2026 Void Fill Showdown — Air Pillows vs Bubble Wrap vs Paper vs Peanuts: Cost, Protection, and Speed-to-Pack Compared
Source: Packrift catalog as of 2026-04-29. If you cite a number from this report, please link back to packrift.com/pages/void-fill-showdown.
Executive summary
Void fill is the line item every packaging buyer underestimates. It looks small on the unit-cost spreadsheet — pennies per shipment — until you multiply by 100,000 monthly orders, add the labor seconds per box, and watch a $0.10 decision turn into a $40,000-per-year line. We pulled per-unit pricing from 12,929 active SKUs in the Packrift catalog as of April 29, 2026, normalized to cost-per-cubic-foot of installed fill, and bucketed the four formats DTC and 3PL operations actually choose between — air pillows (pre-inflated bags and on-demand cushion film), bubble wrap rolls, kraft / packing paper, and packing peanuts — against the protection, labor, storage, and sustainability vectors that should drive the choice.
Five takeaways for a packaging buyer or 3PL ops lead picking a primary void-fill format:
- Crumpled paper is roughly 13–30x cheaper per cubic foot of installed fill than every other common format. At Packrift catalog medians, kraft / newsprint paper void fill runs $0.16 per cubic foot. Pre-inflated air-pillow bags run $2.09 per cu ft, packing peanuts run $2.79 per cu ft, and bubble wrap rolls run $4.05 per cu ft. On-demand cushion film for a Mini Pak'R style machine runs $4.69 per cu ft — the most expensive format on a pure consumables basis, before you even amortize the $2,012 machine.
- Air pillows look cheap because the machine moves the cost off the unit line. Operators see "$0.04 per pillow" on a vendor quote and forget that a 16"x656' film roll only produces ~50 cu ft of installed cushioning, so the cost-per-cu-ft is squarely in the $4–5 range. Air pillows win on labor and storage, not on materials.
- Labor is the second-largest line in void fill, and it can flip the verdict. At $25/hour fully-loaded labor, the cost per shipment in seconds-spent breaks out as: air pillows $0.045 (5–8 sec), peanuts $0.080 (8–15 sec), paper $0.139 (15–25 sec), bubble wrap $0.208 (20–40 sec). Paper is 4.6x cheaper than bubble on materials but 1.5x more expensive on labor. The right comparison is materials + labor, not either alone.
- Storage is where peanuts quietly destroy your margin. Loose-fill peanuts are 90% air by volume. A 7-cubic-foot bag at $20 takes 7 cubic feet of warehouse space — and most 3PLs charge $0.85–$1.50 per cubic foot per month for storage. Storing a single month of peanut inventory for a 10K-shipments-per-month operation eats roughly 50–100 cubic feet of pallet space; bubble wrap and air-pillow film for the same volume fit in a fraction of that footprint.
- The "right" format almost never lives alone. Most 3PLs above 5K shipments/month run hybrid: paper for general void fill (cheap, fast enough, recyclable), bubble wrap for surface protection on fragile rigid SKUs, air pillows when the dim-weight or labor-rate math justifies the machine. Peanuts have shrunk to a niche format — mostly oversize fragile electronics and ag/industrial — because they fail on storage and sustainability.
The four formats, defined
Before the numbers: a tight definition of each format and where it actually fits. Sprint R13 is specifically about the four common general-purpose void-fill formats. We're not covering molded foam inserts, custom corrugated dunnage, suspension trays, or inflatable bag-in-box dunnage — those are case-specific protective packaging, not void fill.
Air pillows (inflatable bags and on-demand cushion film)
Polyethylene film with embedded air channels, sealed and inflated either at the manufacturer (pre-inflated bags shipped flat) or on-demand at the pack station via a desktop or in-line air-cushion machine (Sealed Air Mini Pak'R, Storopack Airplus, Pregis AirSpeed). Pre-inflated bags are simpler: open the case, pull out an inflated bag, drop in the void. On-demand film is cheaper per pillow at scale but requires a $1,500–$3,500 machine plus film-supply contracts. Best for: e-commerce DTC at >1,000 shipments/day where pack-station seconds matter, semi-rigid SKUs that need void displacement but not surface cushioning. Worst for: SMBs under 100 shipments/day who can't justify the machine, fragile glass requiring real cushioning.
Bubble wrap (cushioning rolls)
Polyethylene film with a regularly-spaced grid of inflated air bubbles (3/16", 5/16", or 1/2" bubble heights are standard). Sold by roll: width (in inches) by length (in feet), with thickness specified in mils (1.6–3.0 mil typical). Cut to size at the station and wrapped around or layered into the void. The only common format that meaningfully cushions against the SKU surface — the bubble grid creates a low-pressure interface that protects against scuffing, abrasion, and minor impact. Best for: fragile rigid SKUs (glass, ceramics, electronics, finished cosmetics), surface protection on painted or polished goods. Worst for: pure void fill in a non-fragile shipment — you're paying $4 per cubic foot when paper at $0.16 would do.
Kraft paper / packing paper (crumpled void fill)
Roll-fed kraft, newsprint, or recycled paper at 30–75 lb basis weight, crumpled by hand or through a paper void-fill machine (FillPak, Geami, RanPak) and stuffed into the void. Cheapest format on a per-cu-ft installed basis by a wide margin. Fully recyclable and biodegradable. Compresses noticeably during transit, so it works best when the void is fully filled (over-stuffed by 10–15%) to compensate. Best for: general void fill in any non-fragile or moderately-fragile shipment, brands with sustainability constraints, replenishment SKUs and apparel orders. Worst for: surface-sensitive luxury goods (paper rubs and can scuff), shipments with dense fragile contents that need real impact absorption.
Packing peanuts (loose fill)
Loose foam pellets (expanded polystyrene "EPS" peanuts, anti-static pink polystyrene, or starch-based biodegradable variants), poured into the void around the SKU. Standard sale unit is the cubic-foot bag (7, 12, 15, 30 cu ft bags) and ceiling-mount dispensers ($1,500–$3,000) for high-volume stations. Fills any void shape, no cutting or wrapping required. Settles 10–25% in transit, which can leave the SKU exposed if the void isn't over-filled. Best for: oversize fragile SKUs where the void shape is irregular (a vase in a 16x16x24 box), industrial / ag / B2B replenishment where unboxing experience doesn't matter. Worst for: small DTC orders (the customer hates them), surface-sensitive electronics (peanuts get into seams and ports), and any operation where storage footprint is constrained.
Per-cubic-foot cost — the core benchmark
The medians below are computed from Packrift catalog SKUs that explicitly target void-fill use. Each format is converted to "installed cubic feet of fill" using the conversion documented in the methodology section — so the comparison is apples-to-apples on the actual void volume each unit covers, not on roll length or bag count. We exclude butcher paper (food grade), tissue paper (gift wrap), foil thermal liners, and bubble mailers (a different format) from the void-fill counts.
| Format | Median $/cu ft installed | Min | Max | SKUs parsed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kraft / packing paper | $0.16 | $0.08 | $0.64 | 86 |
| Air pillows — pre-inflated bags | $2.09 | $1.50 | $2.71 | 5 |
| Packing peanuts | $2.79 | $2.20 | $2.93 | 4 |
| Bubble wrap rolls | $4.05 | $2.67 | $12.72 | 18 |
| Air-pillow on-demand film | $4.69 | $4.69 | $4.69 | 2 |
The headline ratio: kraft paper is 13x cheaper per cubic foot of installed fill than air-pillow bags, 17x cheaper than peanuts, 25x cheaper than bubble wrap, and 29x cheaper than on-demand cushion film. Every dollar a brand spends on something other than paper for general void fill is a dollar spent on labor, storage, sustainability, or perceived quality — not on the void-fill function itself.
Bubble wrap by thickness
Within bubble wrap, the bubble height (3/16", 5/16", 1/2") changes the cost-per-cubic-foot meaningfully:
| Bubble thickness | Median $/cu ft | Min | Max | SKUs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3/16" (small bubble) | $4.11 | $3.82 | $12.72 | 11 |
| 5/16" (medium bubble) | $4.05 | $3.70 | $4.05 | 3 |
| 1/2" (large bubble) | $3.03 | $2.67 | $4.47 | 4 |
Larger bubbles are cheaper per cubic foot because the loft per square foot of film is higher — you get more inflated volume from the same square footage. The trade-off is surface-protection precision: 3/16" bubble conforms tightly to small fragile SKUs (cosmetic bottles, jewelry boxes), 1/2" bubble is for pure void displacement and shock absorption on bigger items.
Kraft paper by basis weight
Paper basis weight (30 lb to 75 lb — the weight of a 500-sheet ream of 24"x36" paper) drives both cost and cushioning:
| Basis weight | Median $/cu ft | Min | Max | SKUs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 lb (lightest, newsprint) | $0.10 | $0.08 | $0.15 | 19 |
| 40 lb (light kraft) | $0.13 | $0.12 | $0.14 | 12 |
| 50 lb (standard kraft, "bogus" indented) | $0.16 | $0.14 | $0.64 | 23 |
| 60 lb (heavy kraft, indented) | $0.18 | $0.17 | $0.30 | 14 |
| 75 lb (heaviest) | $0.23 | $0.21 | $0.25 | 6 |
Lighter paper is cheaper but less cushioning per crumpled volume. 30-lb newsprint is the cheapest, hands-down the right answer for non-fragile DTC orders with a packing slip. 50-lb kraft is the dominant general-purpose pick — the price floor where the paper holds its volume in transit. 60-lb indented kraft (the dimpled embossed pattern that creates a structured cushion) is what most fragile-friendly 3PLs run for general void fill.
Packing peanuts by type
| Type | Median $/cu ft | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Corn-starch biodegradable | $2.20–$2.65 | 7 / 12 cu ft bags. Curbside compostable in most regions, dissolves in water. |
| Virgin polystyrene (EPS, white) | $2.93 | Standard EPS. Not curbside recyclable in most regions; requires drop-off. |
| Anti-static polystyrene (pink) | $2.93 | For electronics. Same recycling profile as virgin EPS. |
Per-shipment cost — what your CFO actually sees
The cost-per-cubic-foot table above is the right benchmark for comparing formats, but the line item that hits the budget is per-shipment cost. We translate using three reference box sizes and the void volume each typically requires for an order with one or two SKUs of moderate size:
| Box (L x W x H) | Void volume needed | Paper | Air pillow (bags) | Peanuts | Bubble wrap | Air pillow (film) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small (10x8x6) | 0.20 cu ft | $0.03 | $0.42 | $0.56 | $0.81 | $0.94 |
| Medium (16x12x6) | 0.50 cu ft | $0.08 | $1.05 | $1.40 | $2.03 | $2.34 |
| Large (20x16x12) | 2.00 cu ft | $0.31 | $4.18 | $5.59 | $8.11 | $9.38 |
At 10,000 shipments per month with an average medium-box void requirement, paper costs roughly $780/month. Bubble wrap for the same shipments costs $20,272/month. That's a $19,492/month materials gap, or $233,910 per year, before labor or storage are added.
Protection level — what each format actually protects against
Cost only matters if the package survives transit. A $0.16 paper void fill is worthless if the SKU shows up cracked. The protection profile of each format on the four vectors damage actually arrives on:
| Protection vector | Best | 2nd | 3rd | Worst |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drop / impact | Bubble wrap | Peanuts (when fully filled) | Air pillows | Paper |
| Vibration / road shock | Crumpled paper (high-friction interface) | Peanuts | Air pillows | Bubble wrap (slick surface, can shift) |
| Compression / stacking | Bubble wrap (semi-permanent loft) | Paper (semi-permanent) | Peanuts (settle 10–25%) | Air pillows (a punctured pillow is dead weight) |
| Surface protection | Bubble wrap (low-friction film against SKU) | Air pillows (smooth poly) | Paper (light abrasion risk) | Peanuts (rough surface, gets in seams) |
The headline rule: bubble wrap is the only format that meaningfully protects the SKU's surface, paper is the only format that holds vibration well without shifting, peanuts are the only format that fills irregular voids without cutting, and air pillows are the only format that scales to high pack-station throughput. Each format has exactly one thing it's the best at. Pick on the vector that matters most for your damage profile.
One under-appreciated nuance: peanuts settle in transit. A box packed with peanuts that's then rotated, vibrated, and stacked for two days arrives with the SKU at the bottom of a partly-empty void. For fragile SKUs in peanut fill, the standard fix is to over-fill by 15–20% and tape the box closed under hand pressure so the contents are preloaded against the lid — otherwise the peanut is a worse choice than paper for the same shipment.
Speed to pack — labor seconds per box
Materials cost is the easy line. Labor cost is the line that flips the verdict on the right format. We measured pack-station seconds for each format from observed pack-station videos and 3PL ops benchmarks:
| Format | Seconds per box | Labor cost at $25/hr | At 10K shipments/mo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Air pillows (drop in) | 5–8 sec (avg 6.5) | $0.045 | $451/mo |
| Packing peanuts (scoop + level) | 8–15 sec (avg 11.5) | $0.080 | $799/mo |
| Paper (crumple + place) | 15–25 sec (avg 20) | $0.139 | $1,389/mo |
| Bubble wrap (cut + wrap + place) | 20–40 sec (avg 30) | $0.208 | $2,083/mo |
The flip: bubble wrap is 4.6x more expensive than paper on materials but only 1.5x more expensive on labor. Air pillows are the most expensive material (per cu ft) but the cheapest labor. For a 10K-shipments-per-month operation, switching from bubble wrap to air pillows saves $1,632/month in labor — almost exactly enough to amortize a $2,012 Mini Pak'R machine in two months. The labor delta is what makes the air-pillow machine math work for high-volume operations.
Mechanical paper crumplers (RanPak FillPak, Geami WrapPak) cut paper labor from 20 seconds to roughly 8–10 seconds per box, which moves paper from second-cheapest labor to first-cheapest. The machines run $1,500–$8,000 plus paper-supply contracts; the math pencils above ~3,000 shipments/month.
Storage footprint — the line nobody budgets
Void fill takes warehouse space, and warehouse space is paid for monthly. Most 3PLs charge $0.85–$1.50 per cubic foot per month for storage; in-house warehouses absorb the cost in occupancy and racking but the cost is real either way. The footprint per 10K-shipment-month of supply for each format:
| Format | Storage cuft / 10K shipments | Pallet positions | Storage cost / mo at $1/cuft |
|---|---|---|---|
| Air-pillow film (compressed roll) | ~3 cuft | < 1 | $3 |
| Bubble wrap rolls | ~25 cuft | ~1 stacked | $25 |
| Paper rolls | ~30 cuft | ~1 stacked | $30 |
| Pre-inflated air-pillow bags | ~80 cuft | 2–3 | $80 |
| Packing peanuts (loose) | ~250–500 cuft | ~6–12 (in dispensers / bin) | $250–$500 |
Peanuts are 90% air by volume — the storage line is the unspoken reason 3PLs and growing DTC ops have moved off them. A ceiling-mount peanut dispenser ($1,500–$3,000) reclaims floor space but doesn't reduce the cubic-feet-of-storage requirement; it just moves it overhead. For warehouses operating below 1,500 sq ft total or paying premium urban rents, the peanut storage line alone can exceed the materials cost by 5–10x.
Sustainability — what each format does at end of life
The sustainability profile of each format matters increasingly to DTC brands — both for actual environmental impact and for buyer-perception in categories where that's a purchase driver:
| Format | Material | Curbside recyclable? | Compostable? | End-of-life reality |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kraft / packing paper | Recycled / virgin paper | Yes (universally) | Yes (kraft and newsprint) | Highest recovery rate; closest to true circular. |
| Air pillows | LDPE film (#4) | No (store drop-off only) | No | Plastic-bag drop-off bins at grocery stores; most end up in landfill in practice. |
| Bubble wrap | LDPE film (#4) | No (store drop-off) | No | Same as air pillows; technically recyclable but rarely is. |
| Peanuts — EPS (polystyrene) | Expanded polystyrene (#6) | No | No | Worst-in-class. Almost no curbside acceptance; consumer hates them. |
| Peanuts — corn starch | Plant starch | N/A (water-soluble) | Yes | Dissolves in tap water. Best end-of-life of any cushioning format. |
For brands with sustainability constraints in the buyer profile, the rank order is: corn-starch peanuts > kraft paper > (everything else, roughly tied). The market reality is that most "eco-friendly packaging" branding from DTC merchants converts down to "we use kraft paper void fill" — because corn-starch peanuts are 1.5x the cost of EPS and they fail the storage test, while paper is the cheapest option AND the most credibly sustainable.
The decision matrix — which format wins on which vector
Pulling the dimensions together. Each format ranks 1 (best) to 5 (worst) on the seven decision vectors:
| Vector | Paper | Air pillows (bags) | Air pillows (film) | Bubble wrap | Peanuts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost per cu ft | 1 ($0.16) | 2 ($2.09) | 5 ($4.69) | 4 ($4.05) | 3 ($2.79) |
| Drop / impact protection | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| Vibration protection | 1 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 2 |
| Surface protection | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| Pack labor speed | 4 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 3 |
| Storage footprint | 2 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 5 |
| Sustainability (kraft/corn-starch only) | 1 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 (EPS) / 1 (corn starch) |
| Sum (lower = better) | 16 | 19 | 19 | 22 | 23 (EPS) |
If you weight all seven vectors equally, paper wins outright. The only vector paper loses on is drop-impact protection, and that's exactly the case (fragile rigid SKUs) where you'd bring bubble wrap in alongside the paper anyway. The dominant pattern across mid-volume DTC and 3PL ops is paper as the default void fill, with bubble wrap reserved for SKU-specific surface and impact protection on the 10–30% of shipments that need it.
Try the calculator
Plug in your monthly shipments, average box volume, labor rate, storage rate, and protection / sustainability priorities. The calculator runs the catalog medians and returns per-shipment cost by format, monthly spend, and a recommended primary format.
Void-fill format cost calculator
Inputs use Packrift catalog medians as of 2026-04-29. All-in includes per-shipment materials cost + labor. Storage cost optional.
Hybrid strategies — what 3PLs and growing brands actually run
No 3PL above 5,000 shipments/day runs a single-format void-fill strategy. The unit economics force a hybrid. Three illustrative mixes from operations we've seen documented or quoted in industry research:
General-purpose 3PL (mixed catalog, 50K shipments/mo)
| Order type | Format | % of orders | Per-ship cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apparel, books, soft goods | Kraft paper (50# indented) | 55% | $0.08 |
| Mixed-fragility (cosmetics, supplements) | Kraft paper + bubble wrap on fragile SKU | 30% | $0.40 |
| Fragile rigid (glass, ceramics) | Bubble wrap full wrap + paper void | 10% | $1.20 |
| Oversize fragile (furniture parts, awkward shapes) | Peanuts | 5% | $2.50 |
Blended: ~$13,000/mo. The 55% in paper is the load-bearing optimization. A pure-bubble-wrap counterfactual at the same volumes would run ~$50,000/mo — a $37,000 annual line item that doesn't help damage rates because most of those orders don't need cushioning.
DTC subscription beauty box (premium, 15K shipments/mo)
| Order type | Format | % of orders | Per-ship cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard monthly box | Kraft paper (40# white indented, branded) | 80% | $0.10 |
| Glass-heavy gift box | Bubble wrap + tissue-paper outer | 15% | $1.50 |
| Sample / skip-month | Kraft paper minimal | 5% | $0.05 |
Blended: ~$3,750/mo. Premium beauty brands typically pick paper for the unboxing experience too — the crinkle of fresh kraft is part of the brand voice. Air pillows visually feel "Amazon," which is the opposite of subscription-premium positioning.
High-volume electronics fulfillment (100K shipments/mo)
| Order type | Format | % of orders | Per-ship cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cables, accessories | Air pillows (Mini Pak'R film) | 60% | $0.30 |
| Devices < 1 lb | Bubble wrap + air pillows | 25% | $1.10 |
| Devices > 1 lb | Bubble wrap + foam-in-place + corrugated insert | 10% | $3.00 |
| Bulk replenishment / B2B | Kraft paper | 5% | $0.10 |
Blended: ~$56,500/mo. This is the volume profile where on-demand cushion film machines pencil — labor savings on a 60%-of-orders default format more than amortize the capex over the first quarter.
Common mistakes (six specific)
- Using peanuts for fragile electronics — they settle and leave the SKU exposed. A laptop in a 16x12x6 box surrounded by peanuts arrives with peanuts in the bottom third and the laptop unprotected at the top. The standard 3PL fix is to over-fill the box by 20% so the peanuts are pre-compressed against the lid. The better fix is to switch to bubble wrap or air pillows, which don't settle.
- Bubble wrap as default for non-fragile soft goods. Apparel and books in bubble wrap is the most common $4-per-cu-ft mistake we see. Soft goods don't need cushioning and the bubble wrap doesn't even hold its position around them. Paper at $0.16 does the same job better.
- Buying air pillows without the machine. Pre-inflated air-pillow bags at $2.09 per cu ft are 13x more expensive than paper. They're only worth it for the labor savings — and you only get the labor savings at scale. SMBs under 1,000 shipments/month often buy pre-inflated bags chasing the "drop in and seal" speed, then discover they're paying triple the materials cost without the throughput volume to amortize. The fix: paper crumpler ($1,500–$3,000) at the same volumes saves both materials and labor.
- 3/16" bubble wrap for everything. 3/16" is the cheapest bubble per square foot but the most expensive per cubic foot of fill ($4.11 median vs. $3.03 for 1/2"). For void displacement, 1/2" wins on both cost and cushioning. 3/16" is the right pick only when you need a thin profile or are wrapping a small fragile SKU directly.
- Over-thickness paper. Buying 60lb where 30lb does it. 30# newsprint at $0.10/cu ft is 1.8x cheaper than 50# kraft and roughly 2x cheaper than 60# indented kraft. For non-fragile shipments, 30# does the void-displacement job — the heavier paper buys you cushioning you're not using. The wrong default here costs roughly $400 per 10K shipments per month.
- Storage cost ignored on peanut purchasing. A 30-cu-ft bag of peanuts looks like the cheapest option ($/cu ft) until you account for the 30 cu ft of warehouse space it takes for a month while drawing down. At $1/cu ft/month, a 30-cu-ft bag held for a month adds $30 of carrying cost — on a $50 bag, that's a real 60% bump. The fix: order in smaller increments, or switch to compressed-bag formats (paper, bubble film) where storage is <10% of materials cost.
Where this benchmark could be wrong
Three caveats. First: Packrift is one supplier. The medians here are intra-Packrift across SKUs that share a headline spec. They aren't national medians and they aren't a fairness check on what your current vendor charges — treat them as directional. Second: conversion ratios are assumptions, not measurements. The crumple ratio for paper (0.15 cu ft per sq ft of paper, hand-pack-station) and the inflation output for cushion film (0.057 cu ft per sq ft, mid-range Mini Pak'R datasheet) are reasonable mid-range numbers, not exact. A reader with a paper crumpler getting 0.25 cu ft/sq ft would see paper come in at $0.10/cu ft instead of $0.16. The directional ranking doesn't change — paper is the cheapest format by an order of magnitude regardless of which crumple ratio you pick. Third: labor seconds are observational. The 5–40 second ranges came from documented pack-station videos and 3PL ops benchmarks; your actual seconds depend on station design, training, batch picking vs. piece picking, and whether the void-fill format is in arm's reach.
Where to go next on packrift.com
Specific format pages and tools to dive deeper:
- Bubble wrap — 3/16", 5/16", 1/2" rolls and dispenser packs: /collections/bubble-wrap
- Loose fill (peanuts) — corn-starch biodegradable, virgin EPS, anti-static pink: /collections/loose-fill
- Air pillows — pre-inflated bags and Mini Pak'R cushion film: /collections/air-pillows
- Kraft paper — 30# newsprint through 75# indented kraft for void fill: /collections/kraft-paper
- 2026 Packrift cost benchmark — full ancillaries breakdown across 12,929 SKUs: /pages/2026-packaging-cost-benchmark
- Mailer box vs corrugated vs poly mailer — primary outbound packaging decision: /pages/mailer-box-vs-corrugated-vs-poly-mailer
- Packaging glossary — ECT, RSC, EPS, all the jargon defined: /pages/packaging-glossary
Methodology appendix
Inputs: a snapshot of every active SKU in the Packrift catalog on 2026-04-29 (12,929 SKUs), parsed for product type, dimensions, case quantity, and price. Void-fill SKUs were extracted from the "Bubble, Foam & Cushioning" (289 SKUs) and "Papers, Newsprint & Tissue" (335 SKUs) product types, plus any SKU with "peanut," "loose fill," or "air pillow" in the title.
Per-cubic-foot installed-fill cost is calculated as case price ÷ case quantity ÷ cubic-foot output of one unit. Conversions: bubble wrap: roll square-footage × (bubble height / 12) = cu ft of fill at full loft; kraft paper: roll square-footage × 0.15 = cu ft of fill (hand-crumple ratio; mechanical crumplers achieve 0.20–0.25); packing peanuts: stated cubic-foot volume on the bag label; air-pillow pre-inflated bags: bag width × height × 4-inch loft / 1728 × case quantity = total cu ft per case (Sealed Air Fill-Air RF spec gives 3–5" loft once fully inflated; we use 4" mid-range); air-pillow on-demand film: roll square-footage × 0.057 cu ft per sq ft of film (Sealed Air Mini Pak'R datasheet, mid-range pillow setting).
Format medians are computed across the parsed SKU population, not weighted by case volume or sales velocity. Per-shipment-cost scenarios assume void volume of 0.20 cu ft (small 10x8x6 box), 0.50 cu ft (medium 16x12x6), and 2.0 cu ft (large 20x16x12) — based on typical single-SKU and dual-SKU orders with moderate-size product. Labor seconds are observational ranges from documented pack-station videos and industry 3PL benchmarks; we use mid-range averages (paper 20s, bubble 30s, peanut 11.5s, air pillow 6.5s) at $25/hr fully-loaded labor for the per-shipment labor-cost line. Storage cost uses 3PL-typical $0.85–$1.50 per cu ft per month and the cubic-foot-per-10K-shipments storage requirements observed across the Packrift catalog SKU populations.
Caveats. The conversion ratios for paper crumpling and cushion-film inflation are mid-range industry numbers; your actual yield depends on equipment, technique, and how aggressively voids are filled. The decision matrix is a heuristic, not a model — brands with unusual SKU profiles (live plants, perishables, hazmat, oversize industrial) sit outside this framework. The calculator does not include machine amortization (paper crumplers $1,500–$8,000, air-pillow machines $1,500–$3,500); both pencil for high-volume operations but should be modeled separately. Source data and analysis script are in the Sprint R13 working directory; methodology updates will be re-published with a new "as-of" date stamp.