Down with Packing Peanuts!
By Brad Shorr

Polystyrene loose fill, often referred to as packing peanuts, is the packaging material everyone loves to hate.

• Consumers who receive boxes packed with peanuts hate them because they create a mess and are awkward to dispose of.
• Packagers hate peanuts because they are messy (stray peanuts have been known to cause accidents on the warehouse floor) and take up an enormous amount of storage space on the floor or overhead.
• Packaging distributors hate peanuts because they chew up warehouse space, are expensive and difficult to ship, and generate little revenue.
• Manufacturers, from what I can gather, are not too excited about making peanuts and regard them as a necessary evil.
• Everyone hates peanuts because polystyrene is widely recognized as being difficult to recycle and difficult to dispose of.

So why are there so many packages packed with peanuts? Two reasons.

• Peanuts are fast.
• Peanuts are cheap.

Large scale distribution centers store peanuts in overhead bins (sometimes large enough to contain several truckloads of material) with drop stations above each packing table. Packers simply squeeze a valve and peanuts pour into the box - it s like milking a cow. For an operation shipping hundreds or thousands of boxes per day, speed is of the essence. And from a material cost standpoint, packing peanuts are hard to beat - the per cubic foot cost is lower than any alternative yet devised.

Material cost, however, does not tell the whole story. Packers sometimes overlook the indirect cost of packing peanuts, which can easily exceed the cost of switching to a more expensive void fill material. Those indirect costs include -

• Additional clean up time on the shop floor.
• Potential for injury, including slipping and accidental swallowing.
• The need for larger boxes than what could be used in conjunction with other void fill materials.
• Poor space utilization, especially when peanuts are being stored on the floor.
• The increased shipping costs associated with larger boxes for instance, UPS oversize upcharges and fewer boxes shipped per truckload.
• Product damage. Movement causes peanuts to shift and settle, making fragile products vulnerable when being handled and during shipment.

As a sales and marketing professional, I am especially sensitive to the problem of packing peanuts and consumer perception. When I receive a package packed with peanuts, my first two thoughts are, “This company doesn t care about me. This company doesn t care about the environment.”

When customers think like that, companies not only lose their business, they lose other people s business as well. Why? Because customers are likely to share a bad buying experience with friends, and others are far more likely to be influenced by friends than by a company s marketing message.

Would I pay more for a product packaged in something other than peanuts? Yes, and I think most people would. Peanut packers might be skeptical, but I can think of an easy way to test the market.

What if an online business gave customers the option of having their order packed in peanuts or, at a premium, packed in an environmentally friendly product? Who knows? Companies might discover they can help the environment and increase profits at the same time.

Brad Shorr is a sales and marketing consultant based near Chicago, Illinois. With an extensive background in B2B and the packaging industry, he specializes in sales coaching and training, online marketing strategy, and business blog development.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Brad_Shorr
http://EzineArticles.com/?Down-with-Packing-Peanuts!&id=859169

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