At Last – A Better Way to Package Pellets for Shipping
The whole thing began a little ominously. I was chatting with Airguns of Arizona’s normally cheerful Greg Glover when he got serious on me: “I’m going to be sending you some pellets,” he said, adding, “You might want to have a camera handy when you open them up.”
Oh? Why? I wondered.
“Just open the pellets and let me know what you think,” Greg said.
After he hung up, I remembered that he had mentioned AoA’s quest for a better way to package pellets. They wanted to deliver pellets in as perfect condition as possible without going to stupid lengths like swaddling a single tin of pellets in a bale of bubble wrap. They were tired of tins getting beat up in transit, he said.
A day or so later I get an email notification from UPS that a package is en route to me from AoA. My fevered writer’s imagination goes into high gear. I could picture titanium clamshells lovingly cupping pellet tins centered in a nest of resilient elastomers. Or maybe some George Jetson/Star Wars combo based on hovercraft-anti-gravity tech. “May the Force be with your pellets.” Or perhaps pellet tins cast into a cloud of poly-something-or-other foam and protected by one of those cool metal cases the international couriers use (preferably handcuffed to the wrist to prevent lost).
So I was ready, primed for something spectacular, on high alert. I even put fresh batteries in my camera.
About a week after the email notification, our UPS guy drops off a thoroughly unremarkable package: a cube of cardboard measuring a hair over six inches on a side. (An aside: I’m convinced that our UPS guy has Ninja, or SEAL or SAS training; he can leave a package on our front stoop without setting off our security system – two dachshunds. These same two dogs will sound ‘all hands to battle stations’ if a butterfly so much as lands on our back deck.)
So I pick up the cube and eyeball it. Nothing obvious. Easy-like, I slide my Buck tactical knife out of my pocket, flick open the blade, and quietly slit the tape. The top two cardboard flaps part slightly. Other than that, nothing. No fweeeet or zeeeee as robotic extensors activate, no hum from gyroscopic stabilizers. Hmmm.
I lean over, spread the flap, revealing two more cardboard flaps. I spread these flaps to reveal a tin of JSB Exact Jumbo Monster .22 pellets nestled in the exact center of a square of cardboard . . . except that it’s not just a square of cardboard. It’s a whole stack of squares of cardboard that have a circle punched out in the center so the pellet tin can live there unmolested as the box travels through whatever horrors UPS subjects it to on the way from Arizona to upstate New York.
Underneath the tin is a square of cardboard and below that, another laminated cardboard hole containing a tin of JSB .177 Express pellets. Below that, the same thing again, but this time with a bigger hole to accommodate a tin of JSB .20 cal pellets (the tins are bigger, see?). One more layer down, I find a tin of JSB .22 Jumbo Express pellets, and below that, the bottom of the box.
The upshot of this is that four tins of pellets arrived in perfect shape, thanks to Airguns of Arizona’s new packaging scheme. And, if getting my pellets in pristine condition were not enough, my floor is not covered with those foam plastic packing peanuts that seem to cling to everything. Heck, you can even recycle all of the packaging when you're done with it. Is that neat, or what?
Oh? Why? I wondered.
“Just open the pellets and let me know what you think,” Greg said.
After he hung up, I remembered that he had mentioned AoA’s quest for a better way to package pellets. They wanted to deliver pellets in as perfect condition as possible without going to stupid lengths like swaddling a single tin of pellets in a bale of bubble wrap. They were tired of tins getting beat up in transit, he said.
A day or so later I get an email notification from UPS that a package is en route to me from AoA. My fevered writer’s imagination goes into high gear. I could picture titanium clamshells lovingly cupping pellet tins centered in a nest of resilient elastomers. Or maybe some George Jetson/Star Wars combo based on hovercraft-anti-gravity tech. “May the Force be with your pellets.” Or perhaps pellet tins cast into a cloud of poly-something-or-other foam and protected by one of those cool metal cases the international couriers use (preferably handcuffed to the wrist to prevent lost).
So I was ready, primed for something spectacular, on high alert. I even put fresh batteries in my camera.
About a week after the email notification, our UPS guy drops off a thoroughly unremarkable package: a cube of cardboard measuring a hair over six inches on a side. (An aside: I’m convinced that our UPS guy has Ninja, or SEAL or SAS training; he can leave a package on our front stoop without setting off our security system – two dachshunds. These same two dogs will sound ‘all hands to battle stations’ if a butterfly so much as lands on our back deck.)
So I pick up the cube and eyeball it. Nothing obvious. Easy-like, I slide my Buck tactical knife out of my pocket, flick open the blade, and quietly slit the tape. The top two cardboard flaps part slightly. Other than that, nothing. No fweeeet or zeeeee as robotic extensors activate, no hum from gyroscopic stabilizers. Hmmm.
I lean over, spread the flap, revealing two more cardboard flaps. I spread these flaps to reveal a tin of JSB Exact Jumbo Monster .22 pellets nestled in the exact center of a square of cardboard . . . except that it’s not just a square of cardboard. It’s a whole stack of squares of cardboard that have a circle punched out in the center so the pellet tin can live there unmolested as the box travels through whatever horrors UPS subjects it to on the way from Arizona to upstate New York.
Underneath the tin is a square of cardboard and below that, another laminated cardboard hole containing a tin of JSB .177 Express pellets. Below that, the same thing again, but this time with a bigger hole to accommodate a tin of JSB .20 cal pellets (the tins are bigger, see?). One more layer down, I find a tin of JSB .22 Jumbo Express pellets, and below that, the bottom of the box.
The upshot of this is that four tins of pellets arrived in perfect shape, thanks to Airguns of Arizona’s new packaging scheme. And, if getting my pellets in pristine condition were not enough, my floor is not covered with those foam plastic packing peanuts that seem to cling to everything. Heck, you can even recycle all of the packaging when you're done with it. Is that neat, or what?
posted by Jock Elliott at
1:38 AM
4 Comments:
Pyramyd air has been doing the same thing for some time now. Congrats on getting in the game too.
Aloha
Actually, AOA has always packed pellets very well. Pyramid switched to their new pellet packing to save their reputation following MANY damage claims.
From talking with the folks at AOA, they switched to add more strength to the package and to eliminate the bubble wrap and peanuts. It seems small items were getting lost in the packing materials, so they changed. I'm surprised this blog post is only coming out now. I received a box from AOA over a month ago with this new packing.
Scott,
I was unaware of Pyramyd's packaging.
Frank G.,
I just got the new packaging a couple of days before I posted the blog.
I guess my pellets shipped a few days before the new packaging. One tin virtually destroyed another dented badly. But..... all pellets intact. I'm disappointed because I've been collecting pellet tins since the early '70's and these are not worth saving.
Glenn in NJ
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