Posts tagged “opening”

ChittahChattah Quickies

  • [from steve_portigal] Toepener — Hands Free Solution – [While this smacks slightly of "gadget" I like the idea of simple improvements to everyday activities based on a) shifting social norms and b) observed behaviors. Text from related news article] The Toepener is a pedal designed to open a public washroom’s door with one’s foot rather than having to touch the door handle. It is the brainchild of Max Arndt, a student at the Carson School of Management. Arndt and his classmates were asked in the Entrepreneurship in Action class to come up with ideas for a new business product or service. Arndt, 22, came up with the Toepener. He hated the idea of opening a public restroom door after he’d washed his hands. It was such a simple idea but he figured it would have tremendous draw. He was right. His class was equally enthusiastic and it was chosen as the product the entrepreneurship class would attempt to market. The product was launched in mid-January. Arndt said the company has sold close to 100 toepeners, which go for $50 each.

Box Experiences

I recently ordered a few curtain rod brackets from Amazon. I was just shy of $25, the magic number for free shipping, so I made use of Amazon Filler, a site that finds items, in ascending order of price, to get you to that needed total for free shipping.

For me, it was dental floss.

A few days later, Amazon tells me that they are going to ship the items separately to speed up service! I guess this makes sense in terms of their infrastructure – wherever the floss is kept, it’s probably far enough from curtain brackets that if they were to get the two items together and then ship to me it would be costlier or more time-consuming that simply sending the items directly to me from each of their origins.

But still – it leads to this strange out of the box experience:

The Box
The boxes arrived on the same day; one was sent earlier, but they both got here at the same time. It doesn’t appear to the recipient that it made any difference!

The Open Box
Here’s the two boxes opened, with their various packagings.

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And unpacked, all the crapola strewn about.

Our purcase
Our actual items in one box.

Surprise
And our dental floss tiny in its massive box. So I saved some money on shipping, but cost Amazon (and the environment) another box and inner packaging and all that shipping effort and fuel. Was this a good outcome for me? For Amazon? For all of us? Many factors to balance and I’m uncertain.

Series

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