Excessive packaging agh!

I prefer to buy locally if possible, but I recently looked for the paint that I needed for my out door wood cladding at the website of a local supplier, and the cost was £113. I checked on Amazon, and the same product and size of tin was £74. I understand that independent businesses may not be able to compete with larger companies, and I would be willing to pay a little more, but that was a step too much. Sorry, I know that this isn’t a thread about about online shopping, but it has been mentioned a few times. I agree about packaging. Even some foodstuffs in the shops have more packaging than necessary.

Chestnut

Sallywally1

I ordered a small bar of lavender soap which I love from amazon. It came in an enormous cardboard container, which would have fitted at least 12 bars of soap! Just, why?

I would never order one small consumable item like soap. I'd get a pack of them, or order several different things to be sent out together. Even then you get a box with lots of packing, but if you saw the conveyor belt system in an Amazon warehouse you would realise there isn't time to measure and pack each item carefully. No-one was looking at your bar of soap and wondering how best to pack it. It was thrown into a box and sent on it way.

I do the same as you Chestnut. If I'm buying food online I try to order a whole boxful. For example I know that my big bags of coffee come in boxes of six - that way I just get the tightly packed manufacturer's box rather than a box with lots of filler. The same with orders of mixed nuts or sweet chilli crackers, if I order enough to get free postage it is normally packed tightly into a good sized box.

Babs03

NotSpaghetti

keepingquiet you don't have to be a fan of Amazon (I'm not!) to use it.

Oh wait -people use Amazon because they're cheap?
No, lots of things are quite a lot more there than elsewhere.

I used Amazon 4 weeks ago for a cake decorating item that would take 55 mins to drive to a shop that had it (only open certain days/times) and 7-10 days if posted from the manufacturer's online shop. I could get next day delivery from Amazon but it was £12.49 instead of £8.99 in the shop.
I thought it was worth the extra to be able to make use of 2 hours and not drive at awkward times for me...

I also buy cake decorating stuff from Amazon. We can’t buy this anywhere near us, have tried. So when making birthday or Xmas cakes I have to send off for it.
And it can be expensive but we have no choice. Supermarkets are very limited with regard to this, probs they expect us to buy their own ready made cakes.

Has it occured to you that so much stuff is now only available on Amazon because they now have the monopoly?

Small shops and even large supermarkets just can't compete and therefore close, causing people to buy it from Amazon?

Soon it will be the only site available.

That's why I don't use it.

Isn't that a bit of a Catch-22 situation? If it's only available on Amazon, where else are you supposed to buy it?

@keeping quiet

I think you have a point but with cake decoration I think it is most likely to be because not many people decorate their own cakes anymore, I imagine they prefer to buy one in a supermarket etc. or have it made in a bakers shop where cake decorations are bought at a wholesalers.

I shall ask my niece- she has a cake making business- I haven't given up on finding you an alternative supplier!

MissInterpreted

Isn't that a bit of a Catch-22 situation? If it's only available on Amazon, where else are you supposed to buy it?

Other suppliers are available (for now) maybe you just have to do a little more homework?

Yes. There are a few mail order suppliers if you know what you want ahead of time, keepingquiet. And there are a few specialist cake decorating shops still of course - but the one in my town has closed and the next has limited stock. There's a market stall that isn't great.

It's very expensive to hold everything "in house" if you are a small business so lots of them have to order in what you want.

I used to know 3 places fairly nearby but now have to drive some distance to get to one that carries a fair amount of stock. If, however, you suddenly want, say a red panda mould you aren't going to find it very easily!

Has it occured to you that so much stuff is now only available on Amazon because they now have the monopoly?

It used to be Tesco putting everyone out of business. It was certainly Tesco that took out our Butcher, Baker, Greengrocer and Italian shop. In our nearest town it's now stocking all the Polish essentials too - so it won't be long before our Polish shop goes I expect.
In the old days we had toyshops too.

It is not all Amazon.
I'm afraid I've given up feeling guilty about using it when there's no alternative.

We all make choices. I don't ever buy Nestlé.

Anyway, I digress, this us about packaging really...
One thing I hate about some small-business packaging is that they often give you a "free" packet of Haribo sweets or put your purchase in an unnecessary canvas pouch or gauze bag.
I'd rather have a too-big box than that.

I agree with you about Tesco and what they have done to some towns. However, other supermarkets are still available.
We have a few shops still in my village I am happy to say- some people travel miles and queue outside one of them, and there is a Tesco just up the road, but they sell what Tesco doesn't and that makes the difference.

Back to the packaging, yes but it is a downside of internet shopping! There are sites which will use eco-friendly packaging.