In the early days, we had a mix of client-supplied, branded shipping containers and stock shipping containers. Austin Foam Plastics – AFP – produced our branded, custom-sized boxes for Despair. We had the calendar mailer (a wrap), the mug box, the master shipper (fit calendars + non-poster/non-calendars), and the litho-combo (a long rectangular prism that fit a poster tube and allowed for calendar-width items). We expanded from there to add the Junior Master Shipper – fit multiples of calendars/desktoppers/stickypads, but at half the height. We had cardboard inserts that secured the mug within the mug box, and we later moved on to foam stabilizers.

For our stock boxes, we initially purchased from EconoBox, but moved on from there – I think – to AFP, but ultimately to Uline.

A major containerization improvement that I’ve already mentioned is when we moved from cardboard wraps for calendars to stayflats for calendars. Despair printed full color stayflats that looked great, and, operationally, sealing a stayflat is much better than taping a cardboard wrap.

There’s a relationship between marketing and revenue. There’s also a relationship between marketing and physics. And physics and cost. So, a promotion along the lines of “All Black Friday orders get a free Pessimist’s Mug!” or “Last day to order before Christmas – spend $30 and get a Procrastination poster!” add meaningful costs in packaging, labor, and postage – assuming we have enough of the packaging necessary for the shipment. All of the sudden, straight forward, compact calendar-into-stayflat shipments become bulky Master Shipper or Litho-combo shipments with tubes, void-fill and pallets of staged boxes. Maybe we unloaded some surplus mugs, but at what cost? It’s really important that all of the cost signals are functioning.

A fulfillment operation without a nervous system can rot away before the decision makers realize it.