{"id":222885,"date":"2010-01-24T09:19:44","date_gmt":"2010-01-24T13:19:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/inspiredeconomist.com\/2010\/01\/24\/lessons-learned-from-an-envelope-box-turned-inside-out\/"},"modified":"2010-01-24T09:19:44","modified_gmt":"2010-01-24T13:19:44","slug":"lessons-learned-from-an-envelope-box-turned-inside-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/222885","title":{"rendered":"Lessons Learned from an Envelope Box Turned Inside Out"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/inspiredeconomist.com\/files\/2010\/01\/envelope-box.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1739\" src=\"http:\/\/inspiredeconomist.com\/files\/2010\/01\/envelope-box-300x213.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"213\" \/><\/a> I did something a little nuts today. I have run a small niche publishing business since 2000, and I learned very quickly that when you print books on demand and sell them retail, you either lose nearly all your profit margin by buying packing boxes or you have to charge a lot more than you might be comfortable doing. My goal was to charge less for shipping than Amazon and the others, so charging full shipping cost to cover the mailers defeated the purpose. So I looked at the stacks of envelopes and boxes in the corner, waiting to go into the trash, and thought, &#8220;Recycle!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Now, the Strong Tower Publishing <a href=\"http:\/\/www.strongtowerpublishing.com\/titles.htm\">titles page<\/a> has a little disclaimer:<\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-size: x-small\">Did you know?  \t\t\t\t<span style=\"color: #800000\">Strong Tower  \t\t\t\tPublishing recycles.<\/span> While we sell directly to the public, our  \t\t\t\tdirect sales are relatively small, so you may find your book  \t\t\t\tpacked in a recycled box or with recycled paper. This allows us  \t\t\t\tto protect the environment and keep our shipping prices  \t\t\t\textremely low.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p>This morning, however, when I went to look for a used padded envelope or box, I was completely out of them. There was an unopened bag of yellow mailing envelopes, but I hesitated. Then there it was, the empty envelope box. Perfect! So I cut along the seams, turned it inside out, and it fit perfectly around the book. A few staples, some tape, and a mailing label. Done!<\/p>\n<p>Granted, it took me 15 minutes to get it together, so I&#8217;m not suggesting that companies trade in their efficiency so every piece of scrap can have a second life. It&#8217;s the premise I think that is relevant here. We too easily trade convenience for environmental responsibility. <a href=\"http:\/\/inspiredeconomist.com\/2010\/01\/24\/lessons-learned-from-an-envelope-box-turned-inside-out\/#more-1738\" class=\"more-link\">(more&#8230;)<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/inspiredeconomist\/com\/~4\/l400cuEGZTw\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I did something a little nuts today. I have run a small niche publishing business since 2000, and I learned very quickly that when you print books on demand and sell them retail, you either lose nearly all your profit margin by buying packing boxes or you have to charge a lot more than you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":574,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-222885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/574"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222885\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}