Two views on Amazon

My late mother had a collection of home-spun sayings, one of which was that whenever I complained to her of a remark somebody made “Ask for sympathy when an intelligent person says something idiotic.”

Her credo resonated and rested with me and I have always taken note of a remark from that rarity: someone more intelligent than me.

One such is H an old uni friend with whom I have regular chats. One of these turned to Amazon a supplier I use more and more in the lock down. He said he never used them because he could not stand the packaging. After yesterday I came to agree.

I had ordered 4 items from Amazon each for some reason delivered separately.

The first,  a book, came in a jiffy bag sealed with duck tape. I had to use scissors to open it which cut onto its innards releasing a tsunami of fluff on my working table, pullover and floor.

It took some 30 minutes to remove it all.

The next package arrived without incident.

The final two were delivered in the course of my afternoon nap.  Than all the boxes had to be taken to the dustbin area.

Pace my friend’s remark, two of the boxes were crammed with brown paper.

My window cleaner – a fount of common sense – in once seeing a label on the box advised its removal and destruction as miscreants apparently comb dustbins for identity theft.

Amazon is here to stay, indeed grow, because of its convenience but I wonder if H and I are not the only ones irritated and concerned  by its packaging.