[flavius29663]

I like what Costco is doing, instead of just recycling the boxes, they are left for people to carry their purchases. The boxes get another use (instead of using bags), people get free boxes, costco doesn't have to deal with the recycling. win-win-win

I guess the only losing side the is recycling company of the city.

[spike021]

>I like what Costco is doing, instead of just recycling the boxes, they are left for people to carry their purchases.

This is really interesting. Growing up in Southern California, I remember always getting free boxes from Costco like this.

But for the past 15 years I've lived in the Bay Area, I can't say I've ever seen boxes readily offered- even to other people in the store. Maybe these locations are just so busy they run out quickly.

[flavius29663]

> Maybe these locations are just so busy they run out quickly.

I kept thinking about this while shopping at Costco. The thing is, all the boxes that the products are shipped into Costco should be enough to send products from Costco to final consumers. There will be some inefficiencies in how shoppers pack their boxes, and also people taking more boxes because they need them for moving or something, but also there are people taking less boxes, or over-packing some boxes. All in all, I think a balance can be kept by the nature of the process itself, and it seems that way by studying my local Costco.

If a location is not doing that, it's probably intentional rather than a lack of enough boxes. Maybe they don't have enough floor space to store them? Maybe they are getting a very good deal on recycling?

[stevenwoo]

I haven’t driven in a year so maybe it’s changed but the Mountain View costco always offered boxes if you had a lot of purchases. The number of people doing what appears to be instacart or other company shopping for customers has skyrocketed during first year of Covid so those delivery services might be using many of the boxes they previously tried to give to customers.

[flopsamjetsam]

Bunnings (a hardware store in Australia) does this too. There are big cages full of empty boxes just after the checkout.

[ezconnect]

This is normal is S. Korea, recycling company is not the losing side because they still get the cardboard from the residential area. In the apartment complex I lived in they haul a truck load of cardboard every other day.

[flavius29663]

IT still costs more money to haul cardboard from residential areas, compared to a large commercial building.

[midoridensha]

No, it really doesn't. Not when people live in condo buildings with hundreds of residents. Korea is not like America.

[radicalbyte]

Every supermarket in NL does this and has done for at least 20 years. IIRC the UK supermarkets are the same.

In NL we also recycle most drinks bottles (you pay a small deposit on them which you get back when your return them).

[mparlane]

I imagine the consumers who took their products home in the free box will then recycle the box. So the recycling company gets the box anyway and not another plastic bag.

[yamtaddle]

Some places like grocery stores and I think even Wal-Mart used to keep big hoppers of cardboard boxes at the front that you could pick through and take whatever you wanted. That used to be the place to get boxes for shipping or moving. Talking like early 90s.

[spockz]

Ik is actually pretty standard in the Netherlands to have a big box/container near the exit(s) where you can get a cardboard box.

Most often they are boxes for bananas or wine bottle boxes. Very convenient to carry stuff home if you forgot a bag.