Menards in Store Train Order Pickup - Weird Packing Practices

Welcome to the year 2020. Amazon does that all the time.

It takes some thought to realize multiple items are part of the same order ,and that they will all fit in one smaller box.

Piece work. 

I haven't experienced it, but I'm not surprised.

I ran into the very same thing on my last order. I ordered all the M & M cars. So when I got to the store to get my order they brought out a large box and 5 separate items. Thought that looked strange so I ask the associate to open the box because I thought there might of been a mistake with my order. To my surprise one carton containing one car was in this large box. So I guess you could say you never know how they will ship your order...........Paul 2

I had the same thing.  I ordered 5 train cars and got 5 free gift cars, there were 10 boxes many much larger than needed.  My entire trunk was filled.   I agree, strange.

As an Amazon driver, One week alone I had 20 packages to be delivered to a house. Then there are days that there is 3 items in one box.   

What a waste of resources.

I picked up my internet order a few days ago at the local store. The 2 Tide tankers were in the individual boxes with the plastic clam shell inner liner. The 2 Shelbys were in their small boxes then packed in individual bubble lined bags. 4 packages total in which the clerk in the pick-up desk put into a large Menards plastic bag.

@Allegheny posted:

Hello Guys,

I recently had a train related order filled by Menards and had it shipped to the local store.  

Fortunately it isn't far from my home.

I had ordered two tankers, 1 box car, 1 hopper car and 1 AC power adaptor.  Because of the sale it also came with 4 Shelby Silver Cobra lighted vehicles.

I was expecting approximately two to three boxes at the very most, given past experience with Menards.

However to my surprise when I went to pick it up the associate gave me the six boxes as shown on the right 

I was surprised to see the hopper car not packaged and the other five boxes were extremely light.  I figured the three remaining cars (tanker and boxcar) were in the larger box.  

I got home opened the boxes and to my surprise saw that one of each item had been placed into a seperate box!  However the two tankers and one boxcar were missing. 

Called the store and learned that there were three boxes on the next shelf waiting for me.    These are circled on the left.  

Why would anyone place one little itty bitty item in a large box instead of all of them into one box?  I would have figured the train cars would have been packaged in one large box.  The box that the one Shelby came in would have sufficed. 

It just doesn't make any sense to me especially when the order shows (4) of x or (2) of y.

Question: Those of you who have elected to pick up your train purchases from the store, have you experienced anything similar?      

  

The reason this happened was because your order was probably filled from multiple distribution centers. The freight cars most likely came from the same warehouse and since the boxes are large they didn't get packaged together in a carton. The smaller items probably came from different warehouses and didn't meet the minimum shipping volume and needed to be put in a larger box. That doesn't explain way they were put in such a large box.

James

@jlm1973 posted:

The reason this happened was because your order was probably filled from multiple distribution centers. The freight cars most likely came from the same warehouse and since the boxes are large they didn't get packaged together in a carton. The smaller items probably came from different warehouses and didn't meet the minimum shipping volume and needed to be put in a larger box. That doesn't explain way they were put in such a large box.

James

Hello James,

Thank you for your reply, but I don't think that multiple distributions centers are being used.   

I've never worked in a distribution warehouse nor can I profess I understand their practices.  However what I do know is that the order was placed at one time on the Menards Website.

The boxes the items came in have the Menards name on them.  The box in which the one A/C adaptor came in is marked "M&M Red Boxcar"  The green shipping label on each box has exactly the same time stamp when the order was being filled 5:22 AM.

To me it suggests that the packing was done from one distribution center not multiples.  Also it had to be a Menards distribution center as the boxes being recycled contain only their name on them.

Please see attached photos.

Based on my working in distribution centers. A couple of things may have happened.

The dimensions of the product maybe incorrect, this would tell them which box to use.

The order may not have been picked at the same time.

I would suspect many pallets coming to the store from the distribution center. There is a chance your order isn't really your order until it gets to the store.   

I would have been surprised if your order came to your home this way.

Just some ideas.

@bptBill posted:

Based on my working in distribution centers. A couple of things may have happened.

The dimensions of the product maybe incorrect, this would tell them which box to use.

The order may not have been picked at the same time.

I would suspect many pallets coming to the store from the distribution center. There is a chance your order isn't really your order until it gets to the store.   

I would have been surprised if your order came to your home this way.

Just some ideas.

I placed an order for 1 of each of the M&M's boxcars/hoppers plus 3 AC adapters.  Living in North Carolina, I have to have Menards orders shipped to my home.  My order has been shipped, and according to the UPS tracking info, my order is only 1 box.  I'll see what size box it is when it arrives later this week.

@bptBill posted:

Based on my working in distribution centers. A couple of things may have happened.

The dimensions of the product maybe incorrect, this would tell them which box to use.

The order may not have been picked at the same time.

I would suspect many pallets coming to the store from the distribution center. There is a chance your order isn't really your order until it gets to the store.   

I would have been surprised if your order came to your home this way.

Just some ideas.

Thank you bptBill!

You may be right about it all as it seems plausible. 

The only thing that bothers is the time stamp on each of the nine boxes are the same 5:22 am.  

The local store shuts down at 9:00 pm and they are cleared out by 10:00 pm (pretty much).

Thus if the order is assembled at the store, that means someone has to be working the midnight shift.

Having spent a 40+ year career in industrial logistics; what I am seeing from Amazon and others is an apparent inability to grasp the true practice of logistics.  Their only interest seems to be getting whatever it is delivered as quickly as possible even if that results in a lot of inefficiency.  To dovetail on what Tim mentioned above; there are days I’ll see three and four different Amazon delivery vehicles in our neighborhood, some of them stopping at the same houses earlier Amazon vehicles delivered to.

UPS seems to have package delivery to a science when it comes to route planning and consolidation.  Sooner or later Amazon and the others will have to practice the same logic or go broke.

 Curt

Interesting observations.  Al of my orders have been shipped since there is not a Menards near me.  They have al been well packed, multiple items in the boxes, and no empty space. And usually quite timely.

One issue with my most recent one.  It was sent USPS 3 day Priority Mail and I do tracking.  Took a week to arrive from when it was shown as actually being in the hands of the USPS.  It was scheduled to arrive in 3 days on Friday.  On Thursday it showed that it had arrived at my local Post Office.  On Friday it was marked as out for delivery.  At 8 pm on Friday I received an update that it was delayed in shipping.  It didn’t arrive Saturday and even though according to the USPS web site priority mail includes Sunday and Holiday delivery it sat at the local post office until Tuesday, a week after it was shipped.  Glad it wasn’t my meds, homebrew supplies, baby chicks or those super expensive Omaha Steaks.

@breezinup posted:

All that cardboard, and all the resources wasted to deliver it. No surprise the U.S. is the most wasteful country in the world, alone accounting for 12% of the world's solid waste. Per capita leading the world by multiples, at 1700 pounds per year for each American. Nothing to be proud of.

Even if true, who claimed to be proud of it?

@juniata guy posted:

Having spent a 40+ year career in industrial logistics; what I am seeing from Amazon and others is an apparent inability to grasp the true practice of logistics.  Their only interest seems to be getting whatever it is delivered as quickly as possible even if that results in a lot of inefficiency.  To dovetail on what Tim mentioned above; there are days I’ll see three and four different Amazon delivery vehicles in our neighborhood, some of them stopping at the same houses earlier Amazon vehicles delivered to.

UPS seems to have package delivery to a science when it comes to route planning and consolidation.  Sooner or later Amazon and the others will have to practice the same logic or go broke.

 Curt

The Only way Amazon goes broke is if the planet Earth implodes. Amazon could acquire both UPS & FedEx the same day and have many billions left over.

@jlm1973 posted:

The reason this happened was because your order was probably filled from multiple distribution centers.  The freight cars most likely came from the same warehouse and since the boxes are large they didn't get packaged together in a carton.  The smaller items probably came from different warehouses and didn't meet the minimum shipping volume and needed to be put in a larger box. That doesn't explain way they were put in such a large box.  James

But four of those five boxes hold his Shelby Cobra cars.... which, one would assume, would come from the same spot.

@MikeH posted:

Even if true, who claimed to be proud of it?

Kind of an odd interpretation. The point is, and when the statement is made that something is "nothing to be proud of, " it means we should be embarrassed by it.

@breezinup posted:

Kind of an odd interpretation. The point is, and when the statement is made that something is "nothing to be proud of, " it means we should be embarrassed by it.

I get you.  My point is, I don't believe you and I'm not embarrassed.

@DMASSO posted:

Piece work. 

After all of the above discussion, I'm beginning to believe that DMASSO is right.   

There must be an incentive at the end of the day to show the number of boxes filled.   Maybe they are paid or evaluated by their productivity.   The more boxes used equates to better pay or bragging rights or both.

Modern logistics methods are "get it there as fast as possible". We ordered a lot of stuff during the Covid lockdown that we normally pick up at the  local Target, WalMart, BJ's, etc. Amazing how stuff got shipped.
We buy a lot from Grainger Industrial Supply at my company. They seem to do it right as well.

That's why Amazon is building their own shipping company. I do believe Bezos will own UPS or Fed Ex one day.

UPS does have it down to a science for sure.

The important part is you got all of the stuff you ordered. Missing shipments are for a WHOLE other thread.

@MikeH posted:

I get you.  My point is, I don't believe you and I'm not embarrassed.

I didn't invent it. Look it up yourself.   

@Bill T posted:

The Only way Amazon goes broke is if the planet Earth implodes. Amazon could acquire both UPS & FedEx the same day and have many billions left over.

 

Bill; l agree Amazon and Bezos are “big dogs” right now but; I can remember a time when companies like Neiman Marcus, Compaq Computers, Pan Am Airlines, Kodak and others were “big dogs” too.  😉

Curt

They package stuff like that because it is cheaper to ship like that then to hire somebody to think.