Bubblewrapped

UPS stopped by yesterday, delivering the product of another Internet shopping moment. (It really is too easy to shop on the Internet.)

This time it was a print of a delightful New Yorker cover from July 23 of this year. The cover picture features two polar bears and four penguins enjoying the water gushing from an open fire hydrant. Beyond the global warming messaging, the cover presented two of our favorite animals: I've got a thing for bears and my husband collects all things penguin.

So it was a natural. (I'm delighted with the print. It is truly a piece of art. New Yorker prints aren't cheap, but it is beautiful.)

One aspect of the experience wasn't so beautiful, however: the packaging. Oh man. I think someone at the New Yorker store owns stock in bubblewrap. That print was so well wrapped that dropping it off the Empire State Building wouldn't have marred the frame or scratched the glass.

And I just hate throwing away bubblewrap. It always seems so pristine (at least until our female Jack Russell terrier gets to it...she loves popping all the bubbles!)

But there's a solution: drop it off at the local UPS store. Every neighborhood has one of those pack-and-ship places and my experience is that they are happy to take nice boxes and clean packing materials.

Why not: free packaging stuff cuts their costs.

Win for them. And a win for the polar bears and penguins too.