Part packaging

[uneumann]

A recent order from Mouser included 2 fuses (3AG glass cartridges). This pic shows the packaging those two fuses came in. There were 4 layers of bubble wrapped with tape.



I've noticed this trend towards "over packing" but this was a bit over the top. Could be that someone was bored and just killing time - but most of the other parts were similarly over-packed so it's not just an isolated case.
This has to have a cost that is ultimately paid by us (customers)... and there's the issue of plastic waste.

[mikeydee77]

I had similar experiences with amazon once. Ordered a memory card microSd and it gets delivered in a two foot box. Amazingly they actually have a menu item to complain about excessive packaging.

I think you have to accept that the human touch has long been vaporized.

[xtian]

Mouser is set up for industrial-size orders, thus the industrial-size packaging. It's really a marvel that Mouser allows orders for single units of anything for us hobby builders. I'm grateful!

[Tom Phillips]

I have experienced similar "over packing" from Mouser. However, it applies to only a few items and I save all the packing for re-use. Therefore, it doesn't go to waist.

[nevetslab]

I've also found the folks who box the packaged parts will tape the invoice to the inside of the box, as well as tape the overwrapped bubble-wrap parts to the insides of the box. Just to frustrate those of us who are only ordering small qty's? Nothing is simple these days. I've found I've kind of shifted over to Digkey of late, mostly due to shipping cost when the order is small...getting it under 1 lb so cost is cheap via USPS 1st class. But if you exceed that 1 lb limit, you get hit big time making it Priority Mail for over $12, I think.

[Chuck H]

I used to joke about how Mouser must hate trees because of all the catalogs they would send me and all the packaging for single build orders. They've been over packaging their stuff for at least thirty years as far as I can tell. I've written emails and even put notes in comment boxes on order forms and web pages. Nothing seems to change their MO. Sometimes with Mouser I'll get two little zip bags with ten resistors in one and four capacitors in the other wrapped in bubble wrap and then in another bag wrapped in six layers of packing paper and then in that bigger red bag they use and then stuffed into a cardboard box!!! For ten resistors and four capacitors!!! When they were doing that stuff AND sending me four phone book sized catalogs a year it just seemed so ludicrous and crazy. If I'd saved all the giant catalogs they sent me over the years when they sent them I could have used them as bricks to build a shed in my back yard.

I don't know what kind of trouble Mouser may have experienced with product damage in shipping but some kind of severe and redundant protocol was put in place over three decades ago and apparently it's etched into the walls like runes there.

[Leo_Gnardo]

Mouser is set up for industrial-size orders, thus the industrial-size packaging. It's really a marvel that Mouser allows orders for single units of anything for us hobby builders. I'm grateful!

Indeed, h'ray for Mouser! I recall early days when their catalog was the size of a skinny comic book, it seemed to me they catered to diy synth builders and the like. My how mighty Mouser has grown! No more 2000+ page catalogs, but I kept a couple of the last ones because sometimes I need to look up things that way. Searching on website can sometimes be a bit frustrating.

Fun fact - unless they've changed location, Mouser's El Cajon California warehouse is right next door to Taylor guitar factory. At least it was in 2005 when I visited Taylor. Of course the Taylor R&Dboffins ran over there any time they needed some parts, how handy is that?

[drewl]

Nice.

[Greg Robinson]

I think I can top all of your over-packing tales.
Years ago now, Digikey offered free shipping to Australia for orders over $200AUD (currently $60AUD). I was ordering a Hammond transformer that came to something like $199.60, and rather than pay the ~$60 extra for shipping below the threshold, I added a single piece of heatshrink for something like $0.50.

The $0.50 worth of 4'/120cm, 3mm heatshrink was sent in its own, 5'x6"x6" (150x15x15cm) box to avoid folding it... Would've been quite happy had it been bundled up and stuffed in with the transformer, wasn't even something I really needed and certainly wasn't anything fancy like adhesive lined, just regular old polyolefin 2:1, would've been completely fine. Must've cost them a (relative) fortune!

[catalin gramada]

I don't f.g care how they overpack everything they sent. But all the orders with FedEx I received over ocean in Belgium was 2 (two) days from the moment I ordered, going through few couples of hubs. As comparison the orders from Germany distribuitors comes in one week around. For sure the stupid European logistics have a lot to learn from American correspondents. Mouser rules. Excellent service for replacing damaged components aso.

[J M Fahey]

Your orders are not overpacked, they are simply too small so package looks too large only by comparison.

Here in Argentina I can NOT send anything through a Transport/Logistics company in a smaller than shoebox size box, reason being it can get "lost" or at last very hard to find inside a truck/container/warehouse_shelf ; even if I send a single transistor or IC or capacitor to a Customer for free replacement under warranty.

Any smaller, they do NOT take it until I put small package inside one of their "Qaccepted size" boxes, which of course carriesn extra price.

Only exception is regular Mail , both State owned and private competition, because they are designed for centuries for *letters* and similar stuff, so they are perfectly happy with, say, a padded envelope or palm sized box.

[Chuck H]

Fun fact - unless they've changed location, Mouser's El Cajon California warehouse is right next door to Taylor guitar factory. At least it was in 2005 when I visited Taylor. Of course the Taylor R&Dboffins ran over there any time they needed some parts, how handy is that?

That would be great!

What you'll find for Mouser historically on the internet may not be entirely accurate. WAAAAY back (maybe 45 years?) when the Mouser catalog was only the size of a magazine they had a warehouse in Gilroy, Ca. I think HQ may have been in El Cajon at the time though. All I know for sure is that my oldest Mouser catalogs said they were in Gilroy. I lived less than an hour away in San Jose. I hadn't gotten serious about electronics yet and they moved before I did. I remember thinking that I wished they were still in Gilroy MANY times after I got deeper into amp electronics. I think at that time they had abandoned Ca. altogether for a while and relocated the Gilroy warehouse to somewhere in Texas.

[Leo_Gnardo]

when the Mouser catalog was only the size of a magazine they had a warehouse in Gilroy, Ca.

I remember calling in an order decades ago and having a laugh with the woman at Mouser about the Gilroy Garlic Festival. Sometimes my order would ship from two locations, one in California, the other in Texas. I'm not sure at the moment, some years ago Mouser had a location I think in the UK, handy to European customers. Still active, I dunno.