“Why did they come in such a big box,” asks my 14-year-old daughter, Emma, who is hopeful she won’t need them – special dental flossers for kids who wear braces – beyond summer’s end. But she needs them now and none were available at my local grocery or two pharmacies, so, I had resorted to Amazon.

Two days later, a box big enough to hold a DVD player lands on our doorstep carrying two tiny packages of 24 flossers, the pair wrapped tightly together in more Amazon plastic.

The box measures 15.5 by 13 by 3.5 inches.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here