A while ago I ordered some drum sticks from Amazon. Actually I ordered two drum sticks. They came in a box the same size as the one below. I should have written about this then, but I failed to take any photographs. I was curious when the box arrived because I had hoped that the length of the drum sticks would have warranted a 3D Pythagoras problem, but no, they were just laying lengthways in the box.
A few days ago I ordered a vertical stand for my PS4. The PS4 has lived upright for quite a while and the official stand keeps being delayed from release and so I ordered an after-market version. Amazon very kindly delivered the stand the next day. The packaging was curious. I had expected [I hadn’t learn my lesson from the drumsticks] a layer of cardboard around the stand and then addressed on top, making it letterboxable.
This package was couriered by someone in a van and they had to knock on the door. It was most definitely not letterbox sized.
The internal dimensions were:
30cm x 40cm x 10cm
Giving a volume of 12,000 cm^3
The PS4 stand dimensions were:
1.5cm x 8.5cm x 37cm
Giving a volume of 472cm^3 [3sf]
This gives a spare capacity of 96%.
Now, this isn’t a sensible use of cardboard. It isn’t even a sensible use of space or time. However, the increased cost of delivery is probably minimal. This package requires someone to be home to accept the package, or at least a neighbour. As long as the company can deliver on the first pass then I don’t see a great deal of waste.