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Millers Blog

Packaging

One of the first things a new Miller’s customer comments on is the way our prints are packaged. If I read the situation correctly, the first package arrives, you think to yourself “Hmm, that looks pretty nice. Box is in good shape.”

You then break into our fortified tape and finally get to the prints. “Holy cow, cardboard all around them, tape, plastic, shrink wrap, this thing could survive in a nuclear blast,” is how the internal conversation goes.

That process largely continues for the next few orders as you laugh to yourself and reach for the industrial scissors when our boxes arrive. Sometime around package 6 or 8, the thoughts turn to ”#!@*, why do they have to put so much junk around them so it’s so hard to see the (beautiful) prints?"

Over time, it becomes a nice ritual of breaking into the packaging, adding drama to the process of receiving visual confirmation that your prints look great. Somewhere along the way, you’ll receive a box that’s slightly bent, maybe a corner crunched, or (hopefully not) wet. You’ll nervously open the box, discover that our packaging saved the prints, and never complain about the mass quantities of tape/plastic again!

We recently had a customer let us know their package was brought to them looking like “it had been dipped in a vat of oil!”. So bad that the delivery company didn’t want to drop it off, but instead return it for credit/remake. Having already experienced the three stages of packaging emotional journey, she informed them that everything would be fine. Then opened it up to prove it to them!

Comments

 

Stan said:

I agree.  Millers packaging is unmatched.  It's also never more appreciated until (and for a very brief time) I sent just a few sports orders elsewhere and experienced  subpar packaging that created a high percentage of grief per package.  Millers knows what works and how to optimize for mutual satisfaction.

November 27, 2007 11:19 PM
 

dixiepixel said:

Speaking of packaging, Miller's should set up a cardboard recycling system.  I have TONS OF CARDBOARD that is in perfect condition . . . I hate throwing it away, so I recycle it.  But y'all are obviously are in good with the folks at FedEx, so why not set up something with them?  Then you'll be Miller's, the GREEN lab.  Woah.

November 29, 2007 8:45 AM
 

IrFu said:

Dixiepixel has a great thought!

December 4, 2007 1:55 PM
 

Rob Melton said:

Here's another idea, we have a large cutter, and reuse the cardboard as a filler on the back of deep frames, behind the portrait.  Then we use a piece of large black paper (we buy a whole roll at a time) for a dust cover, looks very sleek and clean to our customers.  Then put the wire and rubber bumpers on.

December 5, 2007 11:30 AM
 

Mona Oxford-Lyman said:

I am on a GREEN mission as well and reuse the white envelope/type paper that the prints come in.  I was going to purchase bags with my studio name but thought that might contribute to waste so I recycle instead.  The white envelopes look great, they fit different size prints and I am helping out the earth at the same time.   I recycle the cardboard for framing and I take it to school for art projects (I am also a middle school art teacher).  

January 20, 2008 9:24 PM
 

Pics4u said:

A note you may want to research on your own about the use of brown cardboard for framing - we stopped using it several years ago because it is not anywhere near being archival and is actually one of the worst materials to have next to valuable photographs - brown cardboard contains high amounts of acid left from it's processing.  Unless Millers is paying for archival grade shipping materials, I'd recommend you look into it and decide for yourself.

January 21, 2008 3:29 PM
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