I absolutely hate it when I order wine and it is shipped in styrofoam packers. That shit gets everywhere. Ive seen auction houses use it, stores, and sometimes wineries. I open my cases, and there’s a million tiny little white bits that broken off the main block and they stick to the glass bottles. I have to take a rag and clean all the styrofoam off of each bottle, then clean the floor and the surrounding area. Then, often times you find little particles that got stuck to your clothes or hide somewhere in the room and you discover these little bits a few days later.
Next, certain states, like where I live, garbage men will not take styrofoam loosely. I have to put each big block in its own individual garbage bag. Which means I have to waste a ton of garbage bags because the styrofoam packers are so large you can only fit 1 or 2 in each bag.
Man I can’t stand styrofoam. It makes me so fucking mad. I much prefer wood or cardboard.
Highly disagree. I love the idea of cardboard, but for any high value wines, I only want them shipped in styro for better physical and thermo protection.
Decent point, but if your shipment is longer than 24 hours, the wines will already be brought to room temp unless your wines are being shipped, ideally, in a temp controlled truck.
For expensive wines I prefer when they arrive with molded pulp, foam, or bubblewrap packers, then tightly pressed between cardboard or wood to prevent movement. But I can understand why you like styrofoam, it obviously has its advantages. It just drives me crazy when that shit gets everywhere.
I was curious about this a while ago and assuming 12 bottles at 55 degrees, depending on outside temps, it can take between 18-36 hours. I chose 24 hours because unless you have 1 day shipping, the assumption is it will be 2 or more days for delivery which means you wines are room temp upon delivery. Which is why I personally don’t worry about styro for temp. If I am shipping in a temp controlled truck, im fine with whatever packing material that protects my wine but also won’t drive me crazy.
It’s been a while since I had anything shipped in something other than cardboard or inflatable bottle bags. Don’t think I’ve seen polystyrene for the best part of a decade. It’s awful stuff. I’ve never had anything break in an inflatable sleeve so easily prefer that for expensive bottles.
Styrofoam is by far the worst for the environment and also by far the messiest.
The only reason to use it is for protection from heat (heat kills wine far more than cold). So I don’t ever use it, because I never ship wine when there is danger of heat damage.
As far as what we receive the percentage of the past few years has tipped decidedly in favor of pulp. We almost never get the individual slot air cushioned shipper inserts. These seem to be a European thing. Never seen any coming from a US fulfillment house.
Styrofoam has its advantages as others note. I think it is desired by customers during more extreme temperatures. I am kind of agnostic on which is sturdier, maybe styro by a nose. Very high value shipments tend to come in styro. I can’t ever see styro 100% going away. They have the 6 and 12 packs with the slots for ice packs, never seen this with pulp.
To me, in the realm of shipping the most dangerous aspect is lack or improper taping of the boxes. We get SO MANY boxes where the tape is ripping off and you basically have to carry the box like it was china once it’s off the delivery truck. Poor taping likely contributes to a sizable percentage of breakage. You basically need six strips of tape, maybe eight per box. The shit is not that expensive and in aggregate costs less than breakage. Just don’t get it.
