Naaa, but I have to wonder if this dufe is an ex-governmental employee. If so, Trump prolly fired his ass!
I spent 44 years of my adult working life in management ... OR as a business owner. One constant battle when working with employees was cost control. I've learned over the years, when it comes to employees, if it's not coming out of THEIR pockets, they could give a shit! Even with my little eBay side business (NOT counted in the 44-years mentioned above), I'm constantly aware of expenses. All of my packing materials are recycled. I pick up boxes EVERYWHERE we go. I've even stopped on the side of the road on trash day to pick up a box I spotted in somebody's trash out by the curb. (especially if it's an odd-sized/shaped box) Lynn brings packing materials from the hotel. Since the hotel is at the convention center, there are tons of bubble wrap and/or packing peanuts that go into the trash, especially during trade shows and the like. The hotel gives free newspapers to all the guests every morning and they have bazillions of left-over papers every week. She drags home carloads of newspaper, packing paper, bubble wrap, packing peanuts, foam rubber and styrofoam, as well as cardboard boxes. She has employees at the convention center as well as the hotel who all know to bring that stuff to her instead of chunking it in the trash. I'm surprised they don't call her Freda Sanford! Of course, I scrounge that sort of stuff anytime I come across it also. I go through truckloads of packing tape, but I get that free from eBay (one of the store ownership benefits). I'm super conscious of shipping costs. Many times, shipping (USPS, FedEx, UPS, etc) costs more than I paid for the actual item, and that's WITHOUT the cost of supplies figured in. The bigger and heavier the package, "generally" means higher shipping charges. In fact, I'm shipping a rather large and fragile item tomorrow (packaging it today) that would easily cost me $10 in shipping supplies IF I had to purchase them. That would come off my bottom line. Ok, enough of that, you get the idea.
Last week, Lynn ordered a few items from Saks Fifth Avenue. Nothing exciting, just a small silicone spatula and a couple of small tea towels (the latter is a gift). Yesterday, we received a large box in the mail and we had no clue what it could be. The label said it was from Saks, so the first thing that came to mind was that they screwed up the order. Well, we opened it and after removing all the packing materials, we found her spatula! WTF??? The frigging spatula is 11-inches long, weighs in at a whopping 2.4-ounces and I would have shipped it USPS for $2.84! It is not even CLOSE to being fragile and could have been shipped in a frigging envelope! They shipped this spatula in a 13"x8"x8" box. It was WELL padded by packing paper ... I measured it ... 33' 10" Long x 12" Wide!! Here are the pics of the package (the small Liquid Wrench oiler can is for size reference). I do a LOT of shipping and I'll guarandamntee you, they paid more for the shipping and packaging than we paid for the spatula!
Attachment 10721 Attachment 10722 Attachment 10723
But, there's a kicker. The two little tea towels will be arriving in a SEPARATE package and we all know how fragile a couple of little towels can be. They'll prolly arrive in a box as big as a refrigerator ... with tons of padding to make sure they don't get "broken"! Sorry, but if this were MY company, the manager of my shipping department would be standing in the unemployment line right now.
Rant over ... UNTIL the towels arrive. There MAY be a follow-up post! ;)
