Sunday, November 8, 2020

Plague diary -- ordering online

One of the huge economic changes of the pandemic has been a shift to ordering online instead of going to the store in person, and people who follow this sort of thing for a living expect that we'll never go back to the olden ways.  Not that remote shopping wasn't a big deal even before the coronavirus, but it has skyrocketed this year.  Just one statistic: Amazon Prime Day sales were up 45% over last year.  

I know there's a generational gap in here somewhere; my children are totally comfortable with buying things sight unseen, whereas my husband and I hardly ever think to do so unless we've first tried brick-and-mortar.  I like to feel the goods, try on the shoes, find the reddest pepper.  But even I am getting more willing to get with the 21st century.  Especially when it comes with free shipping.   

But there's a big downside, namely all the damn packaging.

Here's a box that arrived last week (after we encountered empty shelves at the local big box).


You might expect it to be chock full of big things...


...but no, here's what was inside.  And that's not the worst of it -- when you get down to the actual products, here's all it was:


So will we run out of landfills before we all succumb to coronavirus?


 

2 comments:

  1. compost..... all the paper...... even the box minus the plastic tape..... your flowers will thank you.

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  2. Recycling helps some. I am fortunate to have a recycling center that takes all kinds of paper and cardboard less than a mile from me (cans and aluminum too), and another one a bit farther away that takes plastic. More work but worth it if you can.

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