by guitarguy » Wed Nov 18, 2009 11:18 am
I live in the southwest and my cases from Garagiste arrived with the bottoms blown out of about one-third of the bottle compartments. Apparently UPS just bounces those bottles enough that they blow through the thin styrofoam bottom of the individual bottle compartment. The same thing used to happen when I was in the midwest and received shipments from the left coast. I never have had a problem with the cardboard egg-type shippers, but these are probably harder to load since they have to be loaded three bottles or four bottles and then a cardboard insert placed in, then another few bottles, then cardboard, etc. I suspect Garagiste's trepidation to go this way may include the additional labor and time required to load out this type of case. I can understand that. But man, I had to go to every dumpster in the county after dark to find enough places to dump my 21 empty styrofoam inserts (recycled the box) and I felt like a heel for landfilling them. I could not even re-sell the containers because of the blown out bottoms. I await the inevitable broken bottle in a blown out compartment. There must be a better solution.
Check local box distributors (look under boxes in the Yellow Pages) or bottle making companies (glass companies). They may sell you empty cases. I have to believe the local liquor store would tell you to take whatever you need.