went down to sign for a package in work. I was expecting an A5 Jiffy Bag or smaller. So imagine my surprise when I was handed this. A huge parcel that weighed practically nothing.


(And before anyone asks, the mug wasn’t attached - I just thought you’d be able to work out the relative sizes since there wasn’t a ruler to hand.)

Was someone posting me fresh air?

Inside the package was a box.


Inside that box was another box and an envelope - containing a single sheet of paper - did the envelope prevent the invoice getting lost in the huge expanse of cardboard box?


And finally, inside the little box was my replacement Crackberry belt clip - ensconced in a plastic wrapper - in case the elements would seep through the other three layers of packaging and damage the plastic!


And it only cost £6 - most of which must have been spent on the manual effort wrapping the handy device. It's soooo small and light - why didn't they just send in a Jiffy Bag? Bet the answer is something to do with efficiency - and the economy of scale by only using two sizes of packing boxes - large and massive - on site. The world's gone mad.

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