Sometimes a book is delivered in the post to me in packaging that is, well, curiuous.
I recently received a huge cardboard carton that felt very light and wondered what on earth it could be. I opened it to find at the bottom a very, very thin book that a publisher had sent to me for reviewing. (A task I have still to do.) Why? presumably it was oversize by height and/or width for normal packing so the next extreme step was the only alternative.
But yesterday was something else. This was one of those bags that you imagine is used for a sack of potatoes but it was marked “Swiss Post”. It was tied up in the middle with one of those plastic twist ties and delivery label and down at the bottom of the bag was the book you see beside it in the photo.
It’s a heavy book. Perhaps that had something to do with it. But strange. Very strange indeed.
Neil Godfrey
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The Swiss Post bag reminds me of something similar I’ve gotten here in the States when the shipper’s package gets completely mangled for some reason. The post office puts whatever they can salvage in their own container and ships it along.
Yes, that’s what shippers do when the original packaging gets sufficiently damaged that they can’t move it through their system without risking the loss of or significant damage to the item(s) inside.
Ah, now that makes sense. Thanks. One book was very large, thin and light — a risk for that reason; the other was very, very heavy — also a risk.
I’ve read that shippers sometimes use oversized boxes if that’s what’s needed to fill out a shipping container, so that individual packages don’t shift in transit.