Tourist in MSN

I would be surprised if Trek and other manufacturers would re-use boxes. I got a box from Trek last year, the bike was packed into the box in Asia and sent here that way. I can't see how REI is really saving anything this way. When I say I got the box from Trek, it was a Trek store, not a dealer that sells Trek and other brands.

When I got that box, they did not have any boxes when I first came in, the garbage/recycle collector had just been there a day or two earlier. But they took my name and number with the type (size) box I was looking for. A couple weeks later I got a call that they had a box for me. I had also asked for the plastic thingy that goes in the fork dropouts, when I said that they added to the note to keep all packing materials with the box so there was some other stuff in the box, most of which I did not use. Keep in mind that each bike size might have a slightly different box, so there is not a standard bike box size, you should know how many inches you need in all three dimensions, but thickness is probably more standard than the height and length of the box. Go there when nobody else is in the store, if they have more customers than staff, they won't have much time for you.

With possible increases in tariffs coming, there might be a shortage of boxes if people do not want to pay for a sudden big increase in bike prices from China. But some bikes come from other parts of Asia that would not have tariff increases so it is impossible to tell if there will be a bike box shortage or not. Last year I bought a new Raleigh, came in the box (a bike shop did not assemble it for me), the box was labeled from Guang Zhou China.