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Amazon Fights 'Wrap Rage' With Less Packaging

Less bubbly stuff, fewer twisties better for impatient consumers, planet

By Will McCahill,  Newser Staff

Posted Nov 3, 2008 2:02 PM CST

(Newser) – Amazon.com has heard the exasperated sighs of customers digging through yards of bubble wrap and undoing twist tie upon twist tie to find that one tiny memory card. The online retailer today introduced “Frustration-Free Packaging,” by which it aims to make its shipping friendlier to both recipient and the environment, Ars Technica reports.

The effort begins with 19 of Amazon’s best-selling products—including offerings from Fisher-Price and Microsoft—and will focus on plastic bubblestuff and on plastic-coated wire ties. “The product is exactly the same—Amazon has just streamlined the packaging,” a company release notes, citing as example a Transcend memory card that will come in a recyclable cardboard envelope rather than couched in bubble wrap in a box several times its size.

On the other hand, there appears not to have been enough packaging to keep these contents from shifting during shipment.
On the other hand, there appears not to have been enough packaging to keep these contents from shifting during shipment.   (©No?l Zia Lee)
Amazon's front door
Amazon's front door   (©Robert Scoble)
Amazon plans to cut down on the bubble wrap and outsized boxes it's been using to ship purchases.
Amazon plans to cut down on the bubble wrap and outsized boxes it's been using to ship purchases.   (©naviniea)
Your cat might like all the packaging, but she only gets it after you've grunted your way through yards of it to get to that tiny USB stick.
Your cat might like all the packaging, but she only gets it after you've grunted your way through yards of it to get to that tiny USB stick.   (©zenera)
Latte and bubblewrap
Latte and bubblewrap   (©basykes)
Bubblewrap
Bubblewrap   (©Dr Stephen Dann)
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