So the Suck Fairy Visited USPS Small Flat-Rate Shipping Boxes this year...

[TygrBright]

...just a rant, you may skip...

So, around this time of year, I do a lot of mailing. I mail packages of home-made goodies to many friends and family, and a few business contacts.

The packages are all the same size and configuration. For years I have been refining my shipping methods until I have reached a balance of "affordable" and "simple to prepare."

And this has rested upon the USPS Small Flat-Rate Shipping box.

It was originally designed to be able to ship a VHS cartridge. That design fit very nicely around an envelope-shaped pop-up box that, filled with goodies and accompanied by a smallish card, nestled nicely within it.

The box came as a flat piece of cardboard, cut into a shape and scored so that you could square it up nicely, insert a couple of tabs on the ends to hold it together, remove a strip covering the adhesive, fold the flap over and seal it.

The cardboard was a bit flimsy, the adhesive so-so, and I was used to supplementing the final assembly step with a quick criss-cross wrap of 2" clear package tape, and it worked just fine.

This year the Post Office changed the design of the box.

It is no longer designed to be an actual box. None of the folds is an actual 90 degree angle, if you use the scores that come on the box you end up with the bottom of an off-kilter pyramid. It has random-looking holes in it that have no apparent purpose for assembling the box. The adhesive strip no longer folds over to seal the narrow front side of the box, it now makes a lapped-over seal in the middle of the broad top of the box, making it damn' difficult to stack, apply the mailing label smoothly, or even seal it evenly and consistently.

Worst of all, the little pouch-shaped box that holds my home made goodies (I invested in 500 a couple of years ago to get a great price break, figured I use them for the rest of my days...) no longer fits comfortably within. They changed the dimensions JUST enough to make it between an eighth and a quarter inch too shallow.

I hate the Post Office tonight.

disgustedly,
Bright

[Beakybird]

1. And if you complain, to the USPS, you just know they're going to push the envelope.

[Harker]

2. Stamp out the P.O.! n/t

[eppur_se_muova]

3. Change for the sake of change ? Or was there an actual reason behind it ?

Sadly, middle managers get bonuses and promotions for "innovation", not for leaving things well enough alone.

[TygrBright]

4. I suspect that the new design uses .02% less cardboard than the old...

Resulting in a savings of something like eight cents per thousand. I'm sure it all adds up, since the boxes are supplied to customers as freebies.

wearily,
Bright

[Totally Tunsie]

5. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

Damn them.