Amazon to ditch packaging in the run up to Christmas

[TheCaribbeanIsCallingMe]

Heard the advert on the radio - Amazon are ditching packaging where possible, so whatever you order, should arrive in the manufacturers box, with your address label stuck on the side. So, let's say you order Sony headphones, the address label will be stuck to the Sony box. I'm all for wasting less, but AIBU to think that this is just a stupid idea?

A) The address label will be stuck to the product, which won't look great for gifting or even selling on. Also, if you return it, the labels don't come off, so what then?

B) In the run up to Christmas, it's fairly important that packages arrive in a concealed box or wrapper, especially if children are still little and around when the delivery man comes.

I wouldn't mind paying a little bit extra for a "concealed wrapping" option. But to just say no wrapping has put me right off.

It’s very easy to miss and defaults to manufacturers. It does not make you choke or draw attention.

I would welcome this. We buy a lot of stuff on Amazon (cat food, cat litter, supplies for my home business, gifts, all sorts really) and our cardboard bin is constantly rammed. After christmas last year it took us until about February to clear the backlog. I do not need a cardboard box containing cat food contained within a much bigger cardboard box.

Brilliant. The thieves who nick it from the doorstep can leave it if they don't want it instead of leaving it halfway up the street.

Yes, especially as they just throw your parcels on your doorstep.

This. It's been a thing for years. If something is already in a cardboard box, why use another unnecessarily? Or get it packed if you really want it at no extra charge. This is all a fuss over nothing.

Check with your local shops and supermarkets first - pretty sure there will be at least one local to you that takes Amazon (and also DPD in our case) deliveries.

Yes, you get the choice so I can’t see the problem.

I hadn’t realised this until a birthday present for DC’s friend turned up without packaging. They aren’t using easy peel stickers either. The box has been living on the dining table for a week so I can gently rub the sticky with some baby wipes to try and remove the glue and hope it doesn’t get too grubby in the mean time.

And cutting their costs, increasing profits.

it will cost them a whole lot less in buying in cardboard packaging, and manpower (or robot power?) for packing boxes into boxes — even if they save just a few seconds for every customer that probably adds up !

I don't understand why it matters if the address label is on the product packaging. You give your kid a pair of headphones, he see's the box, goes "oh Rad, thanks Bruh", opens the box, gets headphones out and you ferret around picking up all the packaging behind him to stick in the recycling.

If your kids still believe in FC, tell them he was so busy but as they were so good he wanted to make sure it arrived so he got his elves to send it a bit early in the post.

If you're worried about people seeing what's arriving, get things sent to lockers or someone else.

Surely, in the vast consumer world we live in, reducing the endless amount of packaging should be more of a priority than darling Freddie spotting your name and address on the box of his ear pods.

I've never had a passcode and had plenty of things just left in the vicinity of my front door. This includes my new laptop.

What a load of fuss about nothing.

So you haven't actually had anything delivered in just the manufacturer's packaging?

We've already got issues with parcels going missing in my block of flats

This is going to make it worse. It does sound like a way to make money.

My first thought, too!

Agreed. The general public aren't the ones to blame for the demise of the high street. Councils and greedy parking companies are to blame for not ensuring the high street is a viable and attractive alternative to the likes of Amazon.

Retail has changed. The general public aren't the only ones to blame for the demise of the high street.

I like going to the high street, what's left of it, and dislike shopping online.
I don't order from Amazon because the parcel would probably get nicked.

Given the Amazon drivers just leave everything outside round here, an awful lot is going to get stolen…!

You can get them delivered to Amazon boxes or Waitrose here

I ordered some coffee machine descaled the other day, 6 sachets. The nanufacturer packages them in a cardboard envelope. It would have been fine sealed with tape (to stop sachets falling out, or one of their envelopes, and put through the letterbox, but no it was put in a box bigger than a shoe box with 3 of those plastic air pillows. 🙄🙄.

Amazon make NO sense, but they provide a service I need right now 💁🏻‍♀️. I'm not well enough to go to what's left of the high street & if ud ordered from the company selling the descaled it would have come in packaging, been delivered by Royal Fail & cost me more,

Like @FurForksSake says, look out for the option to have delivered in Amazon packaging. I had that this week with DH birthday present. Changed the option (no cost) and it came in an anonymous cardboard box, and wasn’t ruined by an address label.

And get it delivered to locker or local shop if you’re likely to be out and worried about doorstep thieves.

Good grief people use your brains a bit.

@mamagogo1 And you have to go to the high street to pick them up.

@Daffidale
I thought the whole point of the thread was that you wouldn't be able to select Amazon packaging any more?

one of the thefts I had was something that never made it to the parcel shop. At least that's what we can tell from the tracking.

Also, this completely ignores people with mobility problems. I wouldn't be using Amazon, but I can't drive anymore. So going to collect something is a faff.

Given how many parcels are mysteriously left outside of houses, when the occupants are home, I actually wonder how long this will last.

They don't use easy-peel labels.

They've done the same for years, I have had many toys delivered that way in recent years, and forum are full of warnings.

I agree, it's all about money, nothing to do with environment. They should give the choice!

where? Which high street?

The nearest "high street" from me where I have a chance to find what I need is Oxford Street in central London, there's nothing local.

I would love nothing more than buying even things like school shoes on my high street, I always have, but I am not enough a client to keep it sustainable so they all shut down. Online it is.

For some products (eg collectors items) the box is an important part of the product. Nothing worse than a collectors item turning up in a battered box with postage stickers all over it.