in 2008 amazon introduced a new initiative called frustrationfree packaging. the idea was simple, cost saving, and welcomed by just about everyone except hard drive buyers.the goal was for amazon to replace the horrible, thick plastic wrapping that a lot of products are welded inside with a simple plastic bag and small cardboard shipping box or envelope. in some cases just a small box would be required meaning no excess plastic shipped at all. also, all packaging can be recycled and each shipment would be &ldquowithout excess packaging materials&rdquo according to the faq.i certainly appreciated receiving my items in such simple packaging i could recycle, but my latest purchase makes me think amazon has forgotten a major reason why it started offering frustrationfree packaging in the first place.last week i purchased two 3 meter hdmi cables from the uk amazon store. visitors to geek.com know that when buying a hdmi cable you shouldn&rsquot be spending a lot of money on an expensive cable. it&rsquos a digital cable, so it either works or it doesn&rsquot. i therefore chose the amazonbasics cable that advertises frustrationfree packaging and is sold at a more than reasonable price.what i expected to arrive today was a package containing two cables in no more than a small box just big enough to house them. what i got was a mass of cardboard in the form of 3 boxes and a large amount of boxfilling paper. in total there was easily enough space to pack 20 of these hdmi cables in the packaging provided.here&rsquos the packaging in the stages that i opened itthis is anything but frustrationfree. sure, the plastic shell you have to cut open has gone, and there&rsquos no plastic beyond the cable connector covers, but i have about 90 too much packaging for such small products and two little paper manuals covering exactly the same details.my question to amazon is simply why these cables should be stacked in a container at your warehouse and picked up as and when they are ordered. instead, it looks as though each one is given a box that can fit multiple cables in. as you can see here, the two cables piled in one box still leaves plenty of room for another one.so how much of this packaging wasn&rsquot needed here&rsquos my take on what the cables could have been shipped in left compared to the additional packaging i received rightit&rsquos also worth pointing out the smaller box each hdmi cable was in actually felt stronger than the larger box making it more than adequate as a shipping box on its own.i&rsquod be interested to hear how many other people are getting this much additional packaging on products amazon is advertising as free from such waste. 
